Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1890-06-04
An Old Rebel on Pensions

A Frsnkfort (Ky dispatch says: The
old rebel, State Senator William Lindsay
has received strong pFotest from Happy
Jack" another old rebel, who is promi-
neut and worthy citizsn of Lncoln county.
He protests sgaiUs. the passage Of bill
providing boms for old Confederate sol.
diers in Kentucky on the ground that it
would be dangerous precedent to sstab-
! lish. The homo will be pension, snd with
thousands and tens of thousands ofcrippled,
disabled and impe cuniopa Confederate SOL
diers. That other old rebel, Col. Z. Polk
Johnson, publishes the letter In the Daily
| CAPITAL, as follows:
Judge William Lindsay: Dear Sir: For
The Lord'a aske-and If yop have no respect
for the Lord, just for Us old rebels sake
don's pass tnat Confederate Association
bill.' Why, old man, don't you know what
g tendency pecunisry cid OF any kind hse
10 disable mar? Has cur legislature lost
every bit OF its good sense? Don't you
know that the United SiGtes pension bills
have crippled more federal soiGisrs than the
combiued armies Of Lee and jackson, Of
Hill and Longstrees OF Buckuer and A!Dtrt
johnson, of joe Johnson, Bragg and Hood,
OF Price, Van Dorp, Dick Taylor and Kirby
Smith? Great Fathers aboye man, stop
aud thDk before ycu further get. Here
an, now, tripping along toward aizty !;
been out OF the rebel ernly since May 3,
1865 been able to cut cord wood ant maul
rails every day since, ana the very mention
Of your bill makes me begin TO feel Oh the
decline.
Don't dc 1t, Judge don't DO It, You
ere out on high gress, snd may not De tempt
ed lnto ths wrong pasture, but you surely
haven't forgot that little, close boundary of
short grass, and the temptations suggested
thereby. Don't do it IL viii paraISze me
end make others like Dn. Why, look at
Dick Warren, great, dne specimen OF mal-
kind and the very best OF good fellows; has
ten handsome children and lovely wife, ell
In one little inclosuie OF short grass with
him. He would be tempted to break
through and steal If he ever had been d
rebel, and if you pass this Dill. don't ycu
suppose he will wish he had been rebel !?
Judge, dou't do it. Look around you,
and expeo. you csn find a member of the
present Legislature or Senate who, 10 all az
pearances, ,a 6 great big, hearty and healthy
man, but intergogaie him and you will find
he has doctors certificate Of disability
contracted In the servce of the best govern.
ment tha world eyer saw. Now, you step
over there and ask him II that ia not go.
Why, your bill will Cripple the last one CT
us, Judge and don't waua to be cripple.
Then in few years more we will have the
SOUS of veterans, and there will come up
some blear-eyed, hstchet-fsced, fat-heeded
boy aud tell you that be ia Happy Jacks
boy. Happy jack had 10 boy, replies the
commissioner, or whoever be may be. Who
was your mother aud whore do You live,
anyhow Now, don't want to be imposed
on in that way.
Judge, don't do It, Think about 'Woodis'
Longmoor, with his leg cut of at the hir-
Joint. He Is taking care Of himself. Look
soross the house at Rudy. Didn't see him
at Emory and Henry .th one leg cut off
uuti! there was just enough left for knob
for his walking stick? Didn't my brother
lengulsh and suffer in he came hcspital with
Rudy until bis youthful body wasted Into
bag OF bones? CANE see his great big blue
eyes rolling about in his emaoieted cheeks
now? These and thousands Of otherS just
ike them are taking care OF themselves, and
they don't want to cripple US. For gracious
sake, Judge. give ua s chance to make an
honest living. Why, jeff Sterrett Is getting
along the buIlest kind, raised u Dice boy.
NISU8ERl
children and his little girl is the beet fiddler
in the States of Americe DID you ever see
her draw g bow?
"Thinking about those Old boys aud old
times makes me- think good things about
everybody, even the Yankees Judge, don't
YOU know we have The cleverest kind OF
neichbors, who belonged to the UDion army,
and who for years after that cruel war was
over had muscles of bark and stcmacha like
| bark mills, and one day that pension bill
passed Congress, and before the Gun went
down million or two of them lifted up their
hands and swore until their fingers grew as
long ss rye straws and their palms as big as
barn doors thst they hSdo't been able to do
days work for long time. a naticn OF
patriots cramped, crushed, crippled by q
single act of Congress! Has ever pan, 30
much mightier than the sword, done more
damage? Oughtn't those old soldiers to
have swept that Congress from the face OF
the earth? But, Judge, they couldn't sweep
that Congress crippled them too badly.
Ask that big fellow if it didn't.
"Judge, excuse ne for writing gou this.
do SO with many misgiyings. You see. II
I write to any Of the old boys at all it has to
be man Of prominence, because | am the
only private left. Why, there Is Phil Thomp'
son. and Jack, and my two brothers, all as
gallant little boys as ever took command OF
o musket, all Colonies long ago, and an
the only private left.
"Wasn't it fine thing for the Yankees we
didn't find out about their debilitsted condi'
tion just before the surrender Why, /!
would have taken but eiz months more CT
camp life and rebel yelr to have made 9
| finish to them, If they tell the truth, and
suppose they do. But there is one thing Gu.
rious about their ailment-it takes so long
to kill One disease, gallopiDg consun1ption
never has and never will attack Union
"Dop't do 1t, Judge. and don't let then
do it,
S-sI5sa.s.. =, IN Dr .oV Uoor for ,odio.