The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-03-30
HARD LUCK STORIES.
Told by Men Who Have Claims
Against the Government.
Hundreds Invade Washington Ever,
Season, Hut Few Go Away with
Money In Their Inside
Pockets.
Especial Washington Letter.l

| m IA1MAAlS 4or justice before
lkS congress usually have hard
~ row to hoe. The congress bends
its best energies upon national affairs,
SO that individuals have hard time in
their endeavors TO attract attention to
themselves and their claims. 1t is the
same old story, year after year.
Some of the claimants. in fact ma
jority of them, deserve the legislation
which they yainly seek through the
passing years. But there are many who
come here as freaks seeking to tap the
treasury till with very slender founda-
tion for their pretenses of a claim upon
the blindfolded goddess.
The man who was arrested because
he looked as much like John II. Surratt
as a twin brother, and who appealed
to congress for 100000 damages, after
five years of patient waiting, gave up
his fight.
The story is a strange one. In June,
1865, John George Ryan, then living in
Memphis, Tenn. but now residing in
Chicago, was arrested by provost mar
shal and conveyed as prisoner TO the
old Capitol prison in this city under
strong guard and with hands and feet
heavily chained Then he was taken
to a prison in vicksburg, where
.'heayy balls and chains were cold
welded on his legs and he was stapled
down to the floor of solitary cell"
lie had no idea why he was arrested,
although while coming through Harris
burg. on his way to Washington, his
guard showed him paper in which the
arrest of Surratt was announced with
great headlines. One of the experiences
of the eventful journey was thus
graphically and even spasmodically
described in Mr.. Ryan's petition:
At Baltimore a very large crowd had
gathered at the depot, and many members
| of IL used very vulgar language to your pc
| titioner.
And cursed,
And threatened him savagely, and no
| doubt would have
| Fatally assaulted him II II were not for
| the presence of his escort and the friendly
| action of some of the bystanders.
| The situation being serious,
| And feeling that his life would be at
| tempted, your petitioner shouted
| That he was not the person that the pa
| pers said he was.
But was John G. Ryan, confederate
| soldier on parole.
In style, which is thus combi-
nation of Victor Hugo and Walt Whit
man, Mr.. Ryan relates the incidents oi
his arrest and imprisonment, even to
his desperate encounter with rat in
the midnight watches of his solitary
confinement 1t was not until 1885 that
he learned, through an official letter
from Secretary Endicott, that he had
| been arrested because he was believed
to have been John II. Surratt. Three
years later, through Senator Farwell,
he presented his petition for damages,
with the almost pathetic assertion that
| he would have done so sooner but for
his belief that congress would prompt
ly do him justice whenever he brought
the facts to public attention.
| That man was an atom in the ocean
of claimants. No one gave him SYM
| pathy, and few gave him attention.
| He is merely mentioned as sample of a
class. The writer, like all others who
have become accustomed to these cases,
does not even give Ryan's memory a
moment Of pathos or regret. Thus, you
see, the people here become unconscious
| ly hardened on these subjects. Any
senator would willingly give any claim
ant a fiye-dollar bill rather than give
| the time to listen to his tale of woe.
Any ordinary newspaper man would
cheerfully give quarter to tramp
rather than listen to the story OF q