The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-22
Which Was Fooled

Upon hat list of pensioners of the
United States that should be a roll of
honor" there is the name Of a prominent
member of the house of representatives
from the state of Ohio. In the list of
clients Of two insurance companies, car
ried by each as a good risk for 80, o60,
this same pensioned veteran is found,
and the insurance companies consider
him a very good subject TO do business
with. Which was fooled?
General Charles H. Grosvenor served
in the United States army from 1861 TO
1865. 1t appears that he served we'll, but
he did not meet with any misfortune IN
till October of 1885, when in a railroad ac-
cident he was thrown about a bit and
was able, when he had reflected upon
the matter some fifteen years. to dis
cover that he had a stiff shoulder or ell
bow, attributed to this shaking up re-
ceived while in the line of duty Pen
sion examiners may have been less ex-
acting then than they are now or the
applicant may have brought superior in
fuence to bear upon the pension office,
for he obtained a decision that gave him
accrued pension money: amounting to
1886, being at the. rate of $3.50 per month
from October 10, 1866, 10 July l, 1880.
General Grosvenor may have had an
anchylosed elbow in 1880, but his con-
science had not yet become anchylosed,
for it responded to a remonstrance by
public opinion, and on March p. 1884. the
$3.50 was put back into the United States
treasury. But the general went on re-
ceiving the 1929 per month until June Z,
1882, when he managed to have his rating
increased to $50 per month. Up to June Z,
1897. he had been paid by the government
1923, which he had not returned to the
treasury.
We assume that this pension was given
to General Grosvenor because of the eX-
tent of the damage inflicted upon him
during his service under the government.
We cannot clearly see why, if he was en-
titled to receive anything, he should have
returned that 1885. but it is interesting
to know that he did. 1t may not be at all
to the point to suggest that his circum-
stances have never been such as to JUS
tify him in making himself a public
charge, a burden upon his fellows in the
name of patriotism. He is a lusty, active
and some times splenetic old gentleman,
has been in congress some half dozen
terms, and manages to keep his end up"
very comfortably.
Some years after the pension office de-
cided that General Grosvenor was so in
jured by accident incurred in the line of
duty" as to become entitled to be paid
first $3.50 and then $50 monthly from the
treasury he applied to an insurance COM
pany to be insured for $40, 900. The usual
Inquiries were made to ascertain the
physical condition of the applicant, and
p~ensionable disability, his application
should be granted. Within a few years
he made a similar application to another
insurance company, and was by that
company insured TOT dl dIlOuIil tqudl "
that for which he was first accepted.
Which was fooled? Was it the pension
office, with it's expert examiners, accus-
toned to the detection Of merely asserted
disabilities, or was it the insurance COM
panies, dealing not with greedy patriots
hungering to have their love of country
paid for at so much the month, but with
business men who are to be permitted to
make an investment only after they nave
been proved to be in reasonably sound
physical condition?-New York Times.