Mr. SCHENCK. Iwill tell the gentleman. For fuel we subsisted principall on ence rails; sometimes we had reen woo, when the soldiers could get it. ‘or quarters, we had some times what the Gentfrom Indiana describes a number of fence rails leaned against a fence, with some straw thrown over; or if not that, sometimes the canopy of heaven, sometimes a tent. Sometimes in a fort with a garrison, quarters may be suppllOtl by the government; but these are very different from the quarters which gentlemen get. who have the good fortune to e at headquarters, or in the War Dept, or on recruiting duty, and, as my friendfrom Indiana says, living under an arrangement b which their tavern bills are paid; for that is the whole ofit. Here again my friend and collea no on the committee [Mr. Emma] is exceedingly distressed on account of certain officers who might be ordered to some remote place in some distant mountaine us region where wood might be $100 a cord. Now, does any man believe that any officer sent to any such place ever paid to warm himself $100 a cor for wood? The Government may have paid that sum but the peculiarity of the matter is that this bill does not touch those who are on arrison duty in forts and who have their uel aid for and their uarters supplied by the government; and tiough it might cost the Government a considerable sum to warm the officer sent out to one of those distant posts, the officer, under the present system, saves all his commutation. He probably does not draw it at all, because at one of these out osts there is no occasion for him to buy woo at $100 a cord. That was a sort of fancy picture. Besides, sir, we are not legislatin here for a condition of things in which woo may be $100 a cord. We are legislating for the ordinary normal condition of the country in regard to. prices. Now, it may be that when gold was 1st discovered in California the prices of subsistence in that re ion rose to such an extent that it was it her ship upon an officer, civil or military, to be sent out there at the compensation ordinarily paid to any other civil or military officer. It may be that the Government found it necessary in that extraordinary and exceptional case to interfere. So, I up re hend, the Government might do again. [he difficulty is, these gentlemen want us to make them the exceptional case all the time. How is this commutation for fuel and norters? Gentlemen have talked something a out it, and those who have not informed themselves would be led to suppose when an officer is ordered to headquarters at Washington he has to spend his money in warming the office he occupies, and to pay the rent for that office, and that it is necessary he should have it all back again in the way of commutation. No such thing. If General Augur be put on dut here he has offices n'ovided for him in whicfiall the business of the headquarters of this dept is transacted? He has a house here with an office for himself, with all the rooms appurtenant thereto, all of which are paid for by the Government out of the Treasury of the U.S. And every pound of coal and every stick of wood which is used by General Augur in warming his headquarters are paid for out of the Treasury. W hat, then, is this commutation? It is not what it costs for the rent of offices for General Augur or what is paid for warming them. It is because the quartermaster certifies there are no quarters to be furnished to him, as quartermasters do on the slightest prevocation, and he draws in cash as commutation his $1, 800. He has the right under the law to do it. It goes for r‘wneral Augur or Mrs. Angur, if there be one, or the little Au urs or gimlets, [great lau hter;] in other wor s, it goes to take care of the family. Take the case of an officer who is sent on recruiting duty to the village of my friendfrom Vermont, [Mr. Woonnnine u] if it is possible that' the gentleman, with all his polish and refinement, resides in a village.