The Portland daily press., 1884-03-06
Washington Notes.
The River and HarbOr BilI-NOrihfrn
Pacific Land Forfeiture Franklin
ThOmpson's Pension Case-Experience
of Michigan Girl Who Enlisted ns a
Soldier.
special Correspondents Of the Press.l

Especial Correspondence of the Press.l
WASHINGTON, March 5.
The work on the river and harbor bill goes
on rather slowly. The committee on rivers
and harbors iEds its task very serious one.
The estimates of the War Department call for
some thirty-six millions, and the committee,
desiring to cover the field with ten or twelve
millions, find it a very difficult task. And the
most difficult portion Of their work has not yet
arrived. Now they are sitting with closed
doors, going over the field in the privacy OF
the committee exclusively, and with nobody TO
molest or make them afraid. Pretty soon they
will reach the end Of this work, and then tsey
must throw open their doors and permit the
hungry members and their more anxious con-
stitnents to rush in and demand that every
creek in the country be improved, every hsr-
Dor deepened, ami every river given levees un-
til it cannot overflow. The committee began
with the coast of Maine taking up the harbors
first, and following down around Florida,
through the Gulf Of Mexico, and thence, with
a tremendous jump, up to the great akes and
over to the Pacific coast. They will next go
over the rivers, discussing the needs OF esch,
and after this Is done will open the doors of
the committee room 10 hear Arguments.
Whether they will be able TO hold the bill
down to nything like the sums they original
ly ANTICIPATED, is serious question. They
have made horizontal reduction" OF fully
seveDty-fve per cent. in the sums estimated by
the War Department, which is quite as easy 20
do as to write bill making horizontal reduc-
tiou 10 the tariff, but how much of this they
can hold intact when the pressure fer appropri-
atoms comes for every creek, and river, and
hsrbor. and fish pond ia the country Is uncer-
tain. 1t is probable that the bill will grow TO
fifteen millions before it is ended.
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC FORFEITURE.
"Do you expect the Northern Pacific for
ieitars bill TO pass this Congress?" your corre-
spondent asked of Congressman Cobb yester-
day, as that gentleman was waiting for the
session TO begin.
s.Yes. / do" he answered; "that is, 1 think
there Is little soub. of its passage In the House
at least"
"And as to the Senate?"
''I cannot be responsible for the Senate" he
laughed; 81 think, though, that even there
the prospects of its passage are very good.
The Senate was csnvsssed this subject
some time ago, and it was found then that >
bill OF this sort would probably pass. How il
will BE- now do not know. l understand the
ralgay people have been very hard at work
over there, though what they have accom-
plished do not know"
CURIOUS PENSION CASE.
Among the bills and cases of various kinds
coming up before Congress there are none
with q more interesting story than "House
bills 1854 and $685." The first mentioned bill
is'to remove the charge Of desertion from the
record OF Franklin Thompson siias s. e. f.
Seeley, private soldier in Co. r, Second
Michigan Infantry, and to pay to the said per-
son the "amcunt OF back pay, bounty and
allowance due him (her) at the date of his
Thax1 IL; st
that Franklin Thompson aforesaid is "her"
And thereby hangs the interesting story. The
person In question, 1t appears, was young
girl in Michigan when the broke ont, and
became possessed OF desire to serve her
cSunry, and at the same time probably to
have a little experience on her own account
At any rate sne enlisted in tue Second Michi-
gan regiment, and without u suspicion as tn her
sex dressed in male attire was ordered with the
regiment to the field. Passing with the Off
Gers as boy she was given in many cases
lighter daties than her fellows. and was an or
derly at the battle OF Fredericksburg, one OF the
present member OF the House rememb5 ring
her as she carried dispatches to and fro on the
field, fearless in the midst of rebel bullets. She
served two years in the fsld, always at her
post and honored by those with whoA she (hel
associated, her sex unsusDecied. Some time
after tina battle of Fredericksburg she was tax
en- Ill from exposure and malaria, and was Or
derod TO the hospital. This she had always
feared, for shsfrealizsd thst there her sex must
be discover-d The result Was, to make long
home. Resuming her proper costutrl. returned
as she got outside the lines, she was safe HoSis
detection and had no difficulty In making her
way home. She soon tired, however, of the
hum-drum of home life and realiZidg that she
might really be OF mere use in her own person
as nurse than rs soldier or orderly, she soon
returned to the 'front.' this time as a nurse, and
was for a time engaged at Harper's Ferry and
at other points in hospital work. At the close
of the war she returned home and has since
told some OF her experiences in the work
entitled "Nurse and Spy" The present bills
are, first To remove the charge OF desertion
against her record. rather the record OF
Flank Thompson, and to pas her her bounty
and back pay, the second to grant her PEN
sion of Sl2 a month.
cALKINs AND THE eovERNERsHIP.
"Will the fact that Commissioner Dudley
has decided to permit the use of his name as q
candidate for tbs goyernorship of Indiana, bar
out Congressman Calkins from the race?"
your correspondent asked of an Indiana poll
tician.
"No," was the response" I think thai Cal
kins would be stronger candidate than Dud
ley In many respects. 1t would be pity, how
ever, for the party to loss Calkns Con-
gresham, for he is an able fellow, and what
is more, he is the only living Republican that
can carry that district"