The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-11

ing the pensions of s7,7ss pensioners who are now craving less than 6 a month. and would bring the additional expendi. lures up to approximately $so.0Oo, 900.
 An idea of how long the civil war pen sion roll is certain to maintain formidable proportions, whether service pension law Is enacted within the next few years or not, can be based on the fact that there are on the pension roll, afty-flve years after the close of the Mexican War. b.964 survivors of that war and 1910 wid- ows. or total of 13.S74 pensioners on ac- count of the little army of 7s,7ls men that participated in it.
 At the same ratio there will still be on the pension rolls in 1921, or fifty.ive years after the date from which the Pension Office reckons the close of the civil war, no less than 100000 pensioners on account of that war.
 Some further idea of the longevity of pension rolls may be obtained from the fact that there are now on the rolls, eigh- ty-nine years after the close of the war of 1872. one survivor and 1,115 widows, and although 1t is 120 years since the close of the War of the Revolution, there are stiil on the pension roll two widows of sol- diers of that war. In other words, wid- ows or survivors of the civil war in con. siderable numbers will stiil be drRwins. pensions in the year 1sS6.
 Youthful Widows to Be.
 Many of ths future widows of civil war veterans are little girls in plnafores. Many more of them are being rocked in their cradles. Some of them have not yet been born. It is now thirty-seven years after the official close of the civil war. The youngest of the two surviving wld- ows of veterans of the War of the Rev olution, Esther s. Damon, of Vermont, was not born until isl4. or thirty-one years after the officiai close of the war. Within the last few years widows of the Revolutionary War have died who were born more than thirty-seven years after the close of the war.
 The willingness of girls to marry old pensioners is proverblai. One of the wid- ows of the Revolution who died during the last year was Nancy Jones, who was born in 1sie, or thirty-three years after the close Of the war, and who married Darling Jones, survivor of that war, in 1882 when he was 6S years old and she was 1e.
 In the case of Mary sneed, another Revolutionary veterans widow. who died last year, the date of her marriage is not on record. but the disparity between her age and that of her husband was greater than that in the case of Nancy Jones. BoWdoin Sneed, the RevoluttonAry soldier In this case. was 56 years old when his wife was born. and if they were married when she was 16 he was 2 gay bridegroom of 72. He died in 1sl1 at the ripe age of s1 years, when his wife was only 25 years old.
 There comes time in every pension list when the number of survivors is at the maximum, and when the number of widows is at the maximum. The number of survivors of the civil war was great est of course immediately after the war. Whether the maximum number of sur- vivors on the pension roll on account of that war has been passed or not will prob ably depend upon whether service pen- sion law is enacted within the next few years.
 There is no question as to whether the number of widows of soldiers in that war will increase. Judging from the figures of the Mexican War. the number of civil war widows will go on increasing for the next fourteen years at least. as the max imum number of widows of soldiers in the Mexican War was not reached until 1899. or ffty-one years after the close of that war. This would make the number of civil war widows reach the maximum in 1917.