Chapter III: Part 3

"To protect the soldiers from these sharks, Mr. French, Second
Auditor of the Treasury Department at Washington, has, from
time to time, suspended all business transactions with them.
This had the effect of stopping the frauds for a while, but the
swindlers soon found a method of overcoming the obstruction.
This they did by procuring willing tools through whom they
operated as successfully as ever.

"There are said to be thousands of dishonest agents all over
the United States, who are continually engaged in this
nefarious business. They are principally lawyers who have no
reputation to lose, and who, therefore, are indifferent to
public opinion.

"The _modus operandi_ by which these swindles are carried on is
as follows: A. is a discharged soldier, B. the claim agent. A.
calls on B., and requests him to procure his bounty money for
him. A. is informed that, in order to enforce his claim, it
will be necessary for him to intrust B. with his certificate of
honorable discharge, to be forwarded to Washington as a
voucher. Thus far the transaction is legitimate; but now comes
the trickery. B. further informs A. that there is another paper
to be forwarded with the discharge, a blank, which he (A.) must
sign. It is merely a matter of form, B. says, which the
government requires, for some reason best known to itself. The
signature is given, and the soldier goes away, assured that
within a few days his check will be ready for him. The paper to
which, in his ignorance, A. signed his name, turns out to be an
absolute power of attorney conferred upon B., not only to
enforce the claim, but also to indorse the draft when it is
received, and to collect the money therefor at the bank. Thus
authorized, B. draws the cash at the proper time, puts it into
his own pocket, and keeps it there. A. calls for his money at
the appointed time, but is put off with the excuse that the
return has not yet been made by the department at Washington.
This explanation is repeated each time that A. calls, until,
finally, he becomes suspicious of unfair dealing, and
peremptorily demands either his certificate or the bounty. As a
rule, this demand leads to the speedy unfolding of the base
villany. B. acknowledges that he has collected the money, and
adds that he has spent it, but that he will refund it as soon
as he is able to do so. The claim agent having acted by full
power of attorney in the matter, cannot be prosecuted
criminally, and the only remedy open to the victimized soldier
is a civil suit for the recovery of the amount of his claim.
The remedy is ineffectual, however, by reason of the fact that
the swindler has no property out of which to satisfy judgment,
and the soldier being too poor to prosecute the case, the
affair ends at this point.

"There are now in the Second Auditor's office as many as
sixty-five thousand unsettled bounty claims, representing about
four millions five hundred thousand dollars, and by the recent
passage of another bounty act, that sum will soon be augmented
by nearly five hundred thousand dollars. It will thus be seen
that, unless some measures are taken by the government to
prevent it, five million dollars more will pass into the hands
of swindling agents, to the great loss of those for whose
benefit it was intended."

But long before this article appeared in the Times, Officer McWatters had been reflecting upon a measure for rescuing the poor soldiers from the despoiling grasp of the agents. He had laid his plans before the Ladies' Union Relief Association, and the good ladies, at once appreciating it, commissioned him to go, in the name of the Association, to Washington, and procure, if possible, the immediate carrying out of his plan, which consisted of certain changes in the law. He went at once to the Capital, and called upon President Grant, who kindly received him, and to whom he unfolded his plan. The Military Committee of the Senate were also visited, and they, as the President had likewise done, gave Mr. McWatters assurances of their sympathy with his designs, which they proceeded to directly express, by a proposed change in the law, which was in due time made. Messrs. Wilson and Howe of the Senate, General Butler and General Logan of the House, were particularly earnest and active in aiding Officer McWatters to accomplish his great aim in this matter. A resolution "for the protection of soldiers and their heirs," according to Officer McWatters' plan, after passing both Houses of Congress, received the approval of the President, and became a law on the 10th of April, 1869, and thousands of soldiers have since blessed their ever warm and judicious friend, McWatters, for one of the very best deeds that has been done in their behalf since the war. Lodges of the Grand Army of the Republic, in all parts of the country, passed votes of compliment and gratitude to him; and the press, also, was everywhere laudatory of him.

The new law forbids the Treasury and Pay Departments paying bounties due the soldiers to any claim agent, or upon "any power of attorney, transfer, or assignment whatever;" but provides that the money due shall be sent directly to the soldier or his heirs, by draft, on their order, or through the Freedman's Bureau, or state agents appointed specially for that purpose, etc., at no cost to the soldier or his heirs. The law also provides, that the government shall retain in its hands such proper fees as may be due to the claim agents for their services in procuring bounties, which fees are subject to the agents' order; thus securing to them all that is justly their due, while also, in a truly Christian or motherly way, shielding them from the temptation to rob the poor soldier or his heirs of everything. (One object of governments, we are told by sundry "great writers on Law," is to protect the morals of the people; which we are very glad to be assured of--sometimes. It is refreshing to be told that a divine power has a hand in the governmental institutions of the world; for if we were not so informed by the great writers, we might not always be able to discover the fact.)

But this victory over the claim agents was not won without much hard fighting on Officer McWatters' part. The rascally agents harassed him, threatened him, and attempted to bribe him, etc. But without going into details, we will content ourselves with transferring to these pages an article which we find in The Sun, of April 10, 1869:--

"The thanks of hundreds of soldiers who have been defrauded by
the bounty thieves, are due to General John A. Logan, for
pushing through Metropolitan Policeman McWatters' bill,
requiring that all moneys due them shall be paid to the
soldiers direct, the government reserving to itself the fees.
While Officer McWatters was in Washington, the bounty thieves
pretending to enjoy influence with the Metropolitan Police
Commissioners, threatened him, and tried to buy him off, one of
the fellows offering him five hundred dollars to 'go home and
mind his own business.' We reproduce two of their threatening
letters, as follows:--

"'MR. MCWATTERS. Dear Sir: You are in a business that don't
suit you--something you have no right in. The men you are
working against are a large and influential class; have power
where you least expect it. You have a good position on the
police. As you value it, quit your present action. Let the
_soldiers_ take care of themselves; it don't pay _you_, nor
will it. You can't afford to play philanthropist. Leave that to
men of means, and women, if you like. A word to the wise.

"'Yours, a friend,

"'NEW YORK, March 27, 1869. H. B. L.'

"'MR. MCWATTERS. Dear Sir: Your visit to Washington will do you
no good, but may possibly result in great harm to yourself. You
have a good position now, and I think you had better let the
soldiers' matters alone, as you are interfering with the
business of those whose power and influence can be used against
you to disadvantage. If you think anything at all of your own
welfare, leave Washington immediately, and pursue the matter no
further.

Yours, etc.,

P. G. W.

"'NEW YORK, March 29, 1869'"

But Officer McWatters' labor for the soldier and his family, in regard to the laws regulating payments thereto, did not stop here. In 1870, in conjunction with others (he being the proposer of the same, we believe, as he was surely the most active mover thereto), obtained a change to be made in the time and frequency of the payment of pensions; the same theretofore being paid only semi-annually. There were evils attending these semi-annual payments. Some recipients getting so much of their dues at a time, were led to improvidence, spending the same more freely than they would have done smaller sums; and their families often complained about the matter. Officer McWatters urged the proposition of monthly payments, but was unable to secure his object; but the law was changed, making the pensions payable in quarterly instalments. This was a great improvement over the old law. Officer McWatters received numerous letters of gratitude on the passage of the law. We clip the following in relation thereto, from the Tribune of December 9, 1870:--

"The first payment of pensions under the new law making the
payments quarterly instead of semi-annual, began last Monday,
and many grateful letters, illustrating the beneficial working
of the new plan, have already been received by Mr. G. S.
McWatters, who was instrumental, in conjunction with the
Ladies' Union Relief Association, in procuring the passage of
the bill."

The payments were made formerly in March and September; and how the pensioner welcomed a quarterly payment coming on the first Monday of December, is perhaps as feelingly told, in its own homely way, as it well could be, in the following extract from one of those letters to which the Tribune refers. A pensioner, writing to McWatters, says: "Nobody but a poor man can appreciate the feelings a poor man enjoys in the consciousness of having a clean rent bill, a ton of coal, and a barrel of flour, in the first month of winter."

Ay! there _is_ an eloquence in those words--an eloquence which touches the softer chords of the heart,--"The poor man enjoys"! Nobody more than Officer McWatters, the philanthropist, could appreciate the poor pensioner's letter. But is there not in that letter that which touches other chords than those of sympathy--the chords of justice in all decent souls? a sense of justice which regards with horror, and burns with indignation over, the wretched order of things, or disorder the rather, which creates these suffering poor? Very likely that pensioner, who tells us so touchingly of "a poor man's feelings," has done more for the world, created more for the good of his fellow-men, through his labor, in the form of agricultural products, necessary work of one kind or another, etc., etc., than all the millionnaires of New York together,--the mere cormorants, who fatten upon the toil of the laboring classes. Is it not a shame to our common humanity that a barrel of flour should, in any family, become a subject for their rejoicing? "How a poor man feels!"--in this world of wealth! in this age of Christian teaching! in this era of churches! Bah! it is enough, one would think, to make the apostles of the Nazarene arise from their graves, and seize the sword of Peter, to put an end to the villany which still enslaves the masses and keeps them poor. But we do not hear that they are disturbed, nor do we learn that there is pity anywhere in the universe for the poor, save in the souls of the poor themselves, and in those of a few philanthropists here and there. But that is well, for it is not pity which is to work the good reformation which must some time be wrought; it is justice, the justice which shall yet demand _rights_, and banish even the name of _privileges_; justice, with science as its means. All else has signally failed to achieve any great good.

Froude and other great writers admit that but little real progress has been made under our social institutions. Changes have come along the line of the centuries, it is true, but the "poor man" (and the term generically comprehends the vast majority of the race), the poor man suffers as much in these days as in those of Moses, or in Caligula's, or in the dark ages, or any period of feudal times; and yet we boast of "progress." In no period of the world's history has anything more reprehensible than the suffering of the Irish people at home, in these days, occurred; and there is no reason found in the organic structure of our government why our own poor suffer less, or shall suffer less in the future, than the Irish people now, save that there is a little more mercy in the laws which the tyrant or governing classes of this country make for the laboring classes, in the matter of certain household goods, for example, exempt from levy of attachment or execution; (but this is true only of the laws of certain States, not of the national laws). And this very hour, as we write, the National Congress is contemplating putting millions of acres of the public domain into the hands of the tyrant forces, thus robbing the future millions who will need the soil to live upon.

"The poor man's feelings"! But we dismiss the subject here, with the simple words,--eloquent enough to stir every decent soul to indignation over the wrongs of the laboring classes,--"The feelings of a poor man"!

But more work for the soldier and his family remained for McWatters to do, and he is at this writing (February, 1871) attempting, with the support of the ever noble and active Ladies' Union Relief Association, to get an act passed by Congress, by which an honorably discharged soldier, too poor to buy his own grave, may console himself, in his last moments, that his family will not be obliged to follow him to a pauper's last resting-place. Now, only such soldiers as die in actual service have a right to be buried in the National Cemeteries. The veriest villain may have enlisted in the service yesterday, and died, and be buried to-day in the National Cemeteries. But the honorably discharged soldier, who served through the war bravely and nobly, is not entitled to be buried therein, and if he dies poor, goes to the potter's field. Such is the nation's gratitude!

There's an awful sarcasm in this last work of McWatters. We do not know whether, in the overflowing kindness of his soul, he sees it or not. Memorializing "The Honorable the Senators and Members of the House of Representatives in Congress assembled" to provide a place to bury the nation's heroes in, by a sort of legal fiction, which, while they do fill paupers' graves, technically, obscures a little the fact of their abject poverty, by giving them graves "free of cost." Poor fellows! After death they get more rights than they had when living! The government takes away the soil from the living man, robs him of his right to it,--a right, the true title to which is in the fact of his existence,--his being born, if you please,--and makes restitution with six feet of subsoil to the dead man!

But the merit of Officer McWatters' work is not decreased by this consideration. He does the very best thing he can do under the circumstances. But the nation--the community--civilization--what of them?

HONORABLE TESTIMONIALS TO OFFICER MCWATTERS.

We have somewhere said that Officer McWatters has received not a dollar for his years of constant, active benevolence. This is literally true: but it is not exactly true in the interpretation which some readers might give it; for Officer McWatters has not been wholly without substantial rewards other than those of the joys of his own happiness in well doing. But we have not space to notice all of these. The one which we presume is most dear to the gallant heart of Officer McWatters, is a testimonial of his benevolent services given him by the Ladies' Union Relief Association, in July, 1868. We copy the following article regarding it from the New York Times of July 31, 1868:--

"TESTIMONIAL.--The well-known services of Officer George S.
McWatters on behalf of disabled soldiers and of the widows and
orphans of fallen ones, received a handsome acknowledgment, a
few days since, at the hands of the Ladies' Union Relief
Association, with whose invaluable labors he has closely
identified himself since the organization of the institution.
Mrs. John A. Kennedy, who is President of the Association,
presented Mr. McWatters with a very valuable gold watch,
purchased for him with private contributions of the ladies of
the Association, as a testimonial of their appreciation of his
energetic labors in the work they have so much at heart. The
watch is richly chased and bears on one side of the outer case
the monogram 'G. S. McW.,' and on the other, also in monogram,
'1868.' The inner case has the following inscription:--

"'_Presented to George S. McWatters by the members of the
Ladies' Union Relief Association, in appreciation of his
services to the families of Union Soldiers._ 1868.'

"It is pleasing to note this handsome recognition of the quiet
energy and modest worth of Officer McWatters, who has in many
ways and frequently, during the war and since, given remarkable
evidence of how much good work, in a humble and unpretending
way, is within the compass of a single individual, impelled by
a spirit of true philanthropy."

We also append a notice of the same testimonial, taken from The Sun of the same date, since it very succinctly sets forth Officer McWatters' great worth as a philanthropist.

"HANDSOME AND WELL-DESERVED COMPLIMENT.--A few days ago Officer
G. S. McWatters was surprised by a request to attend at the
residence of Mrs. John A. Kennedy, the President of the Ladies'
Union Relief Association. There he was presented with a
beautiful gold watch, as a token of recognition of the valuable
work done by him in assisting the objects of the society. Ever
since the war Officer McWatters has devoted all his spare hours
to the benefit of Union soldiers and their families. _We could
fill columns with stories of his work and its good results, but
have only room to say that no man of equal means has worked so
hard and so successfully._ To the assistance and encouragement
of that noble institution, the Ladies' Union Aid Society, he
has given every moment that could be spared from his official
duties. It is a fitting and graceful compliment, when such
ladies as Mrs. Wm. F. Havemeyer, Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts, Mrs.
Kennedy, and others of similar standing, so generously
recognize the faithful services of their co-laborer. Of course
Mr. McWatters has official permission to accept his well-earned
present, and long may he live to wear it."

We also subjoin the following from the Tribune, inasmuch as it makes allusion to certain benevolent acts and plans of Officer McWatters, to which we have not referred in these biographical notes, but which are most worthy of record. So good a summary is the Tribune's article of Officer McWatters' claims upon the public esteem as an active philanthropist up to the period of its date, that we copy it entire, though it embraces several matters upon which we have descanted more or less extendedly in these Notes:--

"It is always gratifying to see genuine and unpretending merit
recognized and honored. We are therefore specially glad to
record the fact that the Ladies' Union Relief Association of
this city have recently, by the presentation of a valuable and
appropriate gift, so recognized and honored the services
rendered by Officer G. S. McWatters to the peculiar cause of
benevolence to which they are devoted. The gift is a handsome
gold watch, and the presentation was made on Thursday evening,
the 23d inst., by the President of the Association, Mrs. John
A. Kennedy, at her residence, No. 135 West Twenty-Second
Street. The Ladies' Union Relief has been established two
years. It was instituted with a view to the relief of sick and
disabled soldiers, their families, widows, or orphans, from the
evils of extreme poverty. Great good has been accomplished by
the Association; and, in its peculiar charity, it has had no
ally more efficient and indefatigable than Officer McWatters.
Indeed, from the very beginning of the late civil war, this
officer has consistently and faithfully devoted himself to the
cause of the Union soldiers. In 1861 he was associated with the
late Daniel Carpenter in the mission of raising money from the
police force for the support of the families of policemen who
had gone to the war. In 1862--an assessment having been levied
on the police force for the purpose of raising and equipping
the Metropolitan Brigade--Officer McWatters subscribed more
money to this fund than any other patrolman on the force. In
1863, when our military hospitals around Washington and
elsewhere were in great need of lemons for the wounded and
suffering victims of battle, Officer McWatters collected six
hundred dollars from among the police towards supplying this
want; and the lemons so procured were gratuitously forwarded to
the hospitals South and West by Adams Express Company. A letter
of thanks from Dr. Bellows, representative of the Sanitary
Commission, was, on this occasion, addressed to the Police
Commissioners. In 1863, also, Officer McWatters was a member of
the little band of police officers that rescued and defended
our building from the miscreants who attacked it during the
July riots, and in that affray he was badly wounded. In 1864 he
was one of the originators of the New York Sanitary Fair, and
he served as one of its committees, with so much devotion and
success that he won a letter of thanks from Mrs. Lane, the
President of the Fair, Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, and Colonel
Le Grand Cannon. Officer McWatters, it should also be
mentioned, is the originator of the Police Mutual Aid Society,
a very useful institution, founded on the principle of
fraternal benevolence. The society has served as a model for
similar societies--of firemen, post-office clerks, and other
bodies of men all over the country. A plan of practical
benevolence has likewise been formed and matured by Officer
McWatters in the Masonic Fraternity, and has won the
commendation of some of the highest officials in that
organization. These facts strongly attest the humane spirit,
active intelligence, and earnest devotion to duty which have
characterized Officer McWatters in a highly creditable career
of practical benevolence. The ladies of the Union Relief
Society have no less justly than gracefully acknowledged the
worth of his character and services, in making the gift we have
recorded. Every lover of this country, we may add, and every
friend of mankind, will naturally wish the amplest success to
all these workers in the good cause of charity."

THE BELLEVUE HOSPITAL INIQUITY.

Charity, holy though the poets sing her, and beautiful the painters picture her lineaments, is, after all, a hag, if real; or only an ideal being, at best, if we are to judge her by her precious, favored children, the almoners she sometimes employs to dispense her bounties. In New York a great many vulgar wretches are, from time to time, officially connected with the charitable institutions under control of the city government. Bellevue Hospital was, in 1869, the theatre of some of these base fellows' operations.

These men were protected by the "Citizens Association," so called,--a self-constituted body of very respectable gentlemen, whose business it is to see that everything in the city is properly conducted; gentlemen of high moral tone, the hems of whose phylacteries (made of invisible or abstract "great moral worth," "solid character," "piety," "good standing in society," and visible and real amounts of greenbacks, all interwoven in some mysterious way, and which together constitute "dignity," we believe), are broad enough to out-Pharisee those marvelous gentlemen in Christ's time who made Jerusalem such a genial place of residence, with their "long prayers."

In July, 1869, the Citizens' Association published, through the newspapers of the city, what they called the result of an investigation of the several institutions under the control of the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections, in which they assured the public that these institutions were all properly and well conducted, and felicitated the said public that the said institutions were in charge of such high toned and efficient gentlemen as they named.

But there was a man in New York, who, when he read the Citizens' Association's manifesto, thought it a most astonishing falsehood, either of the kind known as a lie, or of that kind which people tell sometimes when they are talking of things about which they know nothing; for his duties had called him to Bellevue Hospital on sundry occasions, and he had there witnessed, with his own eyes, sundry things which made his blood boil with indignation; and when he read the manifesto of the Citizens' Association, he determined to correct it.

Of what this man had seen at Bellevue Hospital, some faint conception may be formed from the following facts: There was scarcely a bed there, in any of the wards, which was free from vermin; patients who took most care of the beds, were always liable to get lousy in the water closets; only a single clean sheet a week was allowed, no matter how filthy a bed might become through the poor patient's weak misfortunes; the blankets were dirty; to keep the coverlets clean, for "whited-sepulchre" purposes, when visitors called, they were taken off nights; the cooking of the institution was done by a drunken, filthy cook, and was served to the patients on what had once been tin dishes, but had been so often polished "clean" that they had became rusty sheet-iron plates; the "orderlies," who were paid to attend to the sick, were tyrannical, and little or no attention was paid to the complaints of the sufferers. The only thing a poor sick man had to sit on was a stool, with a seat of about twelve inches by fourteen inches in size, without a back (and most of the sick had weak backs). The sick poor, picked up in the streets, for example, and carried there, had their outer garments taken off, and were put to bed without washing, with their under clothes on, and had no "change of raiment" till they died! The wards were cold in winter, and the poor were glad of even their filthy rags to keep them warm. Generally the bed in which a poor fellow died remained as he left it, unchanged, for the comfort of the next occupant and corpse! But this is quite enough, we opine, for the reader's entire satisfaction.

Of course this "Augean stable" needed cleansing, and the Citizens' Association needed enlightening, or reforming, whichever is the proper term in the case, and that man to whom we have alluded knew how to do it. The Tribune and Evening Post, when informed of the true state of affairs, cheerfully gave space in their columns for the facts, and appealed to the Citizens' Association to revise their work of voluntary report-making. We have before us a copy of the Evening Post of date September 1, 1869, containing a long editorial article on "Bellevue Hospital," mostly made up of a letter (which was written by a poor, disabled soldier, then "confined" in Bellevue Hospital), setting forth some of the luxuries, conveniences, the neatness, etc., enjoyed at Bellevue Hospital. (It appears that the only decent thing connected with the hospital then, was the medical care which was pronounced excellent.)

The article alluded to, called on the Citizens' Association "which, by a recent publication, has made itself in some sort responsible for the good management of the city charities," to "investigate" the matter (out of courtesy it ought to have said, "_re_-investigate," but it didn't).

The secretary of the Citizens' Association visited one of the editors of a city paper, and stated that Bellevue Hospital was the only institution under the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections which he had _not_ personally visited! and after two weeks' delay, the Citizens' Association sent a committee of investigation to the hospital, and found everything all right, of course, and drew up a report, which, however, was never published; for when they presented the same for publication, the wary editors required that the report, if it were to appear in their columns, should be followed by affidavits of proper parties, showing that the iniquities complained of existed at Bellevue Hospital when the complaints were made.

The result was, that reforms so much needed at Bellevue Hospital were made there; for which hosts of patients have since been grateful. It is said that the authorities of the hospital offered a hundred dollars reward for the person who wrote, or instigated the writing, of the various letters to the press, exposing the state of things there, and which wrought the reform. But they were not successful at the time in discovering their enemy, and the poor patients' friend; for the bringing to light, and subjecting of these outrages at Bellevue Hospital to public condemnation, was one of Officer McWatters' many silent Good Samaritan deeds, and he did not intend to have them or the public know who wrought it. Besides, the officials were powerful, and might do him great harm, in their indignation at his exposure of their wickedness, and it would not have been wise in him to act too openly. But time enough has passed now, we presume, to calm their animosity; and having possessed ourselves of the facts without Officer McWatters' knowledge, we think it proper that the credit due him in this matter be acknowledged here.

CONCLUSION.

In these meagre Biographical Notes we have done but partial justice to Officer McWatters. Our readers were duly assured that no attempt would be made by us to write a fitting biography of the man; and we have only, in a hasty way, and in a manner wholly unsatisfactory to ourselves, alluded to certain incidents in our subject's life, which serve to stamp him as a man far above the average of even good souls, in his active, practical benevolence. But it is often in little things that the generous soul demonstrates itself most eloquently--in the usually unremarked, quiet acts of a man; and, in our judgment, a letter from Officer McWatters, which, in our search of the public journals for most of the material of these Notes, we found in the Evening Mail of October 23, 1869, bespeaks for him as much respect from the good and charitably inclined as anything he ever did.

We judge from the opening sentence of the letter, that some "good enough" fellow, "S. W. H. C.," soft of heart, perhaps, but limited in judgment, had found fault, through the columns of the Mail, with the poor organ-grinders' "plying their vocation" on the public streets. Of course there was nobody in all the great metropolis to come to their defence, except some man like Officer McWatters. And so he came, it seems, seasonably. The letter shows not only the tender, generous spirit of the man, but his ripe good judgment and comprehensive view of things as well, and is worthy of preservation here in these pages, along with the masterly efforts of his pen, which, in "Knots Untied," have not only given us,--his present readers,--the liveliest gratification by the mysteries they unfold in a lucid style, but have made one of the best possible records of certain phases of now current life, for the information of the future historian.

The old Romans (as well as other peoples) had their secret police service; and how interesting it would be to us, in these far off centuries, to read of their deeds in the empire, or during the kingdom of Rome. History, for the most part, is made up of the deeds of great conquerors, etc. We know too little of the domestic and "hidden life" of the past. But the future historian of these times will have all the _materiel_ his ambition can desire for weaving the thread of his story. And what a _resumé_ of crimes and outrages of all kinds will that of the 19th century be for the historian of the 40th century to make!

The letter to which we refer above, regarding the organ-grinders, will be found appended hereto, together with some other matters of interest regarding Officer McWatters, which we have collected in our examination of the public journals. We place them in connection with these biographical notes, as in some respects presenting our subject in a more graphic manner than we are able in this hurried writing, to make him known to the great reading public of his adopted country.

The concluding paragraph of the letter referred to regarding the organ-grinders, as will be seen by reference to it, is, "Until the country has reached out her helping hand to all to whom she owes assistance as a right, it is in bad taste to find fault with the mode in which the disabled soldier tries to earn a living for his family." In these words, so just and wise, is embraced more than the casual reader will be apt to perceive. They are, in our opinion, very remarkable, and involve a great principle, one which Officer McWatters, as a student of social science, as we have remarked him, must clearly understand.

"To all to whom she owes assistance as a right," are words eloquent with the great truth of social statesmanship which they suggest; which is, that a country, a government, should recognize the right of its subjects (or component parts, to speak more decently, for there is a hateful sound in that word "subjects") to life; and the great moral duty of all these parts to assist each other; a duty which is clear and imperative in the nature of things (but we cannot here go into the subtleties of the matter, and show why); a duty, however, which can never be fitly performed till some nation or people are so organized, politically and socially, that each shall receive all he merits therein; till the labor forces, the creators, the only really worthy, are honored and protected; and not, as now, when the chief villains and the worthless tyrants live upon the fat of the land, enjoy all the honors, and are shielded by the laws in robbing from and exploiting upon the poor, the laboring classes.

Healthful and buoyant of spirit, Officer McWatters doubtless has many years of active life yet to enjoy. The record of his past is abundant assurance that his future will be just, generous, brave in good deeds, sternly and patiently laborious, and benevolent to all mankind; and when he ceases to be, when the organized atoms which make what we call the man, and are discriminated by us from all other organized atoms as "McWatters," shall have been resolved into their original conditions, and his individuality is lost forever in the ceaseless processes of continuing creation, his good deeds shall live on still, and make for him a place in the reverence of those who honor good works far above that of most men; above that of all the talkers, the self-elected teachers, who heed not their own doctrines, however noble these be. One such man as Officer McWatters is worth more than an army of self-proclaimed saints, who do nothing but prattle about virtue, and preach, to use their own figure of speech, but live not out in their lives, nor exemplify in their deaths, "Christ and Him crucified;" but who think more of Christ _on_ the Cross, in the "triumph of faith," than of the nobler Christ-come-down-from-the-Cross, and still battling, with untiring spirit, against the wrongs which men do to one another.

With this hasty sketch, and the appendices which we may see fit to make (as before indicated), we leave Officer George S. McWatters,--the kind of heart, the merciful, the dutiful, the intelligent and honest man; the patriot of the true type; the practical and great philanthropist,--in the hands of our readers, trusting that some able biographer will yet write his history, in a style and with a particularity commensurate with Officer McWatters' nobility of character and multifold great good works in the cause of humanity.

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THE ORGAN-GRINDERS.

A WORD IN THEIR BEHALF--LETTER FROM OFFICER MCWATTERS (REFERRED
TO IN THE BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES)--A SAD STORY--WHY THE ASYLUMS
CANNOT BE HOMES FOR ALL THE DISABLED.

To the Editor of the Evening Mail: The communication signed "S. W. H. C.," in your issue of the 19th, breathes a good spirit towards our sick and disabled soldiers, but evidently was not written understandingly. By far the greater number of the street organ-grinders, clad in soldiers' garb, have been true and honest soldiers, but being husbands and fathers, they cannot take advantage of the asylums. The article on this subject was in all respects correct. Until the nation furnishes homes for this class of our disabled soldiers,--homes which will not necessitate their parting from their little families, dearer to them by far than their own personal comfort,--we must look for such street exhibitions as we see, and which are not disgraceful to the soldier, whatever they may be to his country. That some of these are impostors, I do not doubt; but it is the duty of the police to satisfy themselves who are and who are not, and to treat them accordingly. On the other hand, there are no more deserving objects of charity in the world than some of these are.

In evidence of the reluctance which those who have family ties feel in entering any of the asylums, I now narrate you an incident. Some six months ago I found a poor fellow in this city who had lost his health in the army, in which he had served four years. He had just been sent out of hospital incurable--a consumptive. He had a wife and four children, the eldest a boy of twelve, a cripple, and three little girls. Some one of the customary blunders at Washington had hitherto delayed his pension. The sole income of the family, when I called, was what the mother earned by scrubbing. The father had evidently not long to live, and poverty was hastening him to the grave. When I called, and saw how things were, I advised him to go to the Home, to which I would find means to send him. He said he would consult his wife. He did so, and then said that he had resolved to go; that he was only eating the bread his poor wife earned, and which his little ones needed. I took the necessary steps, and received from General Butler the coupons for his transportation. By this time I had had several interviews with his family; and seeing how much misery the threatened separation was likely to entail,--for they were deeply attached--father, mother, and children--to each other,--I resolved to try and prevent it. To this end I consulted Mrs. J. A. Kennedy, President of the Ladies' Union Relief Association, who, having heard the pitiable case, consented to extend the aid of the institution to the family, that they might stay together as long as the father lived. Freighted with this news, I went to the miserable home. They were waiting for me; had been sitting, weeping in company for hours, expecting the separation. I cannot describe to you the joy that filled that poor home when I told them that the father was not to go. Their joy was more touching than even the preceding grief.

Had "S. W. H. C." been with me then, or had he seen so many of just such cases as I have seen, he would be much slower in coming to judgment of the poor organ-grinder. For it is this love of wife and children, which we honor, or ought to honor, which sends the married soldier on the street to beg in this way, rather than take life easy, and "fight his battles o'er and o'er again" in an asylum. The soldier above referred to is still alive, thanks to the assistance given him by General Butler and the good ladies of the Association.

The asylums, as they are at present ordered, cannot meet cases like these; but they merit help, and should have it in some fashion. The Ladies' Union Relief Association does much to keep a great number off the street who would otherwise present much more disagreeable pictures than the organ-grinders to the eyes of your sensitive correspondent; but their means are limited. They cannot reach all who need. Until the country has reached out her helping hand to all to whom she owes assistance as a right, it is in bad taste to find fault with the mode in which the disabled soldier tries to earn a living for his family.

MCWATTERS.

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TEN DOLLARS A MONTH: A STORY OF GRIEF AND JOY.

It is a painful comment upon the state of society, or the character of our civilization, that our most cherished literature, both of poetry and prose, has its origin in human woes and wrongs. "Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn." Dickens, with all his wealth of genius, so much prized, would have found no use for it in a decent world, unless, perchance, it might have shone as brightly upon the face of Joy, as it beamed pathetically upon the tortured visage of Misery. Hood, in his immortal "Song of the Shirt," and the "Bridge of Sighs," and in many other of his verse; Tennyson, in the best of his poems; Mrs. Browning, with her vast power of thought and feeling, to say nothing of many other great writers of the past and present; our own blessed poet Whittier, etc., have given us their noblest works with pens dipped in human tears, or sharpened by human sufferings. So, too, of the great good deeds of the other philanthropists--the Howards, the Nightingales, the McWatterses. They could only have had their origin in the wrongs which man does to his fellow-man; in the outrages which the tyrant classes do to the weaker; in the riot of wars for governmental supremacy; in the sufferings of the outraged, trampled into the dust by the powerful robbers of society in their mad greed for wealth, or cheated by pious and talented hypocrites out of their moral as well as physical rights.

Society should be so ordered, as it might readily be, that all the pathetic literature now so much cherished, would be obnoxious to us, as belonging to a state of things which once existed, but which all were anxious to forget; when only the songs of joy should find birth, and when the basilar principles of Christianity should be practically recognized, and everywhere expressed in our institutions, or organic social life. But this we cannot hope for till superstition shall be done away with, the "money-changers" driven from the porches of our "temples;" the poor and ignorant made aware of their rights, and earnest in claiming them; and the tyrant classes come to learn the falsity of their chief "motto," namely, that 'tis "better to rule in hell than serve in heaven."

We had thought to give in the foregoing Biographical Notes some touching instances of the experiences of the good women of the "Ladies' Union Relief Association" and Officer McWatters, in their noble work of succoring the needy, and binding up the wounds of the suffering. We have before us, furnished by the kindness of a friend, a partial record of the Association's deeds (never intended for publication), freighted with notes of bitter sorrows which they have assuaged, and which, written out, would fill pathetic volumes; but we have no space for them here. One, however, so enchains our interest that we cannot forbid ourselves to recite it here, as an exemplary instance, which, if multiplied in his mind by hundreds and thousands, will give the reader something like an adequate understanding of the vast work of kind and tender ministrations which these philanthropists have done, and are constantly doing.

Officer McWatters had two or three times visited a poor, sick, emaciated veteran soldier, by the name of Patrick O'Brien. Of course Patrick could earn nothing for his own support, and depended wholly upon what little his good wife (a comparatively young and fragile woman) could earn by washing and scrubbing, and which she shared with him and their three young children. McWatters was greatly moved by the condition of this family. He saw that the wife could not much longer sustain the burden she was bravely attempting to bear, and finally advised that, as the best thing to be done, the veteran should be sent, at the expense of the Ladies' Union Relief Association, to the Soldiers' Home at Dayton, Ohio. This was consented to by the soldier and his suffering wife, but not without great reluctance. The sympathy of sorrows is tenderly cohesive and sensitive. After leaving with the family some money for their aid, and fixing upon a time, two or three days thereafter, to call with a carriage, and take the soldier to the cars, Officer McWatters bade good day to the family. They expected him to come for the veteran in the night, for the poor man preferred travelling then, as he got no sleep in the night season.

Officer McWatters was so greatly impressed by the innate pride, high spirit, and profound love of the soldier for his family, so deeply reciprocated by them, that he could not bear to see that poor household separated, and at once interested himself to get an allowance for the soldier from the Association, and thus enable him to stay with his family; and he succeeded in procuring ten dollars a month for him, assurance of which he received by letter, just at the time appointed for taking the soldier from his poor home to the cars. He went to bear the good news to the family. It was so late when he got to their miserable little room (for one room, one bed, served them all), that they had retired, thinking that he would not come that night. He rapped, and announced his name, and the poor wife arose from the bed, and admitted him. The poor children awakened before he could announce the good news, and supposing that he had come to take away their father, rushed off from their couch, and sobbing and weeping, implored him not to take their father off, the violence of their and their mother's grief preventing Officer McWatters explaining his present errand for the space of a full minute or two. The poor soldier, moved by his family's grief, had risen from that one bed, and added his prayer to the rest, for something else possible to be done than the sending of him away.

At last Officer McWatters succeeded in quelling the passionate storm of wailing and grief for an instant, which he seized to tell them his errand in. It is not probable that pen or pencil could ever do faintest justice to the picture of the gleeful, tearful gratitude which that family exhibited in their sudden revulsion from broken-hearted grief to wild joy, as McWatters finished reading the letter he had received assuring the monthly allowance.

"Ten dollars a month!" A pitiable sum, yet it brought joy to that whole household at that dead hour of night, in the city of mingled sorrows, and vanities, and debaucheries, when hundreds and thousands of the pampered sons and daughters of luxury (worthless members of society) were wasting each more than ten dollars an hour in worse than useless ways,--in riot and "ribald revelry."

The poor man remained with his family nearly two years; when he died, and was buried by the Association. Upon his death his grateful widow wrote to the ladies a letter (a copy of which was taken from the archives of the Association without their special knowledge, it must be confessed, but by "no robbery" after all), and which we think most worthy a place here, in honor of the good ladies whose charities it acknowledges.

"NEW YORK, May 3, 1870.

"_To the Ladies Union Relief Association_:

"LADIES: It is my painful duty to inform you of the death of my
husband, Patrick O'Brien. Allow me to express the deep sense of
gratitude that I and my children feel towards your Association
for the assistance you have generously extended to us during
the last two years of his illness. The value of that assistance
has been enhanced by the manner of its bestowal. Mr. McWatters,
the kind dispenser of your bounty, has smoothed to the grave
the pilgrimage of a proud spirit; but for the many delicate
assurances he gave my husband that your generous assistance was
not charity, but the poor soldier's rightful due, the last
years of his life would have been embittered by a sad sense of
destitution and dependence.

"My husband served the republic for nearly four years, during
which service he was maimed in its defence, and died at last of
disease contracted in the service. He could not have borne the
thought that he and his little ones were subsisting on the cold
charity of the world, and thanks to the delicate tact with
which your aid was bestowed his mind was smoothed, and his last
days on earth made peaceable.

"Please accept the sincere gratitude and blessings of a
soldier's widow and three children.

MARY O'BRIEN."

This scene of the poor family, with their single bed, and as they stood in their night-clothes before Officer McWatters, as, choked with mingled feelings of sympathy and a sense of the joy he was about to give them, he read, with tears, the welcome news, ought to be put upon canvas, and hung upon the walls of all the haunts of sin, the gold-room of the Exchange, the brokers' offices, bankers', princely merchants' ware-rooms, sectarian churches, and the other meeting-places of pride and robbery throughout the city, and underneath it should be written, "A chapter of our civilization in the 19th century."

S.

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MACK AND THE VETERAN.

A TOUCHING TALE--THE POETRY AND PATHOS OF BARE FEET.

The following, taken from the New York Dispatch of October 16, 1870, is not only to the point as illustrating the noble traits of Officer McWatters' character, but is too well told not to be preserved here. We think best to make no substitution of "McWatters" in the place of the familiar _sobriquet_ by which the genial writer was pleased to designate him.

In one of the big public institutions set apart for a branch of the Municipal Government of this big, overgrown city of ours, there is one, among the many departments of this, that, and the other thing, presided over by our friend Mr. Mack.

Mr. Mack is a gentleman, who, though old in years, is not old in infirmity, and he walks about with a vim and spirit that might be profitably imitated by many listless young men of the period.

Besides devoting his time and talents to his official position, he takes an active interest in everything of a philanthropic nature. We are ignorant of the number of societies which have these objects to attain, of which Mr. Mack is a member; but in all of them he is among the most active.

Among the charitable societies, is one composed of ladies, who attend the wants of disabled soldiers, their widows and orphans. The ladies have selected our friend Mr. Mack as their almoner, and his office is visited every day by scores of poor people.

On a late visit to the good man, we found a poor veteran just approaching his desk.

"Mr. Mack, sir," said the man.

"That's my name sir. Take a seat."

The man stepped forward briskly, but with a limp. He was sixty years of age, with gray hair, shabbily attired, lame in the leg and arm, and, as it afterwards appeared, one half of his right foot gone; a wreck of the human form divine, but with much manliness left about him.

"What is your business, friend?"

"That's it, sir; and I'll thank you if you can do it," he replied cheerily, as he handed a letter.

"You want to go to New London?" said Mr. Mack, after reading the missive.

"That's it, sir; my darter lives there. I've walked all the way from Philadelphia, and my legs have kinder give out. One of them ain't of much account anyway, but I've got to make the best of it."

_Mr. Mack._ "Were you a soldier? You know my business is principally with soldiers, although I should be glad to assist you if it is in my power."

_Veteran._ "Well, I guess so, sir. I got knocked up in this kind of shape doing service for Uncle Sam."

He raised his arm with difficulty, and pointed to his leg.

_Mr. Mack._ "Have you your discharge papers?"