Show tELEGBAPIIC NEW l KBS LINCOLN a She is Poor as Usual and Thinks Congress Should do Something for Her New York 21Mrs Abraham Lincoln Lin-coln at present resides at No 39 West Twentysix street this city where she is undergoing a course of electrical treatment treat-ment Her nhvsical condition while not precarious is such as to demand constant con-stant care for she is troubled with a spinal difficulty that renders it impossible impossi-ble for her to wlk and which will unquestionably un-questionably keep her on her back the remainder of her days Mentally Mrs Lincoln is active and clear She talks with rapidity and is pleased to meet her friends who may call to visit her I spent two hours with her this afternoon the conversation turning mainly upon the subject now uppermost in her mind and which has during the past week received re-ceived and excited a great amount of criticism which is the possible increase of her pension by Congress Mrs Lincoln lays she has felt much grieved to hear that the people of Illinois should give expression to any such statements as have found their way into the press concerning con-cerning her and she know full well the particular source from which these reports re-ports have emanated and the personal feelings which prompted them This government she says owes it to her to see that she is provided for in a manner that her wants may be fully met and there is no reason why she should not receive the same consideration at the hands of the nation that may be contemplated for another Not on her own account so much as an act of justice to the memory of the man to whom this nation owes a great debt of gratitude Abraham Lincoln Lin-coln So far as her present financial condition con-dition is concerned Mrs Lincoln says most positively that she has ndt enough from government to maintain her She is under expenses medical and other which are large no matter how fimply she may live and as for being a charity subject on the hands of her relatives she will never consent to that Some had criticized her son Robert because he did not take care of her She did not desire to have him do so for he had his own brood to look after and his hands were full His kind heart had urged this many times and also his wife had done the same but she had insisted that it washer was-her duty to live upon her own resources There had been a story floating about said Mrs Lincoln and it was now freshly repeated in western papers that she had received 75000 from Congress and that the interest upon this sum added to her 3 000 pension ought to be enough to maintain her Handsomely There never was a greater falsehood Congress never gave her 75000 but immediately after husbands death that body did vote her the amount of the Presidents salary for one yesr 25000 less 2500 which Mr E B Washburne succeeded in having cut off the sum originally intended tended and this left her 22500 She went to Chicago and purchased a house on West Washington street paying therefor 18000 and in addition paid out a considerable amount for furniture so that she had very little left after this transaction from the original amount of the appropriation She finally found it would cost more than she could afford to keep up the house so she told her son Robert that if he would pay her 1500 a year for the period of seven years he might have the property He agreed to his and paid tbat sum annually The property much of the time failed to pay more than half that revenue EO he was obliged to make the payments out of his own pocket She also gave to Robert the house in Springfield which was very old ad worth but little She was prompted in both instances by a desire that her son should have something of what the country coun-try had given her in consideration of his fathers services Not until July 15 1870 more than five years after President Pres-ident Lincolns death did Congress see fit to grant her a pension The original design was to secure her 5000 but it was cut to 3006 which Charles Sumner in a letter informing her that it had been voted advised her not to accept as it was far below what ought to have been given her But she felt that 3000 was even better than nothing and her necessities compelled her to decline to act upon his urgent advice ad-vice She had always endeavored to live rugually and when in France she lived like a peasant in small apartments and id not spent her time traveling making but infrequent visits to Italy whither he went in winter on account of her i health Often of late she bad been obliged to borrow money on her pension claim hi order to meet her expenses It matters not she says what Jacob Bunn has of hers That is a small amount and concerns nobody She had not cough money to live on and the felt it was the duty of Congress to increase her pension at least to an amount in keeping with her necessities |