The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-10
A. L. GREENE on PENSIONS.

Coue-sssn.en HIue'4 Private Secretary
Sp-stks Of Things he Tlnow=.
From the State Journals Special Correspondent
Congressman Blue has been notified
that q pension of So month has been
granted 20 Maj A P. Shreve of Topeka.
The date from which the pension was
allowed is Dsc. 8. 1894
Mr. Blue will at an early date intro
duce in the house a bill to pension the
widow of Col. G. A. Coulton of Paola. He
was colonel in the Kansas Militia during
the Price raid, and though ne only served
thirty days. rendered valuable services.
Under the law, neither he nor his widow
were entitled to a pension, but his ser
vices as soldier deserved it. and his WI
dow is in need. Ben Simpson and other
prominent residents of Miami county
Oined in the request for her relief
A. L Greene, Mr.. Blues secretary,
says 30 per cent of the letters which be
has to attend to in Col. Blues correspond
ence are in relation to pensions, and
many of them are most distressing. OF
course he said sume of the letters are
plainly prom pted by gall, but most of
them tell in Enthusiastically sincere terms
of extremely pitiful conditions. One
woman. the widow of a soldier, had been
bedridden for 90 years, and her pension
case IS still hung up in the pension de-
partment
Turning to another subject, but leading
back to the old soldiers, Mr. Greene said:
zone thing that strikes me, and especial
ly in this place, is the truth of the bible
expression that "a prophet is not without
honor save in his own country and among
his own kin And SO in living among
scenes of the greatest historical interest
people pay little or no attention to them
and hardly a t1rar fbat bov vi,
have met prominent residents of this city
who have never been to Mt Vernon; in
telligent and well informed persons who
do not know where Ft Washington IS
who have never been to Fortress Monroe
who are utterly ignorant of the situation
OF the fort which inspired Francis S
Kew to write the "Star Spaugled Ban
ner," and who could not tell the street by
which the British entered the city when
they burned the capitol. And these peo-
pie are not ignorant but intelligent and
refined. No man is q hero to his valet
So when we meet great men every dav
aud jostle against them, observe their
failings and weaknesses, they become
common to u.s. Places where world
events have taken place become ordinary
and uninteresting by proximity.
1T is the same with the old soldier
There are too many of them now for
much attention TO be paid them But am
looking forward to the time, fifty
years or so from now when they will be
almost all gone. Take a member of the
First Minnesota regiment which went
into the bloody angle" at Gettysburg,
where "a per cent were killed A sur
vivor of that fiery hell will in the future
be feted. and honored, and praised as a
survivor of " ater. 90 is now.
The charge of the Light BRIGADE
wasn't circumstance to what that reei-
ment went through. OF the Light Bri-
gade only 81 per ceut were killed
whereas when reinforcements came to
the First Minnesota only 16 per cent
we're standing up"
The pitifuI letters which Mr.. Greene
mas to read could not but bring all these
scenes forcibly upon him. and he smoke
feelingly and at times eloquently of the
services which these old soldiers rem
dered during the war