Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1887 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

The bills granting pensions to Mrs. Logan and Mrs. Blair, widow of General Frank Blair, were defeated in the House Committee on Invalid Pensions, says a Washington dispatch. The members were arrayed on party lines—seven Democrats voting against and five Republicans in favor of the bills. It is understood that the basis of the opposition to the bills is a reluctance on the part of the majority of the committee to the continuance of the policy of granting high pensions to widows of officers who did not die from injuries incurred in the service. The only precedents for passing such bills arc found in the cases of the widows and families of Admiral Farragut, Generals Hancock, Thomas, and Grant, and the majority of the committee believe it would be bad policy to follow those precedents, in view of the fact that there are about one hundred surviving widows of officers who would then ba entitled to pensions who are now excluded by the general law-.

Congressman Floyd King, of Louisiana, publishes a card in the Washington papers regarding the insult offered to him by Cuthbert Jones iu the barber’s shop of Willard’s Hotel: King says: While I was being shaved Cuthbert B, Jones, accompanied by a man whom I took to be his brotlier, came into Stewart s shop and soon began conversation with each other iu a loud tone of voice about my defeat for a renomination to Congress. To this I made no response. When I had been shaved and arose from my position cuthbert Jones got up from a cmiir eight or ten feet distant, on the arm of which he was sitting, and, looking at me, uttered for some moments the most offensive and brutal language, such as a would-be assassin would employ ween seeking an opportunity to commit murder under the disguise of the law, he and his friend meanwhile occupying advantageous positions some twelve or lilteen feet apart. Discovering tnat 1 could not be caught in the villainous trap they hud laid for me they retired. 1 kept my eye all the time on both. In the height of his irenzy Jones held his stick in his left hand and threw his right on his hip, or possibly into his hip-pocket. under these circumstances, being menaced by such deadly purpose, had I. been armed I should have felt justified in destroying him. He - was ut no time nearer than eight or ten feet' from me. lam a law-abiding man, but the law imposes no restraint in protecting myself. Jones’ hostility to me is utie solely to my opposition to uis appointment to a consular position. That opposition was because I was inlormed by most reputable and distinguished men acquainted with the facts that he wks a fugitive from justice on account of the assassination of Gen. Liddell ot my district by Jones’ lather, his elder brother, and himself, the two iormer being lynched for iheir crime, and the latter flying lor his life. He has never yet ventured to return. Not long ago he had his life ihsured, and by the payment of an extra premium had the exemption about suicide aud death by violence stricken out, telling the agent with great frankness that he expected to die with his boots on. He always goes armed, and. has repeatedly tried to provoke King into assaulting him. He has challenged him to a duel several times, but the Congressman will take no notice of him. It is believed by the iriends of Jones that King's card will result in a culmination of the long feud by the death of one or the other of them. The wife of Senator Voorhees died last week in Washington, of acute peritonitis. The remains were taken to Terre Haute for interment Senator Spooner of Wisconsin has been placed on the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections to succSed Gen. Logan. The Secretary of the Treasury has Called $13,887,000 in 3 per cent, bonds, leaving exactly $40,000,010 outstanding. Abandoned military reservations, comprising 700,000 acre,, are about to be surveyed and platted, preparatory to their appraisement and sale.