Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-28
LATEST RATES OF PENSIONS.


Amputation of hip joint. 45 90
Inability to perform any manual labor,
second grade. .......................... ~ ~
Disability requiring the aid or attend
ance of another person. second grade. " W
feet 72 60
Total deafness. go 90
Amputation shoulder Joint ............ As 90
Other special rates range according to
rank, though it is difficult to explain on
what basis Of justice an officer should have
more than private, and in disabilities
which cannot be exactly specified in the
foregoing, an effort is made to rate the
pensloner according to his disability.
Ofcourse, this situation invites the ser
vices OF the pension attorney, and yet,
strange to say, the great majority of the
pensioners
ATTEND TO THEIR OWN CASES.
The department informs the pensioner
that an attorney is not necessary. and in Or
dinary cases, where the pensioner is gifted
with fair share of intelligence, an attorney
is a superfuity. But in vast number of
cases the evidence is vague and conflicting,
and an attorney is necessary to arrange it
and eliminate the contradictory and ex-
traneous matter.
Often the most absurd evidence is pre-
sented OF the claims of a pensioner, solely
on account of the ignorance of the appli-
cant in regard to what is required, and the
Pension Bureau would throw such testi-
mony out wholesale, were it not put in
proper shape by an attorney. The fee
allowed by law is SO. By special agree
ment the attorney can charge $25. There is
really very little money in this fee for the
attorney, and it Is only by gaining very
large business that claims attorney can
make his specially profitable. Often case
which pays the attorney one of these
fees costs him several times the amount.
Often after the pension is allowed there
comes
A GRAND KICK
from the pensioner, and the reputable at
torney, to appear generous, gives up his fee
rather than contend for it.
To Washingtonian. it goes without say
ing that Captain Lemon stands at the head
of the pension attorneys. His Office
is as interesting as a Government bu-
reau. Nearly 100 clerks, most of them
young women, are required to attend to his
pension business alone. His office is near
the bureau Of The DISPATCH, and at
luncheon time, at o'clock, the scene pre-
sented is almost like that at the doors of
department building, and his rooms
are more interesting in their order and dis
cipline than many OF the bureaus of the de-
partments. He keeps department hours and
practices, and the applications for a place
in his service resemble those for entrance to
the civil service. His manager, Alva S.
Taber, is an old pension official, and knows
more of pension affairs than almost any
other person in the business.
SOME SINGULAR FACTS.
For his own entertainment and informa-
tion, Chief Taber has at times sought out
phenomena associated with the pension
business, which presents some curious fea-
lures. For instance, figures taken from the
list some time since show that the soldiers
suffered more in their left than in their
right sides, as follows:
Amputations of the right arm were IA, COL and
of the left 1644: of both arms. II; of the right
foot. 55l; OF the left, 6Si: of both. 80; of the
the right leg. 1,260, and the left, 1881; of the
arm at the shoulder joint, 443; of the right arm,
7063 of the left, 1889. and leg at hip joint, TO-
OF wounds in the right elbow there were 4l0.
and in the left, 4S5; in the right foot. 264l and
in the left 8, 13S: in the right hand. $780, and
in the left, 6l57; in the right hip, 2 14O and in
the left 2045; in the right knee, l. lSl and left,
J. lo4 in the right leg; 1883 and @ in the left.
left, 4 267; in the right side, 1,502. and in the
left, i.7l5; in the right thigh, 6624, and in the
left, 6,257; and SO on.
The almost invariable greater injury to
the left side would seem to indicate either
that that side was subject to the greater ex-
posure, or that surgeons amputated the left
limbs more freely and treated the left side
more carelessly than the right, or both
At the time these figures were taken there
were:
SOME RESULTANT DISEASES.
Twenty eight thousand six hundred and
pensioners for diarrhea, sos for
catarrh, 1871 for bronchitis. 448 for dyspepsia,
7,5SS for injuries to the eyes, 6657 for heart
trouble, SO from impure vaccination, LOIS for
kidney trouble, 0,7S9 for lung trouble, 100 for
insanity. 2679 for malarial poisoning, 1851 for
LIZ for spinal disease, 1874 for
l,0l9 for throat. disease, 3056 for
varicose veins, IL for confinement in rebel
prisons. whose disability could not be specified;
$3.50 were pensioned for wounds in the head,
9U0 for the loss of one eye. l0.6O5 for hernia,
and in fewer numbers for many injuries and
diseases of a very unusual character.
In truth volume of interesting matter
might be written of the curious things
associated with the pensioning OF old soldiers.
Where pensions will end is what nobody
can guess. 1t will be easily recognized how
long drawn-out pensioning OF widows and
orphans may be. Then the tendency is to
constantly expand not only the laws but the
application of them. Probably only another
war would cause O modification of them,
when the pensioners would be 30 increased
as to lead to the application of pension
laws to none but those in a condition ap-
proximating pauperisn on account OF