Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-05
IT WAS PENSION DAY.
Many Veterans Victims to Sharks and
Their FailinEs.

Yesterday was pension day. and the
pension sharks" We're out In full force,
with the usual result-drunken gatherings
and robberies. Almost before daybreak
there assembled about the pension agency
a crowd of men. some of them pensioners
and others who had no business there
other than for the purpose Of getting
what they could from some of those who
spend all their pension money IN riotous
living. The saloons in the neighborhood
of the agency were open for business early
in the morning, and the sign Checks
Cashed Here" was the drawing card. Then,
too, some of the saloon keepers had on
their counters a free lunch calculated to
cause a second appearance for drink.
All day long groups of men stood about the
streets. some sober and some drunk and
when time for closing the office arrived
there were still many of them unpaid.
But these men found no trouble in getting
all the liquor they wanted, and to some
of them, 1t Is said, money was advanced,
SO that when they get their checks they
will simply have to turn them over to the
persons who advanced them money and
liquor. The police work Is always greatly
was no exception to this rule, for last night
some of the police stations were over
crowded with prisoners and at the sixth
precinct it was found necessary to put
several men in each cell. A number of
them We're found lying in the streets,
speeches. from an overdose of rum, while
others who wandered all the way down to
South Washington and called on the fe-
male residents of alleys, not only lost or
spent their money, but were thrown out
to get along the best way they could.
Several of the women were also arrested,
and this morning when the BLACK Maria"
had finished it's work the horses were glad
enough to get a rest, for 1t was necessary
to make several trips in order to transport
all the victims. There were seventy-two
in all, and ten Of them were women.
Besides these pension victims there were
in the crowd number of tramps, and
Judge Kimballs procession, which was
was the longest one that has appeared
since the Christmas holidays There was
one man in the party who had not recoy-
cred from the effects of his spree and his
coat looked as II he had slept against a
whitewashed fence.
One after another the prisoners walked
to the rail and plead to the various offenses
charged against Them from standing on
the sidewalk to vagrancy and suspicion,
Many of them plead guilty and went back,
while others were ready to deny the
charges and make an effort to get out in
order that they might again go with the
old pensioners to the drinking places, This
morning about l o'clock Lieutenant Bowie
was disturbed by party of drunken men
who stopped in front of his house. There
was one penSioner and three companions
and they remained there SO long that the
heuteran got out of bed and had the quar-
tet arrested. The court fined the men s.
each. Case after case was a repetition of
the pension story. and very few of the
victims managed to escape punishment. In
the cases of the tramps some of them were
sent down to work on the farm while
others were released to leave the city,