The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-12-12

WASHINGTON, u. u, NOV. ~ 1880.
EDITOR CPIEF:
The Pension Office is a perfect bonanza
for romance writers if they only knew it,
and the incidents in real life that are fire.
quently coming to the attention of the
clerks there show how much stranger truth
often is than fiction. have related some
of these stories from time to time, but last
week there was developed double-bar-
relied romance that is uncommonly queer.
letter was received from lady in Con-
nect;cut enclosing an application for wild
ow's pension, and in the regular order of
businesstit went to the files. AS everybody
knows, the records are kept alphabetically,
and this wolnan's name commencing with
an unusual letter there were few applicants
in her class. The recording clerk glanced
over the list without any particular motive,
given by the window was already drawing
a pension, which had been granted him in
1873, and was being paid through the Cali
fornia agency.
1t required only few moments search
to discover that the record in the two cases
was identical, not only the same name, but
the same regiment and company. The
widow offeret. no proof of death, but her
affidavit state! that she had not seen her
husband or heard of him since the war,
and supposed that he had been killed in
battle. A letter vas written to her stating
that her husband was already drawing a
pension for wounds received in the war,
and by return mail came an inquiry for his
whereabouts. She said that she had been
mourning his death for twenty years, but
was glad to hear that he was still living,
and If the pension people would only assist
her i'll locating him she would take 1T very
lively for her trnant spouse.
A very remarkable case has come to my
attention through friend in the Pension
Office which furnishes incidents for novel
as powerful as any Dumas or Eugene Sue
ever used. In 1864 lieutenant from a
Ohio village was killed in one of the bat
ties in Virginia and his body was sent
home, buried with military houors, and a
| handsome monument erected over 1t By the
citizens of the place. Thousands of people
paid their tributes of honor to the young
hero, and looked upon his face as the body
lay in state in the town hall. He left a
widow to whom he had been married only
a year, and for more than twenty years she
has been trying to get pension. but al
| 1,ex
husbands grave she can not prove that he
is dead. The records in the Abundant Gen
erals Office are perfect, and at1idavlts can
| be furnished from thousands of people who
/ saw and recognized his lifeless body, but
every few months she receives letter from
him, written in a hand as familiar as her
own. Two letters never come from tie
same place; now they are postmarked IN
Colorado, then in Texas, then in New York
Once she got note from him dated at Wash
ington. He appears to know what is going
on at home, and always aliudes to local oc
currences with familiarity that is amazing
He sends messages to old friends, and gives
her advice about business matters which il
seems Impossible Tor stranger TO KNOW
She can not answer these ghostly missives
because he never gives any clue to hi:
whereabouts, and no detective has eve
been able to find him.
A good story is going the rounds abou
Col Casey, the engineer of the Washington
Monument. When the great shaft was
| f,;.bod tho Colonel on visiting it on,
Monday morning, was amazed and terri
fed to find that the plumb line hung SOM
three or four inches away from the wall in
stead of close to the stones, as it shoult
hang, and as he had left it on Saturday
He looked away up the cord as far as hi
eyes could reach and all seemed correct
Visions of PROSTATE monument fltte'
before him, as it seemed certain that tn