The National tribune., 1885-01-22
A SERMON IN A BASEMENT.

w nlle Inc editors OF SOldler-natInS papers
in New York fill one set of columns with
diatribes against pensions, "pension-grab-
bers," and pension sharks" the reporters
put such statements of fact as these into
other columns
Robert A Verplanck is a veteran soldier, who
needs help. He is the jantor of the fiat, 195 Prince
street. and for his services in that capacity he gets
the rent free of five little rooms in the basement
He is utterly incapactated for work. In the fury
of a charge at Spottsylvana Courthouse Va, he
was struck in the breast with the butt of musket,
he thinks though he is not certain for he fell
senseless. When he came to he was prisoner in
the hands of the Confederates. From the effects of
this blow he has never recovered. 1t caused a
tumor to grow in the chest and it also caused en-
Iargement and displacement of the heart. His
daughter Nette is Il years old, and works at hat
trimming Last week she earned 81. Verplanck
has never applied for a pension, but will do so at
once. In the meantime, while the red tape of that
process is being unwouud, he sorely needs assist
ance.
The certificate of his honorable discharge rectes
that he enlisted at Williamsburg Sept. 2s 1851 in
Go. |. S1th n. Y. Verplanck was in the battles of
Fair Oaks, Malvern HILL Peach HILL Gettysburg,
and the heavy fighting of the Wilderness When
he was taken prisoner at Spottsylvania Court
house he was taken to Andersonville where he
WAS kept seven months.
Here is a simple, plain story, told by a
reporter, which refutes thousand editorials.
No feather-b bed soldier was Robert Yer
pianck; no "bomb-proof veteran; no
''skulker to the peaceful and attractive
rear y; no hungry gnawer at the fat Treas
ury." Twenty-four years ago he, with 600
other healthy bodied patriotic young, formed
one of the finest regiments that ever kept
step to the boisterous music of the drum.
Imagine them leaving for the front full of
courageous enthusiasm to do whatever
strength and determination could to save
the Nations life. Imagine how they were
praised by the orators; how women wept over
them, men applauded them, and everyone
promised them that their self-sacrifice should
never be forgotten or deprecated. Imagine
how with those praises and promises ring
ing in their ears they went forth nerved to
encounter with fortitude the dangers and
hardships which awaited them. Imagine
them dying in the swamps of the Chicka-
hominy, and being shot down and torn to
pieces in the Seven Days fighting, on the
nights of Gettysburg, and in the tangled
thickets of the Wilderness. Comrades drop
around Verplanck continually, until at last
in the thick of the fight he is struck down,
and RECEIVERS consciousness and life to rot and
starve for months in Andersonville
Then imagine this war-worn veteran, who
gave the Nation four years Of his glorious
young manhood, slowly starving to death in a
basement, while the Nation he and his COM
rades saved has her strong boxes OVERLOOKING
with money, for which she knows no use
He does not apply for a pension, because he
hears the same men and same papers who, a
few years ago, were begging-imploring-
the young men of the country to enlist, now
scott at any one who applies to the Govern
llCUt tUc deSiSttiLCC Which, owes uiEl.
He would rather starve than be denounced
as swindler and sharper. He knows,
too, the delays of pension-getting, and how
little he can hope to unwind the tight coils
of Pension Bureau red-tape in the few years
that are left him.
What an encouragement such instances as
this of Robert Verplanck will be to young
men to stay at home when the Government
shall need them in the future! What COM
mentary they are on all the wretched, lying
malignity that is written or spoken against
the soldiers of the Nation