St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-03

pension cases are settled every week,
and during the last six days LAOS inva-
lids have received pensions and 55S
pensions have been granted to widows,
6l3 men have received an increase Of
pension and 1,7S3 new claims have
been admitted. At present there are
nearly half million claims pending in
the pension office, and the departme mt
is paving out more than $1,500,000 in
pensions every week. 1t is the big gest
business of the kind in the wOr Id.
and it grows bigger every year.
z Let me tell you something about the
building in which this immense BUSH
ness Is transacted. 1t is the biggest
brick building in the world and it's
1t is made of red pressed brck,a mighty
three story structure with great glass
roof rising tier by tier over it. The big
gest brick structure of the past was the
baths of Diocletian. the ruins of which
stand by the Via NaZionale In Rome.
These baths were mile in circumfer-
ence, their interior was finished in mar
BILE and Egyptian granite, and they had
5000 marble seats for bathers.
Wonderful mosaics covered its floors,
hot and cold water continuously flowed
for the use of the bather, and the dirti-
est of plebeians could have access to
them for one-eighth of cent time.
1t may be that Gen. Meigs had this i'm
menSe structure in his mind when he
modelled this pension building. 1t Is
made after the Roman palaces of the
fifteenth century, and it consists of
series OF big rooms around great CEN
trail court covering an acre. This court
&c Ia hu nf n
Venice, save that ST. Marks has only
the Italian to roof it, while the pension
court is protected from the cold winds
by sky of glass, and its immense
glass roof is upheld by eight mighty
brick columns higher than any city
house outside of fiat and thicker than
any tree in America outside 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 columns of these are gilded
or bronzed. The finish of the court, the
columns and the wa Is is III white, the
mosaic of yellow and the great acre
of floor Is of cOlored tiles. In
the center of the whole great
fountain sends up siltery spray, and
the whole is one of the curiosities OF
architecture. 1t was in this building
that the last two inaugural balls have
been held, and it is here that all the
great balls of the future presidents will
be celebrated. At present the floor is
filed with great cases of files, and you
may walk for mile in and out through
the aisles surrounded by these great
cases of pension papers.
In these old papers may be found the
names OF the most noted men Of our his
tory. Blaine's great-grandmothe got
pension, and Presidents Grant and Lin
coin received land for their services
in the Mexican and Black Hawk
wars. Robert E. Lee got LOO acres
in our war with Mexico, and Jefferson
Davis received the same amount for his
services. The Mexican War pensions
are fast dying out, and there are at
present but few Revolutionary widows
Oh the pension rolls. About five years
ago there were eighty. The number is
now reduced to tWeEty-nine, and three
of these are ninety-Seyen years of age.
They are Anna Maria Young, of Penn
sylvania: Nancy Rains, of Vermont.
and Susan Curtis, of Maine. They must
have been married to their husbands
long after the Revolutionary War, for
they were only seven years old at the
beginning of this century, and
the war closed seventeen Years
before that. The youngest Rev
stationary widow is Nancy Green, an
Indiana woman of seventy-one. She
have been gray-haired when she mar
ried him. Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Garfield
are the only presidents wives who now
receive pensions. They get $1,000 year
by special act of congress. Mrs. Pres
ident Lincoln got S3,000a year from 1870
to 1882. The amount was then increased
to $1,000 and this it continued until her
death. The daughter of President Zach
Taylor gets $50 month and she re-
ceives this for Gen. Taylor's services in
the Mexican war. Among the noted
widows of generals of the late war
who receive pensions are those Of
E. ID. Baker, Whipple, Sumner, Robert
Anderson, the hero Of Fort Sumpter, of
George H. Custer. the Indian fighter, of
Daniel McCook and Frank P. Blair.
Mrs. John A. Logan gets $40 week by
a special act of congress, and the widow
of Admiral Farragut receives $4,000 a
year in the same way. Phil Kearney's
widow did get $50 mouth. but l am
told she has married again and the sum
now goes to her children. Mrs. Gen.
Hancock gets pension, and there are
number of other Soldiers widows who
have been pensioned by special act OF
congress. FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Copyright.