Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1885 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics reports the total value of exports of beef and pork products for nine months ended July 31, 1885, at $07,706,002; dairy products for three months ended July 31, 1885, $4,031,716. The total value of the exports of breadstuffs from the United States lor the seven months ended July 31, 1885, was $55,558,952. Marshal McMichael, of the District of Columbia, will, it is said, bo retained in office until his commission expires, fifteen months hence. The pension laws provide that soldiers who have lost a leg at the hip-joint or an arm at the shoulder-joint in the service of the country shall be entitled to pensions at the rate of $37.50 per month. It has been the custom of tho Pension Department to construe this law strictly. There are less than a dozen cases on the pensionrolls in which the amptutation has taken place exactly through tho joints mentioned. Commiss'oner Black, in ruling upon two test cases brought before him, declines to hold to the strict letter of the law and allows the full amount of pension, though the amputation did not take place at tho joints. He bolds that if the amputation is so near the hip or shoulder as to render the stump unserviceable tho pensioner is entitled to the same compensation as if no stump were left. This rule will apply to a considerable number of pensioners who have been receiving pay at a lower rate. Serious charges have been filed here against some of the Alaska judiciary. They involve drunkenness and various abuses. A. Wilson Norris, late Pension Agent at Philadelphia, has not, it is charged, yet rendered his accounts to the Treasury Department, though frequent demands havo been mado upon him. Tho department officials are in a quandary es to what stops should be taken in the matter. No charges are made against the ex-official’s integrity. Commissioner Atkins issued an order for tho removal of settlers from Crow Creek Reservation, in Dakota. Washington gossip lias it that Treasurer Jordan has carried his economy to the extent of givifig up his room and sleeping in his office.