The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-10-20
A PLEA FOR THE NATIONS SYMPATHY

NO people III the world are so qulcF
and generous in response to any call o
distress as the American. Whether i
be starvation in Ireland, famine in Rus
sia, devastating floods in China, yellow
fever in the Mississippi Valley, drouth
in Nebraska or Kansas, any picture OF
unusual suffering instantly touches the
heart and loosens the purse-strings Of
every nan and woman in the land
But there is an unnoted misery right at
| the doors of every community which far
surpasses in volume and acuteness that
Of those great catastrophes.
There are in every community-in
every town and settlement-men prema-
| turely aged because, a third of cen
fury ago, they bankrupted their youth
full store of manly vitality to serve the
country. When they volunteered in the
Nations defense they freely offered in
the fullest possible sense all that they
had. They not only counted their lives
as nothing when danger was to be con
fronted, but they were equally lavish Of
their health and strength when hard
ships were to be endured. No sun was
hot enough to deter them from a forced
march toward tie battlefield; no swamp
was too malalious to keep them from
making it their camp and bivouac if
duty called; no wintry storm was severe
enough 10 drive them from the picket
line 1t was not every day that. they
dared the perils of the battle or Skin
mish, bat there was scarcely a day in
which they did not confront almost
equal dangers to life and health in the
rigors Of the season; in a climate so
malarious that in peaceful times white
men fled from if; in the wearing hard
ships of arduous field service; in the
awful strains of exciting campaigns
which were pushed to the breaking
point of human endurance.
They were so full of zeal to serve
their country and overthrow her enemies
that they had no thought of conSe-
quences to themselves. They endured.
marched and fought in way that. can
be only described as superhuman. 1t
was surerhuman because itafar surpassed
anything expected Of men nowadays.
The sad result was that it left these
men without that reserve of vitality
which sound men usually store up in
youth for the exigencies of middle life
and the demands of old age The
wonder is now that any of them sur.
vived the ordeal to which they were
subjected. That they did survive it,
and for years after maintained show
of health and activity lisa demonstra-
lion Of the marvellous Stamina and
energy of character of the men COM
posing the Union Army.
But Nature is memorable. Old Age
is relentless. The years came swiftly
On when every one of the thousand
bodily and mental strains of 1S61-5
found expression in shattered nerves,
diseased organs, atrophied muscles No
willpower, no energy of character can
avail when the ebb Of life's tide begins
to reveal the wrecks of youths powers.
The veterans were forced from the
!
arena of activity at time when othe r
men are in full possession Of their
powers. This is so notorious a fact
that number of able life actuaries
have endeavored to fix measure of the
physical detriment that veteran in-
CURED by his service for the Union.
The lowest of these estimates has been
that it increased mans age five years,
and the highest II years. Even the
lowest of these is a startling exhibit of
the gravity of the detriment. Still
more startling is the quick collapse of
the veterans powers when the collapse
comes.
The crisis of 1893 was measureless
calamity to these men. An incalculable
number had struggled along, meeting
waning powers with still more logged
determination, in order to provide them
selves with a competence for their old
age. The crisis came and swept away