Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-26

| in every section of this broad country
and in lands across the seas. There are
| business features connected with this
office that many of the biggest offices
| in the country cannot duplicate; for
there are money orders drawn here and
payable in every country on earth.
The personnel Of the inmates of the
Home is decidedly cosmopolitan. All
classes and creeds mingle here in one
great family, and yet they live and
| think for themselves. They hunger for
news from home; they thirst for
Knowledge of what is going on in the
great world of which they were once a
| living, active, component part; they
long to receive letters from their wives
or their children and from their chill
dren's children, as we'll as from their
relatives and their friends; and so they
literally patrOnize the pOStoffice, which
| the government so wisely and generous
| ly maintains almost exclusively for
their benefit. They send letters here,
there and everywhere. No country is
| too remote. no land too far distant thai
| fails to have a patron at the Home
postoffice.
And when pension times comes round
they swarm to the postOffice as soon as
| they receive the stipend, which is their
| due. from the Home treasurer. and be-
siege the place until they have pur-
| chased money orders to send to wife or
child in some far-off place. At these
quarterly periods of the year the post
master and his assistants are kept busy
for several days attending to the in
creased clerical duties imposed upon
| them by the demands of their patrons.
| At the appointed hour on pension
| days the men arc summoned to the
treasurer office to draw their pensions.
AS quickly as possible thereafter lines
Iare formed that reach from the little
| window at the east end of the partition
in the postottiCe. where the postmaster
holds forth, clear out into the street
and up the avenue for some distance:
and the men stand for hours waiting
for an opportunity to procure the
money orders they desire.
| One grizZled hero has son on board
a man of war in some foreign land. The
old father wants to send him a re-
minder, perhaps, that he still lives, and
| that he continues to look upon the boy,
now a man. as the apple of his eye
| Another veteran has a daughter whose
children need clothing or food or some
comfort which is not forthcoming al
home. And still others have wives as
old and broken in health and spirits as
they themselves are, who require as
sistance in keeping alive the little
spark of life that is left. All want
| rTbnv LOT
folks at home know that, though faI
away among strangers they do not
forget them: but ever have in theil
hearts that love and kindly feeling
which cannot be expressed in mere
words but must be shown by some
substantial and valuable token. AnC
what is there more potent than money
l-solid. intrinsic Wealth-to convince
any human being that someone, some
where. is thinking of him? Letters may
pass between persons, year in and year
out. filled with burning protestations OF
love and interest and deep affection,
but they do not carry to the recipient
the same delightful feeling as that
| which permeates the heart when 9
money order for $40 or $50 or $50 is
found accompanying the same The
real value of the gift is never consid-
cred under such circumstances, but it is
the fact that someone lives who occa-
sionally thinks of them that brings
gladness to the heart and tears to the
eye.
And so the old soldiers at the Home
those valiant heroes of the Civil War
the men who fought and bled, from the
time of the firing upon Fort Sumpte1
until the surrender a AppomattOx. that
the nation might live, come to the post
office in almost ceaseless streams from
morning until night, each and every
one of them with expectant heart, and
go away again, some with anticipations
realized. others with hopes dashed and
minds filled with gloomy forebodings
because no letter has come from those
they love best on earth.
There are some 2S0O inmates of the
Home. but as many are constantly
away on furlough, there are only about
22O0 always at the institution Out OF
11,