_]
But a prouder Distinction awaited him. In view of the fact that he had
plugged for the Regular Organization and delivered the Goods at the
State Convention, he was made a Colonel on the Governor's Staff. It is
the Duty of a Colonel on the Governor's Staff to ride in a Pullman Car
and take a Ball every time he is touched on the Back. Colonel Guff was
a Dream when he got into his $275 Uniform with the Gold Braid rigged
all over the Front. He wore a Chapeau similar to the one worn by
Napoleon at Austerlitz, but he had on top of it seven Tail-Feathers of
the Loo-Loo Bird, which rather laid over anything that Napoleon ever
wore. And when Colonel James Henry Guff in his magnificent Regalia
and smoking a ten-cent Cigar, leaned back in an Open Carriage drawn
by White Horses and allowed the People to gaze at him, the Grandeur of
the Spectacle made one forget the real Horrors of War.
Many of the ardent Admirers of Prof. Guff, and Capt. Guff, and Judge
Guff, and Col. Guff believed that he had climbed to the Summit of
Greatness when he appeared in his $42 Plume. Not so. One Year the
State Militia was to have an Encampment and the Governor gave Col.
James Henry Guff the Job of buying all the Beans, Fresh Beef, and
other Supplies, because there promised to be a slight rake-off.
Officially he was known as the Commissary-General.
Thus it came about that after Years of Endeavor, James Henry Guff,
who left the Post a poor and unknown Boy, went under the Wire a real
General.
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