The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-11
AN OLD VETERANS COMPLAINTS.
Kicks at being Sent Back to "DOkters''
with His wooden Leg and Busted Insides.

Kicks at BeIng Sent Back to "DOkters''
with Ills wooden Leg and Busted Insides.
WASHINGTON, June 10. An old veteran
out in Illinois has written a bill of COM
plant to the Commissioner of Pensions.
He says:
I've Just got another Of your postal cards
telling me to 20 before the dokters to he
examined. I've been gittin' these cards
bout every mont since ! piled for an in
crease of my pension. two wears ago. I've
been pulled round, examined. punched
in the ribs and sounded in the lungs. aud
! made to bend over the back of n cheer and
do all sorts Of monkey shines. till | feel as
II ! orter have a salary. with an agent to 20
ahead and stick up bills. To begin with.
you sent me to a lot of dokters up to Warren,
and II took en- a half hour to find out that
the reason why they couldn't find any cir
c~ulation in my left leg Is because it was a
wooden leg Three or four times after that
You sent me to odds and ends of dokters
who couldn't tell the difference between
an epleptik simpton and a billed klam.
Nebbe this ia all right. and it NAV be fun
for the dokters. II was fun for me for a
while. but now that YOU order me back to
the fust too dbklers. and probly eNpfc
me to start on the sam old cirkus over again.
I'm goin 10 kick like a hrindle stear. Last
summer, on account of the freshness of n
pair OF COTS. my WOODEN leg ROt IauElen up
and was chewed to flinders in a moin ma
chine. | piled to the dokter general fer
a new leg, but he sed I'd only had the old
one three years. and I'd have to wait two
years more before the Government could
afford to make a hole in the surpluss by gittin
me anuther. Meanwhile my natural leg.
the one ! brought away safe from the Wilder
ness. has took to the m till I'm almost
sorry ! dident drop 1t when l did the other
one.
Now Mr.. Commission. about this matter
Of increasn my pension YOU may do just
as YOU dam pleas. II you think luzin one
laig at the Wild erness in 1884 blotted out the
record Of a built thro the body at Antium
In 1852. and II YOU think that the pension
I've been eittin Is full pay fer a set Of busted
insides that haint been runnin in order fer
more en- twenty years and never will this
side OF New Gerusalim ALL RIGHT. But I'm
going to tell YOU just between us that when
that Minnie ball went through me at Antitnm
II plaid hell with sum important part Of my
innards, and plaid | il fer keeps. 1t cut some
thing all to flinders. | don't know whether
IL was my liver or my lungs or my CUTS, and
Your pet doktors don't seem TO know as much
about 1t as ! do. The plane facts that's what
I'm drivin at broke up and busted me from
heel to whiskers. and ! got busted at Antitum
before my leg was lost. and the record SAYS so.
They wanted to discharge me for the first
built, and | wouldn't let EN-, | was bound
to stick until we busted the rebellion or the
rebels busted me with more en- one built
thro my body. and / did. and now you've
made me so much marchin from pillar to post
in this hide and seke game with the doktors
as would have done TO the end OF the war.
If / wasn't good enough to march then I'm
damned II | will do any more Of it now. 40
you needn't pay any more doktors charges
for me, you've been actually payin the doktors
40 dollars a year for stavin OF my klaim and
that's moren you'd had to pay me II youd
granted my increase in the fust plas. You
ukered me out of eettin a cent of the o8 dol
lars and now I'm n goin 10 uker the cussed
doktors out of Rettin any more of it, II
60 before any moro doktors for an examina
tion you've got 10 do moren send me a postal
card. You'll have 10 hawl me before en- with
a derrik.
Now ! don't want to be sassy. ! aint bit
that way. But Mr.. Warner IL YOU eNp,c,
TO blossum out as vice-president Of ;.Irs,
United States by buckin agin tho hogi,.
klame of an old vetern with one foot in tho
graiv and the other dam near 1t. you're gettiD .
down more hay than you'll have time TO STACK
UP. You'll make about as much at tina, game
as the doktor general will by vetern wooden
laigs. Respectfully yours with q dam good
memory.