AN ITALIAN PUZZLE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 20, 18 October 1907, Page 7

AN ITALIAN PUZZLE.

. , v : TWO' INTO ONE. I BY ■ TELEGEAPH—rEESS ASSOCIATION —COPYEIGHT. ;; ' • - Roma, October 16. The Italian Government has appropriated £40,000 for tlio benefit of survivors of the (iaribaldian army. Tho army originally numbered 12,000. Already; there are 34,000 applicants. The" difficulty which tho unusually heavy •percentage of .survivors of the Garibaldian Army presents' to tho Italian (lovernmont is not a wholly unfamiliar one. ' More than ono ■country has discovered that as tho years pass there is no falling o'EE-in the number of mili-» tary, pensioners, but, on the contrary, a marked increase, in sympathy with the other vital statistics. America in particular has had .ample experience of tho immortality..of, the. veterans, not only of, the Civil War,'but : also i of the War-of. Independence. Until a few years ago tho survivors of tho fetter war were all still drawing their pensions, and it was not until the Department of War became deeply impressed with the hardiness ,of. tie vetehms, and their abnormally strong hold upon lifethousands of men,- middle-aged when tho war ended, being still in,, receipt, of pensions, nearly ,100 years investigation was made into the subject'. ' Mark Twain has related, by means of : newspaper'clippings, ■ the wonderful vitality and numcrousness of Washington's favourite body-servant, Georgo. This remarkable man died, and was buried jvith military honours, in about thirty .different cities during the 19th N century,' and the newspapers recording .his'persistent demises gave moro and moro wonderful < accounts •of the; > over-increasing strength 'of George's memory. Upon i his last deceaso George was said to have clearly recollected the landing 'of the Pilgrim Fathers, and Mr. Clomcns anticipated that upon the next occasion' of his death it would be found that the old negro faintly recollected having witnessed the landing of Columbus.