The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-07-22
ABOUT PENSION LAWS.
Applying for Pensions in the Sixties Like Seek
ing Relief From Benevolent Associations.
The Polite Limestone of Indiana Equal, if
Not Superior, to the Best Building Ma
teria1 in the World-Formation
Period of Democracy,

wAsHINeroE, July 19.-I was present the
other morning when Colonel McLain re-
ceived letter from State Senator Willard
asking as personal favor special and im-
mediate attention TO the pension case of
David Tarpy Colonel, McI-ain lost no time
in making this duty obligatory upon the
proper clerk. Tarpy was a soldier in the late
war, and had the good torture 70 distingish
himself in a meeting with John Morgan's
cavalry. But applying for a pension
in the sixties, while the system of
espionage peculiar to that period prevailed,
he was convicted of bodily unsoundness
previous to the date of enlistment and re-
jected. For a while since the war every
soldier applying for his rights under the law
was regarded as something of a felon until
proof to the contrary could be established.
This pension business was as cold as charity
before Christmas. The rule was as unsym-
pathetic as the seven-faced person one
usually finds at the head of organized be-
nevolence. You approach this Christian
phenomenon asking relief for family in
distress The walls between which this
stricken family domiciles are bare, the floors
are carpetless and the increment of dirt,
poverty and hollow-eyed destitution is over
all. OF these children it might be said
misery stole them at their birth" don't
exactly understand why such people are
propegated, but it is solemn fact that we
have them with us always. Asking for
relief, you are paralyzed with the informa-
tion that help in that quarter is not allowed.
An old record is resurrected that reveals
ancestorial unworthiness and miscellaneous
skalawaggery. Pleading is in vain. The
reasonable man could possibly marshal the
patience to 90 farther. 1t shows that these peo-
pie are ignorant, adicted to doing nothing
picking up things and that the men folks
have well disciplined lips for liquor The
average philanthropic association is for the
good little children that die young and for
older people who are not as the common
herd. The Governments niggardly dealings
with the soldiers which the Republican
party was responsible for the legislation of
the country will i'm time be read with feel
ing of revulsion. Ii was TO the case of Tarpy
that Senator Voorhees, made illusions i'm
nearly all his speeches during the last cam
paign.
/ talked to-day =th Mr.. Bell Supervising
Architect OF the Treasury, and was surprised
10 find him in harmony with Professor Col
lett in regard to the oolitic stone of Indiana,
as the coming building material. 1t is the
same formation that enters into that impOs-
ing structure the English House of Parlia-
ment. A stone of which the cities and pal
aces of Scotland are constructed was offered
free but the gift was declined. The oolitic
stone, by the masters and builders of Great
Britain, though secured at vast expense, was
preferred. The quarries in England were
deep and difficult, but .aI Bedford and
Southern Indiana, it can be brought to the
surface and given shape with but little labor
Ii may be some qualification TO Indiana peo-
pie TO know that the material entering into
their State House is the best in the world
impervious to the heat or the cold of the sea-
sons, elastic, more durable and as susceptible
of a. fine a finish as any block of marble
upon which Grecian sculptors ever wrought.
The ancients knew of no stone of eQua. value.
In all marble there is more or less iron. A
block of absolutely pure marble would be as
expensive "a a block of brass, or at least
bring as much in the market. There is no
foreign substance or gross formation in the
composition of this Indiana stone, and the
State House in indianapolis will be admired
as a miracle OF architectural beauty, long
after the appropriation of a million in money
is asked from Congress TO repair the Wash
ington Monument, by plugging up the holes
in the granite excavated by the freezing and
thawing OF several centuries. Stone from
Bedford is being shipped TO every section of
the country, and put together in vast blocks
of masonry even in the old Granite State.
Public buildings in Pennsylvania are of ma
terial quarried i'm Southern Indiana; il was
chosen by Vanderbilt for his palace now
building. 1t is to be shipped for State Houses
in both Texas and Colorado.
~@s
This is the formation period OF the Demo-
cratic party, the philosophers tell us as
President Cleveland evidently believes. His
labors, largely, | imagine, self-imposed, are
telling upon him. He isn't holding up any
better than Colonel Messmore, of Michigan,
who has been here since the Inauguration
asking for recognition. The office-holder
joins the office-seeker in mental and physical
strain. Mr.. Cleveland evidently believes in
the Pendletonian law and the Eatonian exc
cution of it; and the Cabinet Ministers want
more Of the good things. JAP TURPEN.
NEWS OF NATIONAL INTEREST.