The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-08-03
TALK OF THE WEEK.

There is some likelihood that Representative
Wilson, of West Virginia, will not again be
candidate for Congress. He can have a renomi-
nation II he wants it; in fact, his appreciative
constituents will not hear of his retiring; and
he has no fear of the threats of defeating him
made by the Republicans II he should run
again. Bat Mr.. Wilson is poor man and finds
1t difficult to support and educate his growing
family on the salary Of a member of Congress.
His public duties are so eXactlng that he is
forced to neglect his law practice, so that he
is seriously considering the advisability of
declining a denomination. If Mr.. Wilson
retires, 1t will be great loss to the Democratic
party in the House and to the country. He Is
one of the ablest and most conscientious men
in public life, and no man on the floor of the
House can make stronger, more logical, or
more elegant and eloquent set speech than Mr..
Wilson. He is neither bombastic nor forid, but
embodies sound ideas, often strilingly original
and beautiful in clear, unrhetorical sentences
that appeal at once to the cultivated modern
taste and command respect where they do not
carry conviction. Mr.. Wilson is student of
literature as well as Of public questions, and
there is scholarly flavor to his speeches that
add to their charm without IN the least impair
ing their force.
Mr.. Wilson is known mostly through his
clear and powerful handling of the tariff ques-
mand in all parts of the country. II he would
consent he could fill every date between this
and the November election to address Demo
cratic meetings the tariff question. The
Democratic Reform Club has secured him for a
series of joint tariff debates in that State during
the present month. The Republicans endeav-
ored to secure Maj. Mckinley as his opponent,
but are not likely to succeed, and it Is probable
that Mr.. Burrows will go instead. The first of
the meetings will be held on the Sth at Elmira
lt,.,,,r t1o T,.fa tnto LIT. o. r.
Wilson will speak at the Saratoga County Fair;
on the 10th at the Duchess County Fair; on the
1lth at the Toga County Fair at Oswego, the
the farm of "Boss" Platt, and on the 18th at
the Chenango County Fair. About the 1st Of
September Mr.. Wilson will go to the new State
of Washington, where the Democrats are about
to reorganiZe their party, and want Mr.. Wilson'S
assistance. They are making great prepara-
tions for his reception and will meet him at
Chicago with special train.
''If the Democrats have the next House, and
l don't see much chance of anything else," said
a Republican member yesterday, "they couldn't
do better, in my opinion, than elect Mr.. Hatch
as Speaker. Yes, Mr.. Crispis an excellent man,
and so is Mr.. Mcmillan, but Mr.. Hatch's geo.
graphical location is better than theirs, and
there are other considerations that make him a
more available man. The Democrats are deter
mined to have Speaker who is not only fair,
but firm and aggressive. They mean to give the
Republicans a taste of the kind of medicine the
Republicans have given them in this Congress,
and Pm glad of it. l have heard great many
Democrats talk this way in the last few days,
and most of them seem to think that Hatch is
the man for them to elect as Speaker. Although
Hatch was a Confederate, he won the admira-
tion of Union men by the way in which he
| treated Union prisoners during the war. There
were continued complaints that Union prisoners
in the hands of the Confederates were abused
| n q OF nj Unc nj 1alR In
| charge of them he took every means in his r*-yer
to remove all grounds of complaint, and orSfered
that the same ratons be served to Union pris-
oners as to the Confederate soldiers. He is a
| big, broad-guage man, and would make great
| Speaker"
| The new Dependent Pension law has been in
| force but little over a month, and already
about 100000 applications for pensions have
been filed under it. "One-third of these,n a
pension expert said yesterday, ''are cases that
were already on file in the Pension Office, but
had to be filed again in accordance with the
provisions of the law. One-half of the other
the end of the year." the pension sharp con-
tinued, 81 expect to see 100000 applications for
pensions filed under the new law, and by the
end of eighteen months there will be half a
million cases. OF the cases that are filed ear
liest large proportion likely to be more
successful than those filed later on. AS far as
we can get at it, there are now about 200, 600
men living who enlisted in the Union armies
and saw some service. Yes, large majority OF
these may become entitled to pension under
the dependent law, but it is not probable.
The average age of the living vet
erans of the late war is now
about ffty-three years 1 have a list
of the survivors Of our regiment. You see the
youngest man in it is forty-three. He enlisted in
1865 just before the Army was disbanded. The
ages range from forty-three to sixty-fve, and
even seventy. No, we have no data to show
the average age at which the veterans die. But
1t has been the experience in England as well as
here that men who endured the hardships of the
war without contracting serious disease or re
ceiving dangerous wounds became so tough
ened that they likely to live to good old age
The new census will throw great deal of light
on the question OF the number of veterans living
and the dependent widows and children of those
dead. When we get these figures better idet
may be formed of the probable amounts tha
will be needed to meet the expenditures unde
the new law"
"No, sah," said Judge Riley, of Accomack
whom discriminating President has selected
from 10000 applicants to represent these United
States as Consul at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
81 do not fear to face the yellow fever on III
native heath or in its native lair, so to speak
sab. Wherever my country calls me, there go
by gad, sab. | never know fear, sab, especial.
when the clarion call of duty resounds within
the conVoluted chambers of my ear, sab, with
salary OF $1,000 a year attached. Besides, sab
had the yellow fever many years ago when
mad the honah of representing my country a
Consul at Maracaibo. No, sah amnot aware
san, that an attack gives you immunity from
second; but in the equatorial regions, Wher
yellow fever is indigenous to the soil and to tn
% 1, t. s,.IN 1aHa don rTUI