Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-01-21
The Freedmen's Hospital Crook ed.


mission appointed by Secretary Sci .nrz, con-
sisting OF Drs. Hood, Ewing and Naish. has
been noted in THE STAR,) were I.referred bv
Robert I. johnson, c0i0red patient. for
merIy the foreman o of the T. and Ladder
That revolving food, in ins. dfficie Mt quantities,
improperly cooked ana Unfit for food, was fur
nlshed. z That lhe bath room and water
closets were Kept IN an offensive condition. 3.
That the furniture. utensils and fixtures i'm the
wards were IN dilapidated uncomfortable,
mean condition, the bed spreads. &c. having
been transferred to the hospital at the close
OF the war, when army hospitals We're aban-
doned, and the entire furniture of a ward
would not sell for 500. 4. That patients with
contagious and lOathS0me diseases were COM
mingled prOmiScuOuSly with other patients,
when they should have been classified and SO-
lated from other patients. D. That cOnSump-
tive and aSthmatic patients were chartered
among other patients who were compelled to
breathe the eXhalatiOnS of diseased lungs,
when such cOnsumptive patients should have
been isolated from the others. 6. That pri-
yate parties were allowed to keep COWS within
the enclosure at the government expense. and
milk was furnished from outside parties. I.
That Howard university and Howard man
sion was constantly supplied with water at
the government eXpenSe-the tanks on each
of the buildings having been filled daily
by the government engineer pumping, the ex
pense being II, 800 per year. g. BY abrogating
the custom OF employing night nurse in each
ward, and placing one man in charge of two
wards with sixty patients) to attend to four
disc required have not been purchased as far
as practical on contracts but in small Itlanti-
ties from time to time, by which an inferior
quality of articles at high prices were obtain
ed. and thus the public money was squander-
ed: and TO- The legitimate expenses of said
hospital, as conducted under its present man
agement, do not exceed $4,000 per annum
and all money beyond that sum drawn ont of
the treasury on its account has been miSuSed.
sIuandered, embeZzed orpurloined. Through
such perversion or abstraction of appropriated
a rn lls,y- h.,.r
pnndered and the hospital defrauded to the
amount of $4,000 during the past five years.
While members of the medical staff, managers
or the institution, have been raised from im-
tied means 10 attiuence, become the owners of
valuable real estate, and fare sumptuOuSly
every day at the expense of the poor and the
sick, the manned and the dying, for whom
Congress made liberal provision if the public
bounty had been honestly and iudiciOuSly adj
ministered for the sole benefit and behalf of
the beneiiciaries, and not for the individual
proht and ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the functional
rleS to whom the execution of the trust was
cOnfided. Other charges were preferred as to
the ill.treatment of patients by some of the
physicians: allowing dangerous patients to
wander at will through the wards; having
work done on private property by employees
Oh the hospital who were paid by the govern
ment) and using material belonging to the
government in such work; and allowing the
burial OF dead bodies in close proximity to the
wards. Other charges were prepared. but were
not presented.
The respondent claimed that the govern
ment was under obligations to light ana heat
the Medical College, and to pump a supply of
water TO Howard University. He also claimed
that certain medical students were entitled to
gratultOuS board at the government expense.
That the affairs had been econ Omically admin
lStered, and that there was no law to compel
the letting out OF proposals for supplies by
contract, but that the custom was to buy gen
orally from two or more wholesale dealers,
and by getting up a competition between them
OBTAIN in the lowest prices, &c. In short, he put
Messrs. A. G. Riddle, +. Miller, and John H.
Cook represented the respondent. and one of
the Patients, Franklin r. FELTON,, formerly of
the. Philadelphia bar represented the com
plainanS.
AS to charge of revolving food Messrs. Pot
ter, Chase, Calvert and others testified for the
the patients very hard name-the evidence
of the latter being as TO a thirteen year old
coy, with hollow horn he had sold to the
i'll the market for the meat il was claimed he
sent it to the hospital. For the defence, W.
ii. Hoover, the butcher, testified that he never
supplied the hoSRial with any ether but good
Hour was purchased OF him, that generally two
kinds were bought which would make good
bread and delivered to the baker {kaiSer.)
The latter testified that the bread he furnished
was good and sweet. Mr.. Wilmer. grocer
testified to the good quality of goods purchased
OF him. Messrs. Potter, FELTON,, johnson, and
Lucius Hawkins testified to the second charge
as to fifty condition of the bath rooms and
closets. On the third charge as to dilapidated
condition OF the furniture, Messrs:: Potter,
Chase, Hawkins. and Calvert teStifed-the
first to much of the furniture having been in
use ten years. and the last named to having
seen yermin in the wards. The same witnesses
testified To the fourth and fifth charges.
Mi. Calvert 10 COWS of private parties being
Kept i'll the place, as also to the supply of water
forced up to Howard University and the
mansion. On the ninth charge, Mr. Brown, a
nurse, testified to the employment of but one
nurse for each two wards, and with johnson,
Potter, and others. cited the case of one of the
patients with the mania potu jumping from a
been prevented had there been an able bodied
nurse in charge of the ward. AS to goods
being purchased of private parties, Mr.. Cal
vert, Reed, the driver, and others testified. On
alyZed patient. testified to PurviS having
struck him over the head, and Mcguire a
cripple with but one leg eye and ear, to Purvis
making a, habit of scratching his face and
breast with a pencil, sometimes cutting the
skin and causing sores. Chase (ward mastery
testified to dangerous patients being allowed
ny government employees on private property
Calvert, the engineer. testified to putting in
water pipe with pipe from the hOspitaD on
~ r P p property; also at the houses of
by Reed, the driver, and others. There was also
evidence that Palmer, while treasurer of the
" American Palm Pulp and Paper Company"
authorized experiments to be made on the
hospital grounds to test the practcablity of
paper out OF palmetto leaves
and stems, which were hauled there by gov
eminent wagons: and for ten or twelve DAYS
at Il consumption of about 500 pounds of gov
eminent coal per day, the experiments were
made. The services of the engineer were Not
only required for this private work but a
nurse was taken from his ward to assist. and
besides the machinery was injured Lucas
and others testified to dead bodies being buried
i'll the Enclosure near the wards, and it was in
proof that the day after bag containing a
trunk minuS legs and part of the head) had
been taken up, in the presence of Dr. keene
health officer: Dr. Patterson, the coroner and
Lieut.. johnson, of the police that portions of
several bodies were eXhumed.
The prosecution also claimed tina; whatever
was paid out to more than two members of the
medical staff since July 1St last has been eX-
pended without law: and the respondent
claimed that under one of the items of the ap-
they had authority to increase the
medical staff. The prosecution claimed that
the respondents horse had been regularly fed
at the government stables on government
iced from March, rs, to October. II, but he
claimed that allowance was made therefor
1t was charged that manure, &C.. were sold
and the proceeds paid to the respondents, and
they admitted that money had been received
from sales OF barrels, bags, &c, and paid into
the "sluSh fund.- The prosecution charged
that for years past Howard University has alb
SOrbed $4,000 annually of the hospital appro.
prlatlOn, viz: Rent of premises. $1,000; pump
ing water, 81, 800; gas and fuel for medical
building, $1,000; medical students board,
81, 500: furniture, improvements, &c, s., 800:
care OF medical building, $500. Total, $1,000