Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-06-01
WASHINGTON LETTER.
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A Letter From an Old Soldier A Pension
Wanted for Injuries Received in
Line Of Duty,
Perjury Pas. Becoming Fine Art Among
the Yankees The Frse.school
System Surpassed,
Women in Office oivil.Servioe Reform
Solemn and Absurd Occurrences
at the Capital,
Special.
A JOLLY OLD SOLDIER


WASHINGTON, May 27,-.I have be.
fore me letter from Union soldier
constituting his application for a pom
sion. l hope you VIII print II and have
the absurd artist, who sometimes
tricks out your advertising pages
with charming pictorial decorations,
take the unique story as told by the
pensioner and illustrate 1t. The pho.
tograph of an army mule bestrode by
a soldier I'm the line of duty the
pair making for barn door, too small
to he entered by both lat wuust,n
Will enable your adroit wood-cutter to
present an historical picture TO your
countrymen. IN summing up the
facts In his application for his PEN
sion, Ben b Davis says
"In June 1868 was ordered, In the
line of duty TO break In muel 10 work
at the saddel In the wagRen and hawl
wood for the army at Bowlingreeu,
KY, and on undertaken tho order
given by the waggen master, called
on Ben Despair and SEED Worth 10
essist me, which they did in brlddling
the mewl and put me on the mewl,
and In attemptin to control sed muel.
while on the mewl, the mewl got loose
from sed Scaggs and Ward and Des-
pane and run like hell oil lords the
stAbil and bean unabil TO manage the
mewl and to save my life
and lin, the mewl rapidly APP
proachin the open dore OF the barn,
the dore not bein big enough for
both me and the mewl, In the attemp
TO git or the the mewl was foroibly
thrown on the Rrownd, my rite nee
struck the grown and my he'd made
hole la IL and my rite showldcr frat
strikln u saplin, then aud thar In the
line OF duty ~ ordered IA stated bv
said Skaggs d Worth was toted to the
hospittle at that pint"
The law inhibiis the concession Of
pension save for injuries received by
the soldier when ain the line Of duty
and there were the eapling and the
barn door and the "mewl" all In the
line. The applicant proceeds TO state:
II was SO infurnelly dubbed up by the
lick / struck the aaplin and glancing
loq 70 th9growp whsr made the big
| nucks hole with my head, 7 haven't
been abil 10 straiten myself out farely
ever eence, and I'me shore, Mr.. PEN
sion Burow man, you will send the
| penshun money immtj lately, seein Az
how was knocked up in tho line Of
duty
A SCHEME or CORRUPTION.
This reference to the pensioning sys.
| tenn leads one 10 reflect that its vicious
ness Ia inconceivable. He who applies
| for pension, sooner or later secures
| IL. Any fact can be proven. Perjury
| has become national fac art, II
were wiser to enact the demagoguea'
| bill OF the last session and
pension everybody that bore musket
| or dug dituh or was kicked by mule.
| A mans name on % muster-roll should
pension him. Then there would be no
need for perjury. The pension attor-
neys advise their clients what they
must prove. These attorneys forward
the aflidavlts, which come back sworn
| TO Just AS written in Washington, If
| there be some fact omitted, the def
cheney liz speedily supplied. The per-
| Jury mill 10 never idle or exhausted.
Men enlisted, save those OF foreign
birth, 1t was originally supposed, not
| for money, They were aetuated by
| the hottest aspirations OF patriotism.
| But by degrees the politicians have
pandered TO greed for money. The old
soldiers have been corrupted. They
| bHthI lhlbClJs IA HNhoibiip AHa
| live In idlenees, They are etipendla-
ries OF power, and, corrupted by pub
| lie bounty, they become sim
pie mendicaBts and worth
| less village bar-room idlers.
| Add TO thu element OF Northern go
ciety the vast multitude Of Scandina-
yians and other races forcing the orig
! inal and interrupted American popu-
lation Of Eastern and Middle states
! into the South, and reflect that no
polluting and corruptlng pensi0ning
system affects the South, and you
will confess that the South IL
gaining In moral and intellectual and
phyeical strength even AZ the North Is
losing every rugged virtue that once
characterized New Englanders. Hall
the population OF Massachusetts, ~ OF
foreign birth AVID the WebsterB and
Choates and Summers and Winthrops
arO no more. The once hardy, indie
pendent farmers and their sons are
wretched stipendiarles Of power and
tramps aud lazofoni on the one hand
and pensioned nobility on
the other and farms made profit
legs by UNEQUAL and unjust revenue
syatenis, imposed In behalf OF the rich
and 10 impoverish the poor, cbarac.
terize the country'e fortunes. The
whole story IL told when we zee how
towns and cities grow In "protctedp
industries and population and poverty,
while the country that God made Is
abandoned 10 desolAtion; and II IN a
curloua fact, that these pretending 70
be statesmen. ia all their official pa
pers, persist In congratulatiDg them
selves and constituencies that the rich
grow enormously rich, and the
poor 20 steadily down to sbject
peuury. When we read eacn
day that the income OF the govern
nent IL million dollars, We sE0uld
not forget to read between thelines that
three other milliore, NJ the same ~.
slant and by the Fame process mat
gathers in the one million, are trans
ferred from toilers OF the country 70 the
protected eiass. The effect Of the tys-
tenn OF wrong and robbery IL seen IN
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