The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-19
ODD WAYS OF PENSIONERS.
Peculiar Ways of Disposing of Pension
 Money.

Peculiar Ways of Disposng of Pension
 Money.
 "They are generally known as pension
 princess said a veteran United States pension examiner in speaking of the men who get rid of their pension money in a few days after receiving it. 'The other day I learned of an old soldier who is now member of the bottle gang; that is to say, he loafs with lot of fellows whose sole ambition is to have money enough to buy pint of liquor. This fellow has strange way of getting rid of his pension money. He is tattered and torn and unkempt When he draws his money the first thing he does Is to call cheap cab, hire it by the hour and then drive about the city alone. He stops at various saloons, spending lit tie here and there. and keeps on until every dollar of his pension allowance has been spent over the bar. He en- joys this swell method of getting around and if his allowance was thousand dol lars a quarter he'd spend it in the same way. He says he is satisfied just to have days taste of what other swells have for whole season.
 "Then there is a sailor of my acquant- ance not far from New York who works steadily at his trade until he draws his pension, and then he ceases work and takes a railroad trip to some point to which he has never been before In this way he has visited every point of inter- est within five hundred miles of his 1,o fn1y tri, IT., tells his friends he'd be travelling all the time if he could, and he always goes in the most expensive manner possible, stopping at the best hotel and using par Tor cars and staterooIn in the sleeper whenever he can. When necessary he adds some of his savings to his pension allowance for the trip he has mapped put I know of another pensioner who spends half his nights in charity beds He picks out the sWellest bar-room that will tolerate his presence and spends every dollar there, all on one kind of lrink He is vermouth fiend, and when his pension money is all gone he'll all back on the cheapest alcohol he can, ouy at a hardware store, dilute it with water, and shift along with that until lis next pension check arrives. When le is spending his money he'll invariably rink to the health of Phil Sheridan, be- 'ause the generals picture was on his pension check. I know one poor fellow vho has better judgment. He cashes lis pension check, and then goes to a ive-cent eatng-house and pays over fifteen dollars cash in advance to assure
 imself of food for as many weeks. The emainder of his pension money he'll 'low in treating all the children on the Jock to candy. There are three old vet rans who are about as selfish as any nen I know. They have resolved never 0 spend a dollar of their pension money II any one else. They pay their own
 ills, sit together in the theater, drink ood wines, smoke good cigars, eat the est meals they can agree Cl1, and in hat way they keep it up until every ent is gone. Then they'll separate, go bout their business, and never see each ther until the next pension payment, 5hen they'll come together again for mother jolly but selfish time. They ought in the same battery, all are wid- wers with something laid by to keep lelIl, anu Have dSIEGu IOSelHeT to spend -ncle Sam's money in the way they do. | ,ach makes out a programme, and hen they meet they compare notes and dopt the best I know a colored man | ho spends every dollar of pension mon- | y he draws on clothes. He was a cap | ,in's cook and was wounded at Chan allorsville. He's a cook yet, and earns | lir wages in restaurant of a coffee l lace, but he makes it rule to buy othing but clothes with his pension leck. He has a great layout of neck es, collars and cuffs. He has a weak ess for them, and his pink silk shirts
 colored cake walks are quite familiar. { am told.
 Another man draws his pension mon- 7, gets a bundle of new underwear, leap clothes, shoes, necktie and hat, Id starts for the nearest barber's for a lir cut and shave. Then he'll go to le of the cheap Turkish bathhouses