nsion to George Colwell."

The record shows that this beneficiary was enrolled in the military
service August 10, 1862, and was mustered out June 1, 1865.

There is no record of any disability during his service.

He was pensioned at the rate of $2 a month for a dog bite just above the
ankle.

In September, 1865, three months after his discharge, he strained the
knee of the leg which had been bitten.

In 1887 he applied for an increase of pension, alleging increased
disability. This increased disability appears plainly to be the result
of the strain or injury to the knee, and in no way connected with the
bite for which he was pensioned.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1889_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 10791, entitled "An
act granting a pension to Marinda Wakefield Reed."

This beneficiary filed an application for pension in November, 1876,
alleging that her husband, William A. Reed, died in September of that
year of consumption contracted in the line of military duty.

The records show that the soldier was in hospital in the year 1864 for
chronic diarrhea and intermittent fever.

On the 5th day of November, 1864, he was injured in a railroad accident
while on his way home to vote at the Presidential election of that year.

The beneficiary claimed in August, 1885, in support of her application
for pension that those injuries resulted in consumption, from which the
soldier died, and the favorable report of the House committee to which
the bill herewith returned was referred seems to proceed upon the same
theory.

Nothing appears which satisfactorily connects this injury, which was
received in November, 1864, with death from consumption in 1876.

Another difficulty in the case is found in the fact that when the
soldier was injured he was clearly not engaged in any military duty nor
was his injury in any degree attributable to military service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1889_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill 11466, entitled "An act granting a
pension to Mary A. Selbach."

This bill does not give the name of any soldier to whom the beneficiary
was related or in what capacity the pension provided for is to be paid
to her, but it appears from the report of the committee accompanying the
bill that she is the widow of Gustavus Selbach, a volunteer i