Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American DetectivesMcWatters, George S.
General
Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives
McWatters, George S.
Detectives
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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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