EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 28, 1888_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 820, entitled "An act granting
a pension to David A. Servis."
The beneficiary named in this bill enlisted August 14, 1862, and was
discharged June 8, 1865.
It is alleged that about the month of January, 1863, a comrade, by way
of a joke, put powder into a pipe which the beneficiary was accustomed
to smoke and covered it with tobacco, so that when he lighted it the
powder exploded and injured his eyes. The report of the Senate committee
states that it does not appear that "any notice was taken of this wanton
act of his tent mate."
There is no mention of any disability or injury in the record of the
soldier's service. He seems to have served nearly two years and a half
after the injury. He filed an application for a pension in May, 1885,
more than twenty-two years thereafter.
Whatever may be the extent of the injury sustained, in regard to which
the evidence is apparently quite meager, I can not see that it was such
a result of military service as to entitle the applicant to a pension.
The utmost liberality to those who were in our Army hardly justifies a
compensation by way of pension for injuries incurred in sport or pastime
or as the result of a practical joke.