The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-12-22
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
says About It--seen Through HIS
Eyes IL Would Mean Murder TO
the Thousands Struggling on Pen-
sion Pittance, and Dishonor to the
National Government.
i,l-Ib,n sp.eLalin N.isl YorE Aaszti.et.

by the proposed .'purging' Of the PEN
sion rolls This office alone in the
past year has paid out between S1s.-
10000 and 81, 1000, 900, that amount be-
ing about Oh per cent Of the whole APP
preparation made by Congress for the
payment of pensions. There are ninety
three thousand pensioners who receive
their payments here, eighteenor twenty
thousand of whom are on the rolls in
the widows department. There is but
one Office in the country with a larger
roll. and that is the one at Des Moires,
la, which has about two hundred more
names on its books.
The average pension paid TO individ-
nails Is So q month. Widows OF private
soldiers, under the law of July u, 1862,
get Sl2 a month, with s. for each child
under sixteen years Of age. Widows
pensioned under the law of June "a,
1880. are paid s. month, with g for
each minor child. The widow Of any
soldier, whether disabled or not can
get a pension under this law If she is
dependant on her daily labor for sup
port.
are paid sl2 a month, 0tcourse, under
the old law, that Of July "a, 1852, the
pensions are graded according to the
rank OF the soldiers. All widows PEN
stoned under the new Law, that OF June
N, 1890, are pensioned alike, widows OF
officers and privates getting but s. a
month.
The pension office in Columbus pre-
sents a lively scene on the days when
payments are made. The 4th OF De-
Gambler, March, June and September are
the first DAYS OF the payments, and as
early as 4 O'clock in the morning the
pensioners begin to gather near the of
fee TO await the opening OF the doors.
From that early hour, all day long, the
corridors are crowded and packed with
poverty-stricken members OF the human
family. One does not realize how many
people are in this world who have to
struggle for their daily bread until one
is in position like this to see these
throngs
Old men and women, blue and shiv-
ering with the cold in the winter, white
and weak in the summers heat, women
and men, young in years, but whose
faces are scanned and lined with the
constant and ever present fear OF the
wolf at the door; young widows, with
sickening anxiety in their eyes, drag
ging with them children, poor, -pinched
little creatures whose miserable pit
lance Of s. will scarcely cover their ac-
tive little feet; men with one eye or
totally blind, minus leg or an arm,
aud frequently one with some invisible
trouble that makes his steps weak and
tottering-from an early hour in the
morning until late in the evening they
fill the halls and block the stairways.
They don't say much, these poor,
scared creatures. An occasional
THANK you" is usually the only re-
mark the busy clerks hear from them
all day. One poor widow occasionally
tries to chow her gratitude by timidly
offering small bouquet of flowers from
her old.fashioned garden, and always
when they are in season, each OF the
clerks wears in her belt q, bunch Of pam
sizes, yellow roses and garden heliotrope.
The eager waF in which the!poor Great
ufes try to sign their names well and
legibly and the look of relief in their
eyes when their checks are handed out
are thanks enough in themselves, and
more than enough at times to bring
tears to ones eyes.
Often letters come asking for the
money as soon as possible, as poor
woman. or a crippled old soldier is dy-
ing and there is no money left for the
necessary Comforts.
The widows are nearly always neatly
dressed. In summer their calico gowns
show the number Of times they have
been washed and mended, but they are
clean. Alasl in winter the same many
times washed calieoes are still in use.
Their poor, blue, pinehed faces show
how they suferfrom the bitter weather.
Their fingers, stitfened by the cold and
biackened by work, almost refuse at
times to even sign their papers
To cut of the mere pittance these
poor creatures are paid as the price OF
the lives Of their best beloved would
amount almost TO murder.
Youmight cut off the pension Of this
widow next you without doing any
harm. She Is the widow of q major and
receives, under the old law, SIS month.
Her we'll kept, handsome clothes show
her,prosperous condition She evident
lyshas property and an income aside
from her pension.
III you cut her pension You must cut
al the rest; and look at tho woman
next her. She is delicate; you can see
that every breath Is torture to her this
keen weather, and she ekes out her beg
carly pittanee, S. month, by family
washing. II 10 killing her slowly, but
perhaps you may like to cut short her
agony by stopping her pension and kill
ing her In a shorter timel
There Is one more widow want YOU
70 see before We leave them. Ahl here
she il. Look at her we'll. Tall, she
holds her white head like queen, but,
looking closely at her, you see that her
we'll brushed black clothes are shabby
almost to BROWNIES; and there is o
timid, shrinking, almost hunted look In.
her faded, kindly eyes. She signs her
name in. d stif, old.fashioned hand, in
way that shows she Is unused to
writing.
Do You want TO know about her?
When the call came for men, she stood
at her door and watched her only boy
her sole support-march away. Her
tears came-after he was gone Until
them her eyes were bright, and she had
nothing but smiles for him.
In one short year he came back 70
her-dyingl Not wounded, though he
had seen fighting. No, but slowly
drifting away from her dying onsump-
ton contraetedi In the service.
50 poor that she had 10 almost starye
herself that he might be fed. she