The Washington times., 1894-09-05
Scenes About the Agency When Quarter
Day Comes Around.
COME WITH BREAK OF DAWN.
Manned Old Veterans Exchanging Reminis-
cences Of Tented Field and Battle-wid-
ows and Orphans Anxious for the Stipend
sharps and Harpies Laying for Them.

its aspects, melancholy spectacle might have
been witnessed by any philosophical observer
whose wanderings yesterday morning CHANGED
to lie in the direction of the United States
pension agency, Fourth and + streets. Long
before dawn the gardens and streets contigu-
Gus to the locality were the bIyouac Of a
motley but orderly crowd whose members were
bent upon common object, viz, the earliest
possible acquisition OF the quarterly pensions
granted by Uncle Sam to some thousands OF
war-worn veterans, resident in the States of
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and the Dis
trict of Columbia, whose lives had been risked
and whose limbs, in many instances, had been
shattered in their struggles with Mexican,
Confederate or frontier foes.
AS the gray light of warm September
morning broke over the massive pile of the
Pension Office, a long line of old soldiers, OF
various hues and nationalities, but comrades
all in desire, in soul and in reminiscence, be-
gan to form. One end of the line was at the
door of the Pension Agency on Fourth and
+ streets. but in the dim and uncertain early
luminosity ii was difficult to estimate the ex-
tent of the file without walking along its
entire length. On careful inspection the
thread Of expectant pensioners was found TO
eAlcuu around INC CORNER OF the agency
office, and in compact formation TO a point
beyond Fourth and streets, where it broke
of into groups of six or more manned, lame,
half blind and whole.
The array was eloquent with armless
sleeves, legless trousers, crutches, and other
evidences of individual sacrifices for the ma
tons veal. Now and again a subdued,
CHEEKY voice would be heard in such greet
ings as "Hello, comrader' or "Ah there,
chummy!n and ancient friendships would be
renewed and revived to the accomplishments
OF hearty handshakes and kindly smiles.
ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE THERE.
The attire and general appearance of the
pensioners was as varied as their physi-
ognomies. There were well-to-do looking
men in broadcloth and silk hats, and shabby
wights in torn, shoddy and tattered fustian;
college graduates and department clerks
with spotless shirts and faultless neckties,
and unlettered laborers with heelless shoes
and no neckties at all; prosperous store-keep-
ers with gold watches and OF aldermanic
physical proportions, and pale, thin. con-
sumptiye totterers whose hectic countenances
unerringly foretold the near cessation of
their piGrimages to the pension agency. On
the opposite sides of the streets on which the
applicants for the national bounty were
ranged surged an equally motley multitude
Of that element which is always eager TO
pounce upon and fleece the poor quondam
warriors so soon as the latter should have re-
ceived from the busy clerks the financial
recognition of grateful country.
A striking feature of the mornings pro-
ceedings was the constant arrival and de-
parture OF parties OF widows and orphans, to
whom were handed Treasury checks for pen
sions due in respect of deceased husbands
and fathers. Most of these ladies were neatly
and becomingly dressed. and their sedate
manner was in marked contrast with the
rollickiag and CHEEKY, though quiet humor of
the general crowd, with which they did not
mix or communicate. Other women there
were anxious-eyed. and in some cases fearful
wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and sweet
hearts, mounting guard over the dear rela-
tive or lover, and ever ready to lead him
away with kindly word and embrace from the
scene of temptation, or at any rate to make
sure by accompanying him in his search for
quenchment of the matutinal thirst, that such
quenchment should not proceed to an un-
manly or humiliatlng extremity.
In this connection il is right 10 note that
there are at least three kinds of resort to
which the pensiOner, after receiving his PEN
sion, repairs in order TO cash his check in the
very common event OF his not possessing suf-
ficient patience TO wait until the doors of the
Treasury open at 10 a. m. eThse are the
second hand clothing stores-whose proprie-
tors send their agents TO wheedle him into
purchasing very inferior habiliments at very
superior prices. the low rum shops. at which he
is not only heavily multched in the price OF
his drinks, but is also charged from five to
fifty cents for the privilege Of getting green
backs in exchange for his check, and a bet
ter class of taverns and restaurants. at which
he will be cheerfully accommodated, so far
as the cashing is concerned, without being
pressed to indulge his drinking propensities
any further than may be absolutely within
his own yolition.
MONEY QUICKLY COME, QUICKLY GONE.
But, whatever may be the prospective
merits of these aids to the spending of his
money, the fact remains that the poor pen
sioner is frequently as hard up within twenty
four hours of receiving his check at the
agency as he was when he took his place in the
long line of expectants. Such remarks as the
following were painfully numerous yesterday
morning: Last time Sam drew his money
he had nothing left by midnight" "AIl
the rent, will be So and if his wife gets that
she'll be lucky" Pm a pensioner myself,
and know how these things are. There's
Mike Hanlon he owes me SIT for board, but
l can't find him, and I'll never get q cent Of
my money if he gets among these harpies
round here"
very conservative estimate seemed to be
ers would have little or nothing left by Thurs
day of what they drew from the governme Mt
yesterday morning. So, to take an optimistic
view of the matter, let us be thankful for the
other two-f1fths. Conspicuous among this
minority were an old fellow who was
wounded in the arm at Antietam, and who.
responding to the Establishments of a sartorial
gentleman, said: "No got stuck like sheol
at store where they pretended to sell clothes
cheap. and I'm through with you u---;''
| and another, of Pennisular renown. who. in
reply TO the observation, accompanied by a
slap on the back, that Tom was waiting to
| invite him to take drink, retorted, ''You tell
| Tom to go to thunder: l had more than
enough of him and his drink the last time l
saw him here" That's right" calculated a
grizzled old son of Ham, "ok, how often have
1 seen de downward co'se; pensions women;
drink O. Whiskey; treat; robbed; al goner'
| And so the thin, irregular. motley line OF
black and white, of blind. halt. and lame,
moved slowly on until some 1900 or 1000
heroes OF the tented field, who had fought
valiantly for the great republic, had received
| their quarterly need OF Uncle Sans money.
He Pursued Assassin Booth.
|