River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-11-06
APPEALS FOR PENSIONS.
All Serts OF Claims Presented at the
Government Office for Relief
and Aid.

nee FURNISH neVer-IalllnS supply
The variety of forms it takes is un-
limited. In some of the letters re-
ceived it rises to almost sublime
heights, while in others it is lowly
audacious. Almost all of the COM
munications are unique in one way or
another, says a Washington CORE
spondent of the Chicago Inter
Ocean.
In one you will find touch of sad
ness; in another quaint humor. One
of the officials connecred with the
bureau said recently:
THE NAV of the public is ever
open. You cannot satisfy it. 1t
wants anything and everything that
is not nailed down. The fight for
pensions is amending. Unquestion-
ably the vast majority of the people
with whom we deal are worthy of
all the government can do for them,
but we meet, also, so many cases
that are absolutely without merit
that we become hardened. Life is
certainly great game, and the pen
sion Office is a good place from which
to view it."
Some of the letters received at the
pension Office are intended to be
pathetic, but they are written in
such way that they call forth
laughter instead of tears.
A widow whose husbands claim
had been rejected, the war depart
ment showing that his disability ex-
listed long before enlistment, wrote
recently:
''My husband was terribel bloated
in his stomach. It did not look like
himself. He could not stoop over
and straighten up without helping
himself. To ham, beans, pork,
mashed potatoes, eggs, veal, cab
bage his stumac wars repulsive. His
rheumatism was the kind called lum-
bago-at furst. His dropsy was ter
ribel; when he died his legs burst
from pressure. He was swelled up
as big as barrel all over. I ask
that he be taken up and reopened
P. S. When my. husband came back
from the war, I supported him on my
needle till he died"
The claimants sometimes al1ege
peculiar causes for their disabilities.
The 1OO-day soldier of the war of the
rebellion, who alleges many diseases
as the result of his being obliged to
sleep one night in brick house that
had not been properly ventilated, is
equaled by the Spanish war soldier
who contracted rheumatism, heart
disease, and many other disabilities
at Fort Monroe, Va, in August, 1898,
by sleeping one night on the sand
without any floor to his tent. One
J. w. alleges that at City Point, Va,
in April, 1865: eve were confined in
stockade, where there was hardly
room for the thousands of men
crowded in there. Tt rained most of
the time, the mud and water was
from eight to twenty inches deep
and we were obliged to lie in the
mud at night. saw them with
their bodies nearly enveloped in mud
and sound asleep, with the rain
pouring down in their faces. For
two nights I bound myself to an
eight-inch beam, IA or Is feet from
the ground"
In all cases where witnesses to in
currence sign an affidavit written by
some one else, they are called on to
state what they actually know of
the case, and some are, indeed will
ing witnesses. One III. F. applied for
pension, based on a chronic all
ment. In response to an office let
ter asking as to continuance of
claimants disability, affiant J. T.
wrote:
'Ihe soldier came to my cabin
where I was working, when he re.
turned from the army, and went to
my house. My whole family got sick
from him. One of my children died
with it. One of boys is not we'll yet,
and one of his children died of it,
The idea that the president can or
der anything done he desires is illus
trated by a letter addressed to him
by a woman, who wrote:
SIS pension has been increased
to $14 per month. Now, what I want
to ask is that you please ask con-
gress to appropriate enough to
build them a house and enable them
once more to be Independent. l
realize that it is asking great favor
of you. Nevertheless, I feel that
want to do something to help this
cause. I assure you he is a worthy
Christian soldier of the - o. V. t.
One A. applies as the dependent
brother of G. A. The soldier, aged
IS, enlisted December 21, 1868, and
died January 9, 1865. The alleged
dependent brother was born October
20, 1869, four years nine months and
eleven days after the soldiers death
He filed a claim for pension in 1889
He has not yet been pensioned.
A case recently appealed to and
decided by the secretary of the in
terror stands alone. The claimant,
Susan Smith, was convicted of the
murder of her husband, in May, 1882,
sentenced to imprisonment for life,
and pardoned in September, 1894.
Shortly after her discharge she ap-
piled, under the act of June 81, 1890,
for pension on account of the serv-
ice of the soldier she murdered. Tt
was promptly rejected by the pen
sion office. She then appealed TO the
secretary of the interior, who
promptly approved the former re-