Morning journal and courier., 1892-10-01
Stop That Growing.

To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER.
The "growl" of ''Old Soldier" in your
issue of yesterday morning regarding the
treatment received at Washington by the
veterans attending the recent q. A. R. en-
campment strikes some of the other ''old
soldiers" as being very unjust and unrea-
sonable. There are chronic grumblers in
all walks of life, but the most unbecoming
grumbler of all is the "old soldier" who
finds fault with every occasion and every
thing connected Herewith just because he
fails to receive all the creature comforts
that he naturally expects while at home.
There were such men in the army while
the war was in progress-men who were
disposed to find fault with "Uncle Sam"
because he did not furnish
roast turkey and other luxurious
edibles, because he failed to include feath-
erbeds in his quartermaster stores, and be-
cause he did not give 1.-THE boys" umbrel-
las when they were on picket in rain
storm. Some of these chronic grumblers,
it seems, have not changed in disposition
during the last thirty years, although added
years and experiences are expected to give
added wisdom to finite beings in general.
Washington is magnificent city in ev-
cry respect, and the welcome which was
extended to the veterans of the Grand
Army last week was such as to elicit
praise from every cold soldier" possessing
single particle of reason in his mental
composition. Although city of great re-
sources, it was surprising that the
inhabitants provided as well as they
did, with an influx of between sixty and
seventy thousand veterans, and more than
that number of outside visitors to the
encampment. In fact conservative esti-
mates say there were three hundred thous-
and visitors in Washington at that time.
That all of this 'foreign mob" landed
suddenly in their midst could not be pro-
vided with luxurious quarters and first
class fare in every respect was reasonably
to be expected, and no veteran or other
visitor had any cause to entertain any
other idea of the situation. Armories,
school houses and other public buildings,
besides large number of tents on Grand
Army place had to furnish quarters for the
| large number of veterans present, and the
writer does not know of single instance
where a comrade did not have at least
comfortable straw mattress to sleep on. I,
| for one, went to Washington with
minor discomforts, and I wasn't disap-
pointed on that score. But, taking every
thing of a disagreeable nature together,
felt we'll repaid for the visit and would
not have missed it for considerable. If
any 'old soldier who attended the en-
campment failed to have his high ideas
gratified by providing irst-clsss quarters
for himself in advance, instead of ''soldier-
ing it" with the great majority of his COM
rades, he had only himself to blame, and
not the patriotic and hospitable citizens of
the beautiful capital city of the country,
| who deserve great praise for tho magnif-
cent ovation which they accorded the
veterans of the Grand Army. It should
be born in mind that the great part of the
immense expense involved in this ovation
was borne by the inhabitants of the
District of Columbia, congress hav-
ing failed to make an appropriation
for the purpose. And when 1t is
remembered that some of the public build
ines-like that of the government printing
| Office, for instance-were decorated at the
expense and by the individual effort of the
employees during leisure hours, 1t Is felt
that only praise, and not abuse, should
be accorded the people of Washington.
So far as food was concerned, 1t was the
same In Washington as anywhere else.
There were places where one had to pay
"iirst CLASP charges for first class fare, and
there were restaurants where fair meal
could be obtained for 25 cents. Human
nature is human nature the world over and
the greed for tho "almighty dollar" did
not seem to be any greater among the
Neutrality-suspicious. than among other people
we have met. So, on the whole, fail to
see any consistency in the "growr' which
an "Old Soldier" has seen fit to indulge in.
n. T. P.