Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1887 — Colonel and Major. [ARTICLE]

Colonel and Major.

Chase and Wiggin, both of them famowe stutterers, belonged to the militia in the old days when everybody in New Hampshire was in the militia and the organization was mainly fictitious. Chase and Wiggin happened to be ranking captains in one of these paper regiments at a time when the Colonel of the regiment died and the Major moved out of the State. In due course of official red tape Wiggin received his commission as Colonel of the regiment and Chase as Major. Both men were considerably “set up” by their new titles, and naturally felt like apprising the whole Village of the promotion; but they were dignified men, and of course didn’t care to go around telling everybody, bo Chase started out and went from one store to another, poking his head just far enough into each door to say: “H-h-h-hev you seen C-c-c c-colonel J-j-j-.;ack Wiggin?” Nobody had seen him, but everybody caught the new title. And promptly Wiggin started in a similar pilgrimage through the town. Thrusting his head into the first grocery store he came to he stuttered out: “H-h-h-a-a-a-ave you seen M-m-m----major Jim Ch-ch-ch-ch-a-a-a-ase?” Of course they had seen Major Jim Chase, and so informed him, and by the time he overtook the Major at the end of the village and had congratulated him warmly the appointment had been, so to speak, officially gazetted through the town of Exeter. —Boston Record.