Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-06-06

hounds. We see the babe torn from tn
mothers breast and the cruelties Of tn
demons of the internal regions visite'
upon them. The chain is cut by free
dom's clash! The broken letters fall
Our heroes God .reigns, and tn
country lives.
was talking not long ago with an oil
soldier. He seemed reluctant to talk AMI
said he did not want to complain.
He said, "When the war broke out b,
lived happily in Illinois on an 80 acr'
farm with his wife and two little boys
When Father Abraham called for Sixty
Thousand volunteers; 1 felt it my duty
to go. My wife and I talked the situa
ton over; she said if I felt it to be my
duty to 60, DO SO, be one Of the sixty
thousand. Strike for your home and
freedom Invent. 1 joined in the weary
marches. 1 stood guard through storm
rain and Snow. was with the boys al
Kenesaw when we climbed the dizzy
heights through He'll fire of Sharpnell
aud shell. lost, at Atlanta, my right
leg, and the use of my left arm from a
Mimic ball. I was discharged, sent
home. I could not work. I was poor
and emaciated, cripple for life. I had
to sell my little farm to get something to
live on. My little family were denied the
necessaries of life. I began the greatest
battle of my life. I asked from the gov
eminent pension. By the aid of friends
and furnishing ample evidence that I was
sound when the government received my
services, I succeeded N getting a small
pittance. My neighbors told me it was
charity, that I was pauper. saw the
wives of the men who staid at home and
made money ride past in fine carriages.
live in fine houses, dressed in fine clothes,
while my wife and children who fought
the battle at home, alone, for four long,
weary years, were dressed in rags and
wanting for enough to eat. Yes, we are
living off the government at three cents
per day. We fought for the whole coun-
try. We fought for the homes and fire.
sides of all. We fought FOR liberty. Now
we are slaves to poverty and want" Here
he broke down and wept like child.
The old soldier stands before the pub
lie treasury to-day. Not as paupers,
Not as benefciaries. They hold the
real Bonds of the national debt. They
are the preferred creditors of this nation.
To its payment the public faith is secure
ly pledged. We must not question it.
We cannot without infinite penalties re-
pudiate it. Now is the time to complete
the act of national gratitude. Within
twenty years the most of the Veterans
will be gone. Already all of the great
Grant, Logan, Sherman.
Sheridan have joined the innumerable
caravan, the countless hosts of the boys
in blue, who waited their coming on the
other shore. Every year time touches
their ranks with a heavier hand. Soon
The last will have departed.
I do not know what others may think,
out in that day I want to feel that the
public faith has been kept in the ample
measure of gratitude and justice. shut
my eyes while busy fingers count the
cost. 1t makes absolutely no difference
what it COSTS The defense of the nation
was an undertaking so vast that no
worldly arithmetic can calculate its ex-
pense. But the people were ready to pay
all it cost even TO the last farthing.
They were willing to receive their sick
and wounded from the hospital and bat
tie fields of the South and restore them
to strength. They we're willing to re-
ceive their loved ones from the merciless
prisons and nurse them back to life and
health. They were willing to put the
signs of mourning upon every family al
tar. They we're willing to take them back
and quietly place them to rest in the
qulcb COIucIS VI 6uc1E OWu Cuu1Cu ydIu,
that the flag of the great republic might
live through the storm of battle.
My countrymen! TWAS costly sac
rifce, but it was worth all that it cost
and infinitely more. There is not one of
the men who wore the blue but we are
his personal debtor. Not one woman
who gave to the nation loved husband
Or noble son but we are her personal
debtor. Not one old man, stricken by
years, the staff of his support taken away
by the service of his country, but we are
his personal debtor. When I hear men
idly talking of the extravaganza of the
pension department. and read in the
the silly babble of how the
old soldiers of the country are trying to
loot the public treasurer. I reply that
every dollar of the national wealth, in the
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