Sunday morning globe., 1901-10-27
Commissloncr II. clay Evan-.

Commissioner III. Clay Evans
The individual who draws salary as Com.
missioner of Pensions may congratulate
himself upon being the most despicablc as
well as the most dcspised official in the
the administration And when one calls to
mind Root with his treatment of Miles
Ager with his scandals and Long with his
persecution Of Schley, the full significance
of this language may be appreciated
The old soldiers, without exception, an
over the country join in execraHug him.
TO them he IS the embodiment Of all that is
contemplate. He IS a hundred days"
man. lie is a holder Of "a soft thing.
He expended his patriotism in the quarter
masters employ as a clerk. and instead Of a
musket-eveu in that bloodless picnic--he
walloped a pen; instead of spiliug his blood
he spilled ink He never missed a square
meal, never pulled trigger nor did an
hours duty All he knows of military duty
he has learned while obstrucdug pension
cases.
We, who are at his mercy, believe that
politics have placed him on the wrong side;
that he should have been quartermastcr's
clerk for JOS j.. Johnston, John Hood or
Buxtou Bragg, instead ofthe Union side
As Commissioner his conception of duty
consists in placing all possible obstacles in
the way of the old soldier who is so uufor-
tunatc as TO- be compelled iu his old age TO
ask for the ptauce which the government
was lavish in promising whcn Il needed de-
Tenders, but which it sneakingly wilhholds
since the crippled old fellows who saved it
have grown grey and helpless.
The boys have come to feel that a govern.
ment whichwiu shelter itself behind the
kuavery of such lckspittle as Evans, in
order to avoid It's just obligations, is scarce
ly worth the blood and treasure wasted in
its defense. Norris 1t much wonder that the
sons of those who followed the flag iu '6I
have been slow to enlist in this Philippine
warwhile the memory of their fathers exc
perieuce lived fresh in their miuds2
Evans statement Of the Dr. Oatmau case
is condemnation enough for any man His
letter of explanation Of the governments
side of the case is am official lie, and Evans
knows IT, He kH0us Oatman was entitled
TO a generous pension, and that when his
satellites took the case into the field they
were instructed to ball IT,
If II. Clay Evans, the political skuldug.
ger, who parts his name in the middle, en-
joys his contemplate role as sneak and
suborner of perjury, we wish him well of it.
Let him enjoy, for his brief day, the power
which he abuses the salary which is satau's
pay for perjury; but let him remember that
he will be contemned while he lives and
execrated when he dies Let him not for
get that such infamy as he courts can
neither be forgiven in life nor hidden in
the grave. It is something to be loved
living and blessed when death has dropped
the veil on all but the memory of the de-
parted, but it is uuspeakably horrible, and
infamous to be cursed this sideo the grave
and reviled beyond it, Such is the future
of H. Clay Evans.
Placed by the late President In the posi-
ton where ne could dispense justice to the
old men, who in their best days had given
their very best services to their country,
and vino in their last years had become, III
whole or IN part helpless, ho has used all
the machinery of his bureau TO hinder the
poor decrepit devils from getting the help
they need.
One can imagine the leer with which he
gloats over some dying Union soldiers de.
feat and see him rub his claws in deudsh
glee over his own victory, as some Oatman
here or there sinks into eternal silence un-
aided and miserable
One wonders 10 H. Clay Evans hundred
dred days man, quarternastcr's clerk Pen.
sion Commissioner, was on the side of his
sympathics during his arduous services,
and if he doesn't draw a sI2 pension
One thing is beyond a doubt in the old
veterans mind II Clay Evans is the sol
dicr's enemy He is a sneak, or, if a slight
change in the spelling of that epithet be
preferable, a snake