Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-11-17
IN THE YEAR 1000
WIN There Be ANY Widows OF the Late
War.

war
The question what sort Of business
is the healthiest has been often and
much discussed, but it's settlement
seems to have been left for us. Farm
ing has been regarded as a salubrious
occupation, and inYalids and con-
Valescents OF various degrees and
classes have often had agricultural
activity prescribed by their doctors as
sanitary measure. Bank presidents
and judges of courts are known to be
long-1iVed, and many people who are
out Of job and not very well would
jump at the chance of accepting
either position.
But statistics show that there are
no more healthy people in the world
than war widows. Far be it from us
to speak lightly of their dreary lot;
but 1t is proper seriously to allude to
the extraordinary tenacity which they
exhibit, and to ask some explanation
OF 1t from the philosophers who deal
with the tables of vital phenomena
Look at the war of 1912, for in
stance. 1t ended seventy-six years
ago, and the inference would ma
turallY be that most of the active
participants must have disappeared.
But Commissioner Raum's report
shows that during the last eighteen
years no less than "a, 917 soldiers of
that war have stood up and asked for
pensions. and that during the same
period A, 872 widows of that war
have applied for pensions-nearIy one
third more than ofliving participants
During the current year S38, 847 have
hnnT1 n fn no Vi mr.
soldiers of the war of 1872, and
ST, 263, 239 to their surviving widows
providing for more than thirty wo-
men to one living man.
The Revolutionary War furnishes a
still more astonishing example. Its
last gun was fired more than 100 years
ago. None of its soldiers survive.
The last one died generation since.
But more than 3, 900 widows of that
war were alive to attend his funeral,
and Gen. Raum assures us that
twenty-three of the venerable ladies
are alive yet.
Five of the ladies do nor bear the
names of the heroes whose relicts
they are, though the law explicitly
WithhOlds pensions from widows who
have remarked. The Scotch dimlnu-
tive ''ie" is entirely missing, and the
good old name Nancy" appears six
times, interspersed with ESTHER, D
"MeridY," "Asenath," and 'Lovey.'
Fourteen of these ladies are more
than eighty years old. and no less
than three are ninety-eight. This is
extraordinary longevity, and its par
allel will probably be found among nc
other class of human beings. The
very youngest of these ladies is only
seVenty-twC, and the fact suggests
| and enfOrces a significant conclusion
She must have married when she was
sixteen a veteran of seVenty-three
who was only fourteen when the Rev
olutionary war began and twenty
when it closed. In fact, all of these
revered danes were babes who mar
rted soldiers old enough to be theil
grandtathers. If this JUNIOR lady o
seVenty-three lives to be one hundred
as some of her sister pensioners doubt
less will, she will see the sun rise il
1917, one hundred and twenty-sil
years after the close of the Revolu
tionary War, and f1ftY-one years afte
the death of the last of its heroes.
The question which now arises is
will there be any widows of the wa
for the Union alive in the far-off yea
1000, one hundred and ten year
ffrom now, and if SO, how manY?-
Frank Leslie's Magazine.