The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-25
FORTUNE FROM PENSIONS
cAPC. GEOR3E z. LEMONS WORK
AT WASHINGTON.

1ation Was Secured-A Setback From
Il President cleveland.
From the Boston Herald
WASHINGTON, July I4.-When sturdy
and strenuous John Quincy Adams was
s. s,bting the good fight for the right OF petit
,ion he didn't dream that his success would
srrich the pension claim agent as well as
Fl snfrauchise the slave.
1ndeed. his honest mind could hardly,
svan IN dreams, have imagined the idea of
modern pension claim agent, and the ancient
B ranson claim agent was. so far AS history
q coaches. 50 different from the variety we
8 tnovv as to be beyond the reach of family
q resemblance.
II NAV be safely said that John Quincy
Adams never saw a real pension claim
cont suppose there were lawyers, .notas
teries conveyancers, who. between their
more irnportant duties, advised the veneer
Lille man who came down from the wars of
I776and 1872, how to present their modest
claims for modest pensions. But the pen
sion claim agent, as we know him, is a fin
de steele product, TO use Tue slang OF the
day.
this animal as of every other-pamelY, the
coed and the bad. But the good, who con-
fne themselves to presenting honest claims
!, honest ways for honest fees, while they
msy be numerous, are unimportsnt, if not
insignificant.
TIE PENSION claim agent we think of most
is the prominent, Influential and wealthy
one. who is always in evidence, except, per-
Laps. when a congressional investigating
committee particularly desires their testiS
mony. | mean Col. William Wade Dudley
and Corporal James Tanner and all the rest
of the professional veterans who have
grown rich on the profits Of the pension
trade. For srade it is-a calling, no; / do
not think God calls men to do it, but bust
ness which is as distinct as that of plumbing,
and lust as profltable-a business made pos
s.bla carried on and made successful by a
delft and dexterous manipulation of petit
tons to congress.
The great man of these brokers, the bold
est, shrewdest and richest is not Dudley or
Tanner, but Lemon, Capt George E. Lemon,
who would probably be still unknown to
tue general public if he had not generously
helped Gen Green B. Raum, commissioner
Of pensions, out of one of his frequent finan-
clal straits by
INDORSING RAUM'S NOTES
for matter of $4,000 or so, and discount
ing it, too, l believe, at one of the banks
here of which he Is an officer. Since the
congressional investigation sent that fact
out through the press associations ell over
the country, Lemon has had some additional
advertising from some of the society edit
ors, who have successfully compelled Mrs
John A Logan, with her white hair, and
Mrs. Philip IL. Sheridan, with her brown,
to deny reported engagement to marry
him
Beyond the fact that he is the great pro-
fessional friend of the soldier )" and for
Washington very rich bachelor, there was
no foundation for either report. He proba-
bly, knows Mrs Logan, aud possibly knows
Mrs. Sheridan, and thar is all He is not a
society man, in spite of his wealth, good
looks aud agreeable address, and apparently
does not care to be; but is devoted, SO the
g0sslps say, 10 lovely woman, not known
10 fame. or even to the newspapers, who
does not reject, yet does not accept him.
But, although Lemon has not had the adj
vantage of thousand columns OF q n raj ad-
vertising IKE ldley and Tanner, he IS re-
cognlzed here ia Washington. whore every
b dy knows him, az the king pin on his alley.
he has done more in a money making way,
and can do more in a pension getting way,
tlan all thu rest of them put together He
Is the protector and promoter of the pension
schemes which the rest only help to carry
out, and Of course he gets his royalty as the
king pin.
He owns great political party whe re
they own lit le commissioners of pensions.
He mrKes ana unmakes presidents, as
they make and unmake pension bureau Off
Gals.
He is a great man. He is certainly q
good-looking man, tall, shapely stout, with
good head, a good face, brown hair and
musGache, turning gray, and gray-brown
ewes. He wears good clothes, he drives q
costly drag, he lives IN expensive rooms at
the Shoreham in winter, he goes to Europe
IL tue summer IN the most luxurious style
afforded by the crack lines.
lie is director and an officer in a dozen
local corporations, financial and charitable,
aad generous gIver to eleemosynery insti.
tutlons
Just before he went to Europe the other
lay he salted down
HALF A MILLION DOLLARS
in the bonds of a railway corporation which
Is rega ded as among the most prosperous in
TIE country, explaining to friend that this
was little nest egg to balance his large real
estate Investments here.
de owns weekly newspaper having over
lVOO00 circulation, which yields, it is esti-
mated. 100000 year, and for which he
has just put up S150,000 home, which he
calls the Lemon building.
All this prosperity has been taken out of
me United States treasury, via the pockets
N the pensioners, during the past fifteen or
twenty years.
GRAND ARMY OF THE r EPUBLIc
Congress succumbed to this, then the most
formidable pressure in politics, and Lemon,
who was the author of it all, did not allow
ols modesty to keep him from getting the
hons share Of the spoil, which he did the
more EASILY since the same newspaper which
told them they ought to have it told them
mat he was the man to get it for them.
Less than twenty years ago Lemon was a
clerk IN the employ of an ambitious and
lretentiols firm of attorneys, who prac-
n'ed before the interior department, chiefly
u the pensions, patents and land bureaus.
41ey had not been very long in business as
nrm although they had been successful
~ building up considerable practice when
Tue terrible killing blight of official disap>
pIoVal fell upon them. For some reason,
mhicn cannot now remember, any more
Naan can the names of the four mem bers
u The firm, they were Individually aud col
iectIYely dlsbarred from practice before the
Interior department by the then Secretary
u the Interior. Unless this order could
" hited from them it would crush them out
professional existence, and, of
course, destroy their business. They
Iansacked the town for influence, but could
loV get enough to move the obdurate Secre-
ary OF the Interior, and finally, after max
ns all the effort possible, broke up and sold
.u1. In some way or other Lemon got
money enough to buy up the better portion
u tne.r practice, which, being under the
A"iuI pan, sold cheap. Lemon. then as now
+ fNl