The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-23
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN.
WOMEN DRAW. BIGGER
PENsIANS d

ENSlONS nav f0nfN
Women draw the biggest slices Of
pension money from Uncle Sans
strongbox, says the Boston H<raid
Twenty-four of them might be named
who. together. get as much as the to.
tai received by $50 veterans OF the
So a month class. Two. Mrs. Garfield
and Mrs. McKinley-and well are they
entitled to the allowance from crate
full nation-receive $4,000 each; obe
Mrs. Philip H. Sheridan. has only to
sign her name for $4,000 per annum
and three others have regular In
come Of $4,000 apiece from the same
source. These three are Mrs. John A.
Logan, Mrs. George B. Mcclellan
(mother OF the present Mayor Of New
York;, and Mrs. Frank Blair. widow OF
the famous General Blair.
Eighteen widows of generals and
hdmirais draw $500 . year In PEN
sion money; six get $500 per annum
and 200 surviving reflects of distin-
Guished army and navy officers receive
$500. 1t will thus be seen that the
government pays annually to go Wild
ows q total OF $165,5o0-an amount as
great as is checked out In the same
length Of time to 2,3ss veterans at %
. month. This is not meant to imply
that the widows get a cent more than
they ought to have. but merely to call
attention to the fact that the old SOL
dfers do not absorb all Of the cash
that Is paid out Of the much abused
pension appropriation.
The widows today occupy the most
conspicuous place on the pension rolls
The ranks OF the veterans are steadily
thinning at the rate of $4,000 year,
but not 30 the widows. who are con-
unually becoming more numerous. Be-
fore very long they will exceed the
old soldiers numerically on the Civil
War list. and 1t has been reckoned by
the pension bureau that in 1886 about
1000 widows Of men who fought in
the Civil War will be alive and pull
Ing a small, but regular, income out
Of the treasury. Many girl babies are
etill to be born who are destined to be
widows of the Civil War.
The reason is simple and easily ex-
planned. Aged veterans, with small
but certain incomes, are always in de-
mand as husbands, no matter how
!. Stricken in years and decrepit they
may be. Commonly they prefer young
wives, and SO 1t comes about that,
when they come to die they leave be-
hind them large focks Of compara-
lively youthful widows. There Is at
present only one surviving veteran of
the war Of 1919, but there are f,3i7
the pension rolls. The last soldier who
fought in the Revolution. Daniel r.
Brakeman. died April 5. 1866. in the
village of Freedom, N. T., aged 109,
but quite a number Of revolutionary
widows saw the twentieth century
dawn, and the last of them Is not dead
yet.
only one widow of the revolution
now remains, however, two having
died during the last year. This soli-
tary survivor Is Mrs Esther 8. Damon,
and she lives at Plymouth Union, Vt.
Her maiden name was Esther Sum-
xners, and she was born in plymouth.
in 1914. When she was 81 years old
she was married to Noah Damon. then
as years old, who had served two years
In the Massachusetts, Continentals, and
was in the battle Of Long island. The
marriage took place In 1895 and Dam
On died in 1853. y
Mrs. Damon, who Is now 90 years
pld. may be regarded as a very inter-
ksting person, inasmuch as she fur
nishes a connecting link between the
war for Independence and the present
nay--a time break of a125 years. Though
ehe herself did not witness the birth
pf this great republic. her husband
beheld that event and took part in the
noings which led to the formation of
bur government. 1t seems wonderful
10 think that a man whose wife is now
Alive and drawing stipend from the
treasury was old enough to bear arms
when the shot fired at Lexington was
heard around the world.
No better illustration of the popu-
)arity of veterans in a matrimonial
sense can be found than is offered by
the case Of Hiram Cronk, the only
survivor of the War of 1919, already
mentioned. He is now 1o5 years of
lge. and, according to his own Ac-
eount, he has received an offer of mar
tiage for every year he has lived. And
why not? Does ne not get $25 a month
From the government, because of the
Gallant service which he did with the
New York troops? And did not the
Legislature of New York State recent
" add SIS a month to this amount. so
That the old man might spend his last
hays in comfort? Any single woman
might be glad to obtain such a we'll
to-do old soldier for a husband. He
Is actually an historical character,
having been born in 1899, and having
been the country grow from a nation
bf 100000 people to one of 10000, 900.
The Pilot.
arthur stringer in Everybody's Mag
azine for June.
Gomeward bound with its huddle Of
indolent life.
pntiring ehurning from headiand to
headland
Through moonlight and silence and
dusk.