Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-02

letters received from Congressman amount
to about 1000 day and Congressmen's let
tiers must always be answered. More than
1000 pension cases are settled every week
and during the last six days 1 .40S invalids
have received pensions and 54S pensions
have been granted to widows, 613 men have
been granted an increase OF pension and
], ,7S3 new claims have been admitted.
BIG BUSINESS AND BIG BUILDING.
At present there are nearly half million
claims pending in the Pension Office and
the department is paying out more than a
million and half of dollars in pensions
every week. 1t is the biggest business OF
the kind in the world and it grows bigger
every year.
Let me tell you something about the
building in which this immense business is
transacted. 1t is the biggest brick building
in the world and its mighty roof covers two
acres of ground. 1t is made of red pressed
brick, mighty three-story structure with
great glass roof rising tier by tier over it.
The biggest brick structure OF the past was
the baths of Diocletian, the ruins of which
stand by the Via NaZionaie, in Rome. These
baths were mile in circumference, their
interior was finished in marble and Egyp-
tian granite and they had 5000 marble
seats for bathers. Wonderful mosaics COW
cred its floors, hot and cold water continu-
ously flowed for the use of the bather and
the dirtiest of plebeians could have access to
them for one-eighth of a cent a time. 1t
may be that General Meigs had this i'm
mense structure in his mind when he mod
eled this pension building. 1t is made
after the Roman palaces of the fifteenth
century and it consists of series OF big
rooms around great central court.
COVERING AN ACRE.
This court is much like the court of St.
Marks in Venice, save that St. Marks has
only the italian sky to roof it, while the
Pension Court is protected from the cold by
a sky of glass, and its immense glass roof
is upheld by so mighty brick columns
higher than any city house outside of fiat
and thicker than any tree in America out
side of California Each of these columns
contains enough brick to build two good
sized houses, and in the ages of the future
they may stand here like obeiisks when the
rest of the building has crumbled into ruins.
Around this great court are arcades rising
gallery above gallery and opening out from
the three stories OF rooms. Some of the col
umns of these are gilded or bronzed. The
finish of the court, the columns and the
walls, is in white, the great diamond glass
roof is set in framed mosaic of yellow and
the great acre of floor is OF colored tiles. In
the center of the whole a great fountain
sends up silvery spray and the whole is
one of the curiosites of architecture. 1t
was in this building that the last two inau-
gural balls have been held and it is here
that all the great balls of the future Presi-
dents will be celebrated. At present the
floor is filled with great cases of files and
you may walk ior mile in and out through
the aisles surrounded by these great cases OF
pension papers.
SOME ILLUSTRIOUS PENSIONERS. |
In these old papers may be found the |
names of the most noted men of our history. |
Blaine's great-grandmother got pension,
and Presidents Grant and Lincoln received |
land for their services in the Mexican and |
Black Hawk wars. Robert E. Lee got 160 |
acres of land for the work he did as |
colonel in our war with Mexico, and |
j Jefferson Davis received the same amount |
for his services. The Mexican War pen
Sions are fast dying out and there are at |
present but few revolutionary widows on |
the pension rolls. About five years ago
there were so. The number is now reduced |
to 90 and three of these are 81 years of
age. They are Anna Maria Young of
Pennsylvania, Nancy Rains of Vermont,
and Susan Curtis OF Maine. They must
ldfe Deeu married 10 lnelr nuSDanQS long
liter the Revolutionary War for they were
'nly years old at the beginning of this
century and the war closed II years before
hat. The youngest Revolutionary widow
S Nancy Green an Indiana woman of II.
She was born in 1919 and her husband must
have been gray haired when she married him.
Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Garfield are the only
Presidents wives who now receive pensions.
They get 81, 900 year by special act of
Congress. Mrs. President Lincoln got
s., 900 a year from 1870 to 1882. The
amount was then increased to $1,000 and
his it continued until her death.
WIDOWS OF NOTED SOLDIERS.
The daughter of President Zach Taylor
yets $50 month, and she receives this for
General Taylor's services in the Mexican
War. Among the noted widows of Generals
IF the late war who receive pensions are
hose of E. d. Baker, Whipple, Sumner,
Robert Anderson, the nero OF Fort Sumpter;
VI George III. Custer, the Indian fighter; of
Daniel McCook and Frank p Blair. Mrs.
John A. Logan gets $40 week by special
lct of Congress- and the widow of Admiral
Farragut receives $1,000 a year in the same
way. Phil Kearney's widow did get $50 a
month, but l am told she has married again,
md the sum now goes to her children. Mrs.
1-.ol- II