Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-10-26
" sELBY'S" cHIT-cHAT.
How Affairs In Washington Strike
Him.
PENSION SHARKS SHAKING UP.
The Recent 0ismissaIs from the Army
and the Sad Case of Colonel llSes-
High Priced Horses and
Their Owners.
From Onr Speeial Correspondene

! WASHINGTON, October 25.-Secretary Tel
Ter yesterday suspended half score of dis.
honest pension agents from practice before
the department. The developments against
these fellows showed them to be as villain
Gus a set of robbers as ever disgraced a
community. The United States District
Attorney is determined to
Prosecute Every Man of Them.
Here is a sample circular" which shows
the way one of these cormorants had Of
doing business:
"MADAM:-I have Just learned at the
War Department that you are Justly en-.
titled to a pension, your husband having
been killed at the second battle of Bull
Run. | have peculiar facilities for secur.
ing TO you not only pension but arrear.
ages which will greatly increase the amount
due you.
"Send me all original papers and what.
eyer you may have relating TO the enlist.
ment, record,
Death, Etc, of YOur Husban
My references are the Secretary OF the
Interior and the Commissioner OF PEN
siOns.'
This is very captious movement and
calculated to deceive many who are totally
unaCquainted With the machinery of the
Government on the one hand, and the ras-
Cality Of pension agents on the other. The
way the job was worked is this: A fellow
here would find, through some auxiliary in
a certain town, that Mrs. A, q widow, had
a husband in the war, who was killed, that
she was not very shrewd and didn't know
much about the way Of getting up the
case. So
The washInStOn sharper
would send the above circular. Very prob.
ably the poor woman would forward him
every paper and scrap in her possession
eypfythiUg indeed that would make a
record, ana the scoundrel having all these
IA his possession would then write for his
tirst fee. II she refused be kept tue papers
To the credit of Mr.. Dudley be it said that
be hes enGeayOrei to rid the Pension Bu-
resu of the rsSCals and rascalities that have
so long tlOurished there.
Among the
DiSmfSsaIs From the Army
made by order OF the President very re
Gently, two cases were particularly hard.
those Of Colonel Ilges and Captain Edward
Hubbard. llges is q PrusSian and had
spent his military life in the toughest sort
OF warfare. He went out from Fort keogh,
in Montana Territory, in the winter of 1850
when the thermometer was thIrty-five be-
low zero, with snow four feet deep, buuked
under the heavens for three months and
came in with Sitting Bull. His face was
frozen and his legs were twisted with
rheumatism. He
Borrowed Money fr0m One of HIS Fel-
low officers.
Captain McDonsld, paid him back, tried to |
borrow again, was refused and duplicated !
his pay account The President heard |
many good things about llges during his |
Western trip, but the disciDliue OF the ser.
the finding Of the court martial.
Hubbard is an Ohio man. was put into |
the army in ISIS through the help OF Ten.
Garfield. He had many friends who stuck
10 him, as is the case always when fellow
is given 10 jim ANS. Last week his wife, a
very
EstImabIe aud Cultured Lady.
went through the Civil Service examina'
tion for place as copyist in one OF the de-
partments. This case was hard, on account
of the sorrow to a woman. And yet We
don't pay for drunkenness. When one
branch of the public service gets rld oil ths
men, another branch takes care OF the
women. Draw poker and speculation are
the Wall street of the army.
The real estate business here mas gone
uD ike 3 IOChtl. w dolAhHNcAA AA'''
advertised as the business mans PARADISE
and the poorman's Mecca, and the conse'
QUenCe is that
Every body wants 10 Come.
II IS the last place in the world for young
n en 10 seek employment, as it has no sta
,iopary wealth, no shipping, no commerce.
no soIidity of business. II IS essentially
nlsce for pleasure. The hotels and board
ing houses absorb all that they can get our
ing the winter to bridge over the duu sea
.oD. Rich men from distance are buying
houses and lots for the pleasure they can
get during the sessions of Congress, anu
the real estate owners reap an immense
harvest. There never was such demand
Tor houses as now. Letter the Chlcaso
merchant,
Pays Mr.. Blaine Eleven Tho uS"nd
a wear for furnished house and thinks ne
rs bargain. ~
ILir,y wears ago Letter went from wash
,ntor county, Maryland, 10 Chicago "a q
store boy. His ancestors built mp the niue
town of Leitersburg, about six miles from
Hsgerstown, in the pre;tiest part OF west
Col. Mike Sheridan pays ten thousand
five hundred for house which grey up
nke MUSHROOM. Every bit Of wood in it
. North Carolina pine and the door panels
ore bottle glass. But it looks pretty aud is
in good location.
Rents are Beyond the Reach
of even moderate incomes. Congressman
McComas told me that he couldn't, get
tsn-rOom furnished house for less that one
hundred and fifty dollars a month. The
proprietor of one of the leading hotels told
me that his lease cost him twenty hye
thousand q year, and the owner he said:
lis not satisfied, wanting thirty thousand.
CHARLES SELBY.