Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-10-06
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GOSSIP

John r. Eearly, known as the tent
leper, is happy. For a long time he
has realized that he was doomed to die
from the terrible disease which afflicts
him, but his greatest concern has been
for the welfare of his faithful little
wife. the woman who has refused to
desert him in his misery. Now that the
government has granted him a pension
of So month, he is relieved of his
greatest source of anxiety and faces the
future with a smile. Early's home is in
North Carolina. When he was discov-
cred to be a leper he was forced to
move and for several months was
wanderer, shifted hither and yon by
the fates and with no permanent abid-
ing place. Finally he was lodged in a
tent in the outskirts of this city near
the workhouse and has been dependent
upon the gifts of the charitably inclined.
His faithful little wife has been living
in a little nearby cottage. The Board
of Health has taken the most strenuous
measures to prevent contagion, and no
one has been permitted to pass the
guards stationed near Early's tent or
touch anything with which he has come
into contact. The granting of liberal
pension was brought about by the belief
that Early's disease is a result of his
his army service, and it makes his care
and the support of his wife certain.
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Government clerks must give their
undivided services to Uncle Sam. They
are not to be permitted to do any out
side work. Several clerks have been
dismissed. 1t has been a common prac-
tice here at headquarters for aspiring
clerks to attend night colleges, and Sc
curing diplomas, practice professions
after Office hours. These so-called sun
down" doctors, dentists, lawyers archi-
tects, etc, were able materially to in
crease their incomes. Protests were
made by regular members of various
professions, complaining of the unfair
competition of the "sundowners," who
cut prices.
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The pensioners of the Civil War are
dying at the rate of more than a hun
dred and fifty day, as the annual re-
port of the Commissioner of Pensions
shows. With the ranks of the veter-
ans thinning by sixty thousand a year.
it will not be long before the Grand
Aata1nria1 nav will
have to be abandoned, unless they are
succeeded by the parades of the pro-
posed United Order of American Vet
eranE, to include all those who have
fought under the Stars and Stripes in
any war.
A train-stopping device, which 1t is
said will practically eliminate the tele-
graph operator as factor in the move
ment of railroad trains, is under in
vestigation by the block signal and train
control board of the Interstate Com
merce Commission, who soon will give
it an official test The system is an in
vention of P. J. Simmer, of Los An
SCltS, Gul. IL dlISUbg bCSh III
stalled on eighteen miles of the Santa
Fe Railway in Southern California,
and is said to be a success.
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Virginia will soon be represented in
Statuary Hall in the national capitol
by more than Il cheap plaster cast Of
Washington. The Virginia Legislative
commission, in New York, on its way
from Providence, r. l., where the
bronze statue of Gen. Lee was inspect
ed, met at the Hoffman House to ask
for bids for Il bronze statue of Wash
ington. This is to be a companion piece
of the Lee statue and as soon as 1t is
ready the plaster cast will be removed
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Lawrence o. Murray, the Comptroller
of the Currency, is making an effort to
ascertain how the bankers Of the coun-
try regard the methods pursued by bank
examiners in going over the affairs of
banks under examination, and at the
same time to secure from bankers their
views as to how the work of bank eX
animation can be improved. With that
end in view, the Comptroller has sent
to each national bank president letter
Of inquiry.
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Ambassador Leishman cabled the
State Department that after much eff
fort he has succeeded in settling mat
ter that has been pending for several
years in relation to the transfer Of the
property to be used asa site for the
American college for girls at COnstan-
tinople. Under this settlement the title
of the site will be transferred to the
name of Secretary Barton, of the Amer
lean board of missions.
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Gen. Allen, chief signal officer of the
army, has received advices that the
two wireless telegraph stations located
at Fort Gibson and Nome, Alaska, have
been completed and put in operation.
These are the last stations of the tele-
graph system which extends from Seat
tie, Wash, TO Nome.
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Reports from the Panama Canal COLI
tinua to show a SURPRISINGLY rapid rate