Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1892 — War Records as Blotters. [ARTICLE]

War Records as Blotters.

The eternal Unfitness of things is sometimes illustrated in the most ridiculous manner. During the war there were thousands of great volumes of various kinds in which were kept the records of the army movements, the killed, injured, etc. Some of these were never used, and they have found their way into the most unheard-of places and put to all sorts of uses. In the northwest section is a little corner grocery which does a credit business to some extent. Upon the counter is one of the old war hooks ruled and printed for a record of the killed and wounded. Each page is not less than twenty inches square, and in this book are kept the accounts of the grocer with his customers, the pencil used being one of those huge affairs made of graphite which carpenters carry. The grocer calls the book his blotter, and every time a customer has a moment to wait this “blotter,’’ lying open before the public, receives a critical inspection. The contents do not agree with the caption over the title page, unless, probably, during the season for watermelons and green corn.—Washington Post