The National tribune., 1899-04-20
TWELVE TO EIGHT.
Humorous Letter from q Veteran Whose
Pension Was Red

| |
Humorous Letter from q Veteran Whose
| Pension Was Reduced.
Editor National Tribune: think some
| little time has elapsed since l sent an
item to your valuable paper. | believe it
must have been during the time of Mr..
Cleveland's late Administration.
| At that time l was suffering from lum-
bago and many other ailments, and for
relief left the cold, bleaky North for the
warm, pestiferous South. duly landed in
| southern Georgia, and began to improve
nicely. / was som able 10 pull on my
boots without calling the cook from the
| kitchen, which, down there, is always
away out in the back yard. My appetite
| improved, my weight increased, my mus
cleS developed, and my daily diet of corn
meal and bacon sharpened my intellec
tual faculties, and for hours could stand
under a magnolia and watch the buzzards
and look into space hopefully, confidently
But one February morning, when the
buzzards were sailing in the Southern
sunlight, and we were all at peace, ana
| was leaning over a whitewashed picket
fence, endeavOring to smell some beauu
full narcissus and other blooms that were
growing in garden, letter was handed
me from the Pension Bureau, and, on
opening it, found my pension reduced
from S12 to So.
After reading the letter concluded to
write no more articles Tor The Natlonai
Tribune until l felt better. l believed
that Mr.. Cleveland had made mistake
had fired off my gun many times on the
battlefield of Gettysburg, and supported
the President then in power, and had
made in that battle all the noise could,
hoping that the rebels would run away;
But they did not run. So there stayed
for three days fighting them, having on
my back during that series OF daily
bloody conflicts one of the dirtiest SHIRTS
ever seen in the Twelfth Corps. 1t had
not been washed since we LETT Dunn
fries. had no time to wash 1t. 1t seem
ed that every time on the march when
got it into a creek and fairly under water,
the Captain would cry out. Fall in! Fall
inl' and ! would put it on again and
move at my country's call.
The wet fibers of that shirt seemed to
gather in all the dust our brigade raised
between DumfrieS and Gettysburg.
After reading over my IL to letter sew
eral times, postmark and all, for furtheI
information, | recalled the memories OF
that shirt. Then l began to look on the
bright side OF things, the way ! did while
in the army. | whistled through the
fence, where the butterflies were jumping
up and down among the flowers. ielt
thankful. | rejoiced that Cleveland was
President; if Bryan had been President 1t
would not have been IL to Sit would
have been 16 to I.
began to fathom Mr. Cleveland's policy,
and readily placed his pension reduc-
tions on the ground that they would have
a tendency to relieve his Admins tratlon
from borrowing money from England
which it was doing-to run the Govern
ment.
believed the President knew nothing
about army shirts. l believed that if Mr.. |
Cleveland had been fully acquainted with
the wardrobe of the boys at Gettysburg |
on Independence Day, 1868, and washed
and ironcd on his excursions the way the |
hn, ,.I nd r
sion of theirs, his Administration in later |
years would not only had been willing |
to borrow more capital from England to
run the Government than usual, but with
patriotic fervency would have borrowed |
from Spain, Portugal, and the Sandwich |
Islands all the money possible, in order
to have given the boys an increase.
Cleveland was always right; l differed /
with him only in National things. When
he borrowed, he borrowed in the markets
of the world. He knew that my diseases
had been contracted over 80 years ago,
and that / had a long enough time to
become we'll. lie was right. I am In
better health today than when l came
out of AndersOnvilie in 1865. The PreSl-
dent knew that all of the Andersonville
microbes ought to have been killed in 80
years. My teeth dropped out from the
effects of the scurvy, but have beautl-
full false set that makes me proud, ana
frequently laugh to show them.. My
health is better now than when the war
closed. eat more than did in Ander-
sonville / have successfully patched up
my physical system for the future, and
viii be ready to ask Mr.. Cleveland for a |
mission to the Visayas Group just as
soon as he is elected President for the
third term. have held no National Office
with a big salary attachment since the
close of the war, but now, under the late
Presidents rulings, l want one. There
is no longer any excuse. am candl-
date The AndersOnville microbes are all
dead, and my teeth are in order for all
kinds OF tropical luxuIies, ana l nave the
two Jeffersonian qualifications for an office.
One minute before Gen. Hood struck,
without warning, the Red Star Division
at Peach Tree Creek there were side
tracked on the ridge in front some ambu-
lances and baggage wagons, and Gen.
Geary, riding like a Sheridan, swearing
like "a Mcpherson, and yelling Just like
himself among the teamsters:
"Haul down your wagons into the val
lev! Haul them down; haul them down"
In an instant they we're hauled down to
the rear, and before that minute expired
his brigade had formed on the ridge in
front, and when Hood struck it the Con-
federateS met with such resistance that
they rolled off to our right. where other
divisions awaited them.
The Gen. Knipe incident at Peach Tree
Creek impressed me very much, for l was
nearly knocked down at the time by the
mules, and nearly killed by the wagons,
and in describing the scene some months
ago to ii member of the 5th Conn, his
answers clothed the incident which l
have related with language similar to nv
his horse as calm as the rock Of Chicka-
mauga, for he had nothing to do-knipe