The National tribune., 1879-10-01
of other lands, now yearning to possess such her.
itage of freedom as YOU enjoy
A Daniel Come to Judgment.


History furnishes us with abundant accounts of
Judges possessing wonderful developements of the
talent to separate the true from the
false The Bible presents Solomon, Shakespeare
a Porta, and Dickens Jack Bunsby, while Butler
in bis Hudibras speaks of his hero as so preemnent
in this respect that:
he could distinguish and divide
A hair 'twixt north and northwest side.n
And now we have Washington Judge in the
person of the Commissioner of Pensions who should
certainly be added TO this list ofrenowned wiseacres
The case is before us now and may be presented
briefly as follows. 1t is founded on the testimony
of the surgeon and comrade of the soldier Horace
d. Miles. The affidavit of the surgeon states
| have been in the practice of medicine for
eighteen years. was called to see the soldier soon
after his return in July, 1865, and suffering from
confused wound of the left side There was peu-
rsv and considerable fever After few months he
rallied somewhat but soon after began to decline
and disease of the left lung became apparent and
therghtlung becoming involved he died from phthis-
is induced as believe from the shock of the system
by the wound I was in attendance upon him up
to the time of his death" The testimony of the
comrade says: In the assault on the rebel fort on
the morning of April 2, 1865 he stood at nv left
hand next to me when he was hit and knocked
down. as supposed, deadly Gas / did not see him
stir after he fe) and as the shells were bursting
all around US | supposed it piece of she'll but
on mature reflection | am not sure whether it was a
shot or piece of shell. In fact, did not think il
a matter of any Importance which it was as he was
wounded then and there from which he never re-
covered He out of the army sick and saw
him great many times after that and he told me he
was suffering from the effects of that short time
before he died. The following endorsement on the
application from the Pension Office Re-
spectfuly returned with the information that the
evidence fled in response to the enclosed letter.
relative to the soldiers wound is not satfactory
because the witnesses state that he was wounded
with piece of she'll while the soldier alleged and
other witnesses testify that the wound was from a
bullet" Such is condensed view of the case
There is no question raised by the office about the
fact of the soldier having been wounded bv piece
of metal which produced a confusion But was it
bullet piece of shell There's the rub"
Now piece of she'll may, probably would, produce
if of about the same size a ball a confusion like
that from bullet The clothing intervening be-
tween the missile and the body, is any surgeon
competent to tell the difference between the effect
E of bruise from bullet or piece of she'll of the
weight of the bullet. But does it really make par
cle of difference to the merits of the case The
lplainest reasons would teach to look to results
Why all this sharp disgracetul practice to keep poor
wounded soldiers out of the scanty pittance allowed
by the law and the wives and mothers of dead ones
from the poor-honse This system of procedure ac-
counts for the delay of month after month and year
after year in the payment of thousands of pensions
d honoraby and justly due while in the meantime
orr moor soldiers without which we should have no
It country, are rapidly dying off, many of them in
n aims houses Oh! shame where is thy blush r.
e How long shall these things be?"