The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-28

'fOssum ana "NOon.
From the New York Tribune.
Washington. Nov. Especial THE
files of the law division Of the pension
office contain thousand Of cases, in some
of which the papers number over a hum
bred, where persons by assumed relation
ship with some dead soldier have tried
TO gain pensions for fictitious widows
Owing to the long delay necessary in fer
reting out the details of the cases. it
seems to be generally believed by persons
waiting for the adjudication of claims
that the pension Offices methods of in
vestigating are slow and attended by an
unusual amount Of red tape" If some
of these dissatisfied claimants were to he
allowed the privilege of looking into the
files of the special examination and law
divisions of the pension office, they would
in most cases see such an immense
amount Of detail in the work and so many
attempts by pension sharps TO claim in
a fraudulent manner what is not their
just due that they would be satisfied
their cases were investigated and passed
through the different divisions of the Of
flee with the greatest of diligence and ex-
petition After the special examination
of a case has been made by the examiners
in the field and in the office. the cases
are taken cOgnizance of by the law divis
ion, the duty OF which is to look upon the
legal side of all cases with a view to as
pertaining their justice in legal sense,
If they have passed the other divisions;
and, If not. in Just what manner they
have trauSgressed the laws of the United
States, ana where, if advisable, they may
be prosecuted. 1t is in this law division
/ that the most interesting and curious
cases of attempts TO defraud the govern
ment are found.
According to the officials of this divis-
ion, the strangest and most mystifyng
! case among the records of the depart
| ment is the Newly case" where the
| question OF identity for several years per-
| picked both the special examiner IN the
/ field and the investigators in the home
/ Office. In its various phases, its wonder
| full condolences and its dramatic situa-
lions, this case rivals the famous Itch
born case of England: In 1864 Ferraby
Newly, the widow Of William Newpy.
a soldier who was killed in the battle
of Shiloh. applied for a pension, which
was granted. This pension she enjoyed
until the year 1890 when there was filed
in the pension bureau what purported to
be the declara tion of the identical VIII
lam Newly. on investigation by special
examiners of the office, it appears that
in 1883 tramp, VINO was Tor the time
being an inmate of the poor house in Hi
nois, had met the brother Of the soldier.
William Newly, at the poor farm and
had talked with him of his experiences
in the war, but had not claimed at that
time that he himself was the supposed
dead soldier. In 1890 however, TINS same
man turner up again as a tramp IN the
neighborhood in which the dead soldier
| had lived prior to his enlistment and rep
resented himself as the deceased soldier.
This tramp, who went by the name of
''Rickety DAN asserted that he had been
shot in the head at the battle of Shiloh,
and had been left for dead on the field
of battle, whence he was carried by con-
federate surgeon. He said from that date
until the present, when he had accident
ally tramped into the neighbOrhood in
nrhf nb he wa horn a
There We're three brothers, two sisters,
| the mother, as well as the wife and all
| five of the party who buried the supposed
dead Newly on the field of Shiloh; and so
| remarkable was the story of "Rickety
| Dam that most of the family became pos
| sessed of the idea that the unfortunate
tramp was their deceased relative. The
wife believed beyond question that the
man was her long-lost husband, and the
old mother was actually unable TO state
positively whether he was her son or not.
The burial party was also divided in its
opinion, three of the number testifying
that "Rickety Dan" was the soldier they
had buried on the field of Shiloh, and stat
ing that they must have made mistake
and buried some soldier who looked like
Newly The other two members of the
burial party were confident in their belief
that the man was an imposter. There were
in the Identification of this man, several
of the most wonderful condolences in per-
sonal marks on the body that have ever
been found in pension records. William
Newly, the soldier, had a scar on the keft
TEMPLE ",
the same mark. A birthmark known TO be
on the stomach of Newly the soldier was
found on that of "Rickety Dan" There
was a scar on the foot of the tramp at the
same place the dead soldier had one caus-
ed years before by slip OF
the axe when chopping wood. But
the soldier had been de-
cided blonde, while the tramp appeared to
have been dark; his hair, however, was so
gray that the relatives could not tell, and
on This point would not be certain.
nr1f q gnppial M
ination division of the pension office that
a man answering TO the description of
the newborn Newly had been IN the
penitentiary at Nashville, Tenn, for
DEMONSTRATING. Accordingly, 'Rickety
Dan" was taken TO Nashville by a spec
ial examiner of the office, where he was
positively identified by the people at the
penitentiary as the horsethief and the
son of a woman who had lived some dis
lance from the city. Ihe special exams
liner then took the claimant TO the neigh
borhOod from which the tramp mad come.
They We're waiting in blacksmth's shop
by the side of the road when an old wo-
man came along, stopped at the shop,
looked in, and, seeing the claimant, said:
Hello, DanY' 1t was a most dramatic
situation. but the tramp never turned
WHO are your" said he. Il don't know
you. I'm not Dan"
You amt DAMP she said, as she
Well l just reckon you are. Look-a
therer And she walked up to the man
ana pushed ms tangled mar DacK from
his forehead, disclosing the scar on the
left temple, while the agent of the bu-
reau looked on, absolutely nonplussed at
the coincidence. 1t appears that the scar
on the tramp's forehead had been made
in the identical blacksmiths shop years
before by a blow from wagon-bow.
The old woman swore that the man Dan
had at that time a wife and son in the
county poorhouse. The tramp was taken
to the county poorhouse. and there were
found the wife and son, who suffered from
( the Tickets like his father, and who
was 'Rickety DAMS living image,
The work of the government for the
prosecution of the case against this man
was most elaborate. The greatest of pains
were taken in preparing the evidence, and
sixty-five witnesses were called. Rick
ETY. Dan" had 200 witnesses, and the cor
roborative evidence on both sides was so
strong that the case hung in the balance
until the last moment. So strong was
"Rickety Dams" defense that the officials
of the government, until their last move
almost despaired of success in the prose-
cution of one of the most daring cases
of pension swindling ever brought TO
light. The last evidence in rebuttal had
been submitted and the government
brought forward it's final coup. The door
of the court room was thrown open and
the wife and son of "Rickety Dan" came