Mr. SCHENCK. I was interrupted while the gentlenian was putting his question so that I did not hear it. He will therefore excuse me if I do not reply. The allowances which I have referred to under the law are those that appear u ion the surface. The Gentfrom Iew Yor ', Mr. DAVIS] ifl am not mistaken, claims that t ero is no difficulty in understanding what officers are paid under the present law. Ican only say that I do not quite understand it myself, and I have never yet found an officer cute enough to make out his own account. I thought I had shrewdness enough to make out my own, but I found that clerk gave me 2 or 3 htuhne‘praeydmadsotlelarr‘ss more than I could calculate. I leaned as far as I could toward my own interest, and made out what I thoughtought to satisfy myself, as men generally do in matters of money, but when the paymaster’s clerk found I was entitled to more and forced it on me, of course I took it. gLau hterfl It requires all the astuteness o a hila elphia awyer and therefore I wish my friendfrom Pennsylvania [ Mr. Tnavea] was on our side, [laughter] to find out what an officer’s pay really is under the present law. But without going into all these changes in the law, how much is aid by one bill and how much by another an my friendfrom Indiana [Mr. Dunos'r] says the pay has doubled within his experience I see there are other little perquisites and advantages of a legitimate and legal character, which, now that these gentlemenfpnt me on the stand, I shall undertake to testiy about. As for myself I am compelled to make the best disposition of commutation of fuel and uarters with my family when I come to Walshiington with in $3,000 a year. I am compelled to patronize the horse cars that run on the avenue, particularly whenvthey give me a free ticket, instead of keeping my own carria e, because I have no allowance for for age. but when it comes to dealing with the fellows at the market they will not take less than about 24 cents a pound for particularly choice cuts of beef. But my neighbor in the Army over the way ets his for about ten or 12 cents. Why? ecanse under the present law and we do not change it in this liill officers are authorized to purchase commissary stores at cost price from the Government without taking into account the cost of transportation any more than the wastage, the cost of killing, or the interest on the money invested, or any of the other contingencies which enter into the actual cost before the retail butcher adds his profit on the top of the whole.