Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-12-26
PENSION FOR LONELY PEOPLE
some Facts About the woman who
Requests Aid frem the
Government


petition" Sarah Miranda C1ymer, a citizen
of the United States. has asked the senate.
in session assembled, to pension all per-
sons alone in the world who cannot MAIN
tain themselves"
Not beclouding her issue with socialiste
theorizing. which aims at a not wholly diff
ferent objective. but stating her reasons in
a simple and concise manner, the more
pathetic because she does not seek pathos,
this lonely, poverty stricken, mIudle aged
woman, who has known far brighter days,
has directed national interest to her case
and has brought into public attention the
little town OF Bridgeton. which has been
slumbering in the woods of South Jersey
without many changes for these hundred
years and more. For two years, since the
death OF her mother this woman has adj
mitted no one to her home, holding conf
munication with the outer world through q
small window
BY the vice president himself was the
instrument presented to the attention of the
senator's who, aftera moment OF embar-
rsssment-the proceeding was so unusual
were relieved by one OF the older members,
who made a motion to refer the document
to the committee on labor and education.
II sincerity were a factor in determining
the fats of legislative measures Miss ely
mers petition would be assured of passage,
for she was animated by so intense an
earnestness in it's composition that her
health has been effected,
1t is her single mindedness to be "of use
to help others ito serve that has kept
her alive after suffering from a mishap
, that, some say, destroyed her mental bal
anee. Young, intelligent. good looking and
|
complete in the section of her residence.
she was pust about to take her place as a
, teacher somewhat more than twenty years
| ago when by a mistake in medicine she
swallowed a poison drausht.
Her life was saved, but since she has
never been the same. The ambitions she
had nurtured before were even more ac-
| centuated after her misfortune. but ap-
parently the ability to carry them out was
lacking.
This petition and the bill" as she calls
it, which follows, is not Miss Clymer's first
literary venture. On the occasion of
Guiteau's trial for shooting President Gar
field, convinced that his mind was I'M
sound. she spent her little savings in a trip
to Washington, when, too, she presented a
petition looking toward the defendant S
Imprisonment rather than his execution.
Later she compiled a revised cotechism
called "A Tiny Question Book" in which
no little thought on serious matters is
shown. and which. she explains. is rather
an aid to understanding present religions
than an effort to create new one. Her
letter which was presented to the senate on
Wednesday last reads:
"BRIDGETON, n. J.-Honored Sirs: A
few years ago I was in Washington trying
to serve the interests of person who
was ambitiously insane. This, my second
appeal to your honored band, is for myself
and others like me
II am quite alone in the world and can
not support myself. Therefore I ask that
you please attend TO the legislation Of this
bill for me:
BE ii enacted: That the treasurer of
the United States shall send a sum of
money to every person who is alone in the
world and who cannot support maintain
himself. Be it further enacted, that the
sum thus sent shall not be less than $Ss
or more than $780, "
In a simple little frame cottage on a
quiet street lined with pleasant shade trees
this unusual woman makes her home.
There she has lived all her life, and there
she took the poison that cost her the
sacrifice OF the attainment of her earlier
ambitions, and there about two years ago
she suffered another blow that seems to
have Slapped her entire vitality-the death
Of her mother, from whom she had never
been parted for a moment OF the forty
eight years of her life.
Since that time she has had only pass
ing interest in the things that once occu-
pied her attention. One by one she had
seen the hoper of her youth taken from
her, but her faith never wavered until her
/ mother died.
! Miss Clymer, "Sallie" Clymer she is
known in her little town, has a face that
is marked by refinement and an appearance
/ of mentality.-New York Herald
| Picture Frames 1bfh ana To1Ca