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KEPT UP WIDOW'S PENSION HER NAME HAD BEEN STRICKEN FROM THE ROLLS ABSCONDING CASHIER'S INEXPLICABLE ACTION For Four Years Charged $12 Month to Bank's Expense Account (By Leased Wire.) Topeka, Nov. 17-The pension department is investigating the pension of Mary Dalhammer of Abilene whose pension was cancelled in Washington nearly four years ago, but who had received her pension regularly from John A. Flack, the defaulting Abilene banker. Mrs. Dalhammer never knew her pension had been stricken from the list, but presumed it was sent to Flack for her. Two months ago, when the Abilene bank failed, Mrs. Dalhammer's pension stopped and the case is now in the hands of the pension department. It appears from the records of the department in Washington that no word was received from Mrs. Dalhammer in 1906 and in November of that year her name was stricken from the pension rolls. She says that she received her pension regularly from Flack until the failure of the bank, but was never required to sign any vouchers. Flack, it appears, had charged the woman's pension of $12 a month to the expense account of the bank. Mrs. Dalhammer is the widow of Peter F. Dalhammer, who was a member of Company K. One Hundred and Sixty-fifth drafted militia Since bis death the woman has received " pension of $12 a month. She is very feeble and in modest circumstances Just why Flack should have paid the woman nearly $600 pension money from the earnings of the bank when the government was willing to give the woman the money, is a question that is bothering a special pension ex aminér, who is investigating the case. He will spend several days in Abilene and hopes to dig up some features that will give the government more light on the transaction Mrs. Dalhammer is uneducated and cannot read or write. She says she did not know that Flack was paying her pension out of the funds of the bank, but presumed that the government had sent the money to him for her. "My home is between Mr. Flack's and the bank," the woman said, "and Mr. Flack frequently told me it would be no trouble for him to leave my pension money at the house for me. He did not bring any papers for me to sign. He told me Is would be unnecessary to sign any as he said he would attend to that for me. In the four years that Flack brought her the pension money, Mrs. Dalhammer never executed a VOUCH er. When the bank closed and the woman failed to receive her pension money, she became worried and the trouble was taken up with the pension department in Washington. It was the first communication the department had had with the woman in nearly four years and the case was referred to the Topeka office for investigation. "I cannot explain the case," said a pension examiner, "unless Flack was insane. Any reasonable man would have known that the woman's pension would have been paid by the government, and his action could not be attributed to a charitable cause If the pension had been paid by the government, Flack might have put the money in his pocket and still charged the account to the bank; but by his method the bank lost nearly $600 and Flack apparently gained, nothing. Should the government decide to remit the four years back pension, it is very probable that the bank will ask to be reimbursed for its loss and the money paid to the receiver.
