Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-01-16

After reciting the valiant record OF
| the long-departed old fighter and Civ
ing full details of the present
straitened financial circumstances
| of his descendants. the lawyer says;
II am prepared to admit that this is
quite an ancient claim, but / suppose
it is all right. for / never knew, in all
my practice now of over forty-seven
years. of our respected Uncle Sam
| eaking out of paying a just bill by
pleading the statute of limitations
and. if l have good success. perhaps
may find some unpaid bill incurred In
i the partial erection of the tower OF
/ Babel, or some of Old Noahs unpaid
| bills for lumber. carpenterlng and
plumbing. incurred in the matter OF
! the ark. and as biologists, l under
stand, have decided that the land
from the st. Lawrence through into
| the Adirondacks is the oldest on the
/ globe. evidently the bills should be
payable here"
| In times of war it sometimes be-
comes. necessary for soldiers to help
i themselves to whatever they can lay
i their hands on in order to keep the
wolf from the kitchen. One of the
most amusing cases of this kind oc-
CURED down in Georgia during the
war between the states. 1t seems
| that Young private simply could not
persuade himself to keep on going
! when he espied toothsome variety
of livestock in a barnyard along the
road which he was travelling. In less
! time than it takes to tell it. that sol
der emerged from that barnyard with
/ n young pig. a lamb and a rooster all
clutched tightly in his arms For
wears the farmer and his sons en-
deavered to get the government to
make good his loss, claiming they
W itnessed the theft. They describe
the soldier as 'red-headed. spanish in
body and'a right-smart runner.
! For more than half a century civil
war claims have been pouring into
/ Washington. Some are pathetic and
others amusing.
'They broke into my smokehouse.
| reads one claim, "and those soldiers
took every ham. shoulder and side OF
bacon I had. 1 wish you would either
send me some more hogs or pay for
J my good smoked meat"
| Comparatively few persons are
aware that $50, 900 900 has been lying
! in the United States Treasury since
away back in the seventies waiting
for people to claim it. This money
was appropriated by Congress to pay
for many bales of cotton that were
taken by the northern armies, while
the war was in progress When the
southern planters whose cotton had
been taken commenced sending in
! their CLAIMS they realIZed tHdt al VII
, fortunate joker had been slipped in
; the bill. This joker compelled them
/ to take the "ironclad oath OF loyalty
IN which they were obliged to swear
that they had never bore arms against
the Union. OF course. they were un-
able to tale such an oath. as they had
! all either participated In the fighting
, against the north or were heartily in
favor of that cause. They Were
therefore, unable to collect a single
dollar hence the money is still in the
! Treasury. Efforts are now being
made to have this money distributed
among the surviving Confederate SOL
diers or widows of soldiers. The orig
| inal owners of the cotton are prac-
tically all dead.
A claim that has been before the
government for more than 100 years
lis known as the "old Sewer claim
Sewer, who at one time was Gov