Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-10
QUEEN PENSION CLAIMS.
Various Reasons For Asking For a Share of the Great Fund.

Various Reasons For Asking For a
 Share of the Great Fund.
 From the Washington Post-l
 The oddity of human nature has found an apt illustration in some of the many claims for pension that have been received under the new law. Many men have stretched their imagination as well as their consciences in tn ir efforts to be placed on Uncle Sam's great and rapidly growing pension roll. They allege every disease and ailment known to the science of medi- cine, and then urge the claims with ener- getic persistency. Some of the causes al legged are as odd as they are interesting. An ex-soldier in Ohio wrote:
 ''I don't exactly know what disease am suffering from, but do know that I de serve pension, as am suffering the pains of death all over my body"
 Another veteran in West Virginia thinks he should receive pension because, as he states il, t,during the war he fell off thirty foot bridge, which resulted in "a general breaking up of his system" A veteran of the Fourth Wisconsin was salivated by reason of an excessive use of salt pork dur HE ,iLlu Ilo" IOI pension because he ''got salvation in the army" as he puts it.
 Under the provisions of the recently passed department pension law it is only necessary for claimant to show that he is incapacitated from manual lal or, wheth. CT the causes are due to army service ol not, in order to have his name placed or the rolls. To show his inability to perform manual labor, the affiidavits of neighbor: are necessary reciting that fact. A veteran in Howard county, Md, sent the testimony of neighbor, who no doubt meant well enough, but did not know how to express himself The latter swore tc the statement that he had known the claim ant for ten years, and that 'he would not work unless he was compelled to-" The witness of course meant to say that claim ant while really unable to work by reason of his physical infirmaties, was frequently compelled to attempt labor in order to sus tain himself
 The widow of a man who shouldered 6 musket in the Pennsylvania Reserves want ed pension, and was asked if her bus band was ever wounded,
 'Oh, yes," she replied, ''he received sr axe wound of the right foot"
 Being asked to explain the circumstance. surrounding the wounding of her bettel half, she said he cut his foot while split ting wood. It was not during the war tha this occurred, but in 1S79, at their home il Pennsylvania. The pension attorney want ed to know what bearing such an occur renee could have on the pension law, anC | the widow auswered'curtly.
 ''Well, sir, the axe he cut his foot witl is the same one he brought home with hin | from the war. It was an army axe A rather remarkable declaration wa made by Michigan veteran. He statet under oath that he picked up she'll on tn battlefield of the Wilderness and took i into his tent While holding the missil between his knees examining khe shel exploded, ''badly shattering A hervou system" but miraculously causing no in l jury.
 | An ex-cannonier of one of the regula batteries claims that he stopped a cannon ball with his abdomen, and has since beel greatly troubled with stomachic disorders The ball, he says was a spent one, ant came bounding along, striking him square | ly on the exterior of the inner man an' nearly knocking him into the middle of tn
 following week.
 One Gioranna, a member of the well
 known Garibaldi Gaurd, recites in his al
 plication for pension that he was ''probed
 by a rebel bayonet at the Bull Run fight
 and Jersey cavalryman says he was''
 ered' by rebel sabre at Spottsylvani
 Court House These are only few of th
 queer causes for pension that are daily re
 ceived at the department. There are thou
 sands of others equally queer.