The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-01-20
Private Pensions for COnfederates.

The name of Jubal Early recalls TIE
pristine days of the Southern Confed-
eracy The old hero passed down st.
Charles street yesterday, and at the cor
ner OF Common saw manned man,
claiming to be veteran of the Confed-
crate service, asking aims. The heart OF
the soldier was touched He stopped
and examined the credentials Of the
mendicant. A tear came into his eye and
the rattle OF coin was heard-not the
small sound of the nickel. The little
assemblage responded. Col. Dan. Will
son came up with large silver piece.
Mr.. Topper followed, and there was for
time a shower of metal of heavy cali
Der in the plate.
What commentary on the Lost
Cause !" This gallant soldier, who stood
by his battery in the Confederate service
for three years, and had both legs car
ried away by solid shot while serving
his gun, is a public mendicant.
We hope the ''last ditch is covered,
and the "bloody chasm" is closed. But
there is stern sense of duty which bids
all men reopen the past, and provide for
the unfortunate men who yet live that
sacrificed their means of livelihood upon
the field of battle in defense of Southern
rights.
We lay the laurel upon the tombs of
the dead who fell in tine struggle. Friend
and foe are buried in a common grave
over a hundred battle fields, and all
men, whether from the North or the
South, respect the ashes of the departed
com Blatant.
There are living graves throughout
our Southland-a thousand, yea, ten
thousand Of them. The inmates suffer
and mourn in silence. For them the
hand of charity has no welcome. Their
sorrows are sealed, and mother earth
must cover and absorb the grief which
the rapidly moving world forgets.
The living. dead claim our affection
and our means. The men who faced
the storm of battle, and suffered worse
than death in the cause.-the loss of the
limbs which enabled them to maintain
the struggle of life, and meet the severe
ordeal imposed upon our people-de-
serve more than passing tribute. They
are entitled to something beyond pity.
They are a living rebuke to the spirit
which animated the people Of the South
in times gone by.
As a people we are called upon to
maintain our self-respect by the estaD-
lishment of pension fund to relieve
the sutferings of the MANNED. Let us
have great central hospital in the South
where the shattered remnants of human
ity may repose in comfort. Let us honor
the living manned as we do the happier
dead Let us take these battered heroes
from our street corners and make them
comfortable.
The boys in blue will get their just
recompense from the National Govern
ment, and about the last act of the re-
firing Democratic Congressman will be
to pass an enormous pension bill to re-
lieve the poor and needy of the Federal
army.
But it is left to private aid to give re-
lief to the sufferer in the Confederate
service. We think 1t is about time now
to start pension fund among ourselves
to give what comfort we can to those
most needy in the Southern States. We
should, at all events, have an asylum
where those who have lost their limbs,
or been incapacitated for usual work,
through casualties in the Confederate
army, could pass their last days in COM
fort New Orleans Picayune.