National Republican., 1878-08-27
rOUR FOR OWE.
A Queer Way of Distributing Charity.

tol, along the line oil the old canal, ana LOT
other purposes:
Qfhe tHled Sdiss n America IN COnprcs .isssmbld,
That the sum Of sljUUO be, and the same Is hereby
appropriated, out Of any money. in the Treasury
ploying the poor Of the District In the work OF I'LL
Ing up, draining, and placing In good sanitary con.
dition ne grounds south o. ihe UapsSr mVng ,hs
District shall determine the plan OF said WORK shall
see that II properly conducted and shall disburse
the money PrUriisd, That a further appropriation
be and lshereby made, Of the sum Of 5000, out of
any moneys In the Treasury not otherwise appro-
prated, for the purpose of providing medical at
firm poor Of the District andthat the same shall be
dlsbursed under the dircction Of the Commission.
ers Of the District Of Columbia
Dear Editor, with q feeling akin to awe, We
ask II you can interpret the part providing for
the sick and infrm Of the District. We never
did make much pretension TO = vast amount
Of knowledge, but still have blundered through
lifes Journey with an indefinite idea that our
language could be understood by those, at least,
that had the advantages Of Gods best gift
common sense. We congratulated ourselves that
we had succeeded, when Senators and Represen.
tatives understood what was meant, but find we
have all along been mistaken. We want you
to tell us il ''intrm" means sick. Have looked
in all our dictionaries to find II interpreted In
that way but no, not ono Of them-even our
Latin, that We always feel is the best to lean
upon In regular tugs Of war, disappoints.
Now, what are the public tn dor The astute
and learned Commissioner Phelps tells us It
means the sick who need medicine. We
wonder II Major Twining could help us out.
He was educated at West Point, and 1t is gen.
orally thought our language Is taught there.
Major, does iniirm mean sick who want medi-
dicine? We do so want to know, for we, with
Senators and Representatives, thought the
clause was so.easy Of Interpretation, when It
a 4 +. 4 r a. - 4 4.
poor of the District.
or course We thought some would need med
icine and no food: others medicine and food !;
and then a large majority. for lack of nour-
ishing food, had become feeble or inhim m and
alone needed food. We're we all so obtuse that
we did not understand the language of the
wants of the starving, sick, and iEfrm of this
cityr And 1t took Phelps-the brilliant
Phclps-to give 1t an Interpretation commen.
surate with his vast intellect. Dear Editor.
did you ever hear of our learned societies con.
ferring literary hOnors on him; or his being
pressed by those Of Europe TO allow his dis
tinguished name among their renowned saw
ans?
We will now tell'what 1t does not mean, and
we think we shall have city of intelligent
people to agree with US. II does not mean
renting a house, capable Of holding two fam.
lies, aud paying rent, and installing member
of one OF the families to prepare and hand out
S29.i2 worth Of food to our starving poor at an
expense Of sl20. In the First Ward Of the
above appropriation Commissioner Phelps and
a woman have a protege named Bauman, who
gets ~ to every one paid out to the hundreds
of suffering poor Of the police district at
Twenty-frst aud streets. II is an infntes.
NAL amount when divided up but what mat
tcrs itf Phelps and his prOtsge fare well out
Of the fund, and Phelps says il Is the only dis.
+ let where tue money Is properly disbursed.
We have been thinking, and we canuot help
the wsnderings Of our mind over the subject,
and we feel that II calls for other minds to
think as well as ours on the destitution. With
scarcity of work, how many poor families
would be willing, II 1t was necessary to dis
burse il in that way, to do 1t dollar for dollar.
Many aching hearts would he relieved by such
ali arrangement could II be made, that for dis.
tributiug few groceries they would receive a
moderate compensation. We think au army of
noble men anu women Of this city will be sad
rs well as the writer at so great fraud being
perpetuted on our suffering poor. We do pro-
pose that Commissioner Phelps and his female
aid take their own funds when they have u
woman that they would like supported, with
husband and sons family, and they OF an ire
spOnsible class, whom the grocer was not will
lug to trust until he was compelled by impcra-
tive orders from the intellectual Phelps. Your
readers will of course, ask where Is Commis-
sioners Dent and Twining. We will answer
for the former that he knew nothing about 1t ;
the redOubtable Phelps with his female man
aged the little affair; but we think We can
speak for the future that there will be heavy
Dent on FUur.and.a-half street If the little
pleasantly is not stopped and, judging from
an intellectual head We saw in that locality,
we would not be surprised to see little
''Twining' around the Dent" however deep
II might be. We never had much artistic
skill, but We did wish for enough to draw Com
missioner DYts face when he was told of the
arrangemelI
We will now contrast the former with ..another
police district. One of our old physicians was
appointed u man whose character Is above
suspicion, whose practice has amounted to
thousands Of dollars each year, and yet, ty
misfortune with the raising and education ofa
| large family, has become reduced, that 1t was
worthy his attention. He performed his duty
nobly, yet the chivalric Phelps ordered his dis
missal. WhyE Because there was no woman
| to take 81 for disbursing one. Mr.. Cissel, the
| humane and polite grocer at Seventh and l.,
was ever alert, and sent the orders to the sick
| and iniirin. We think the angels from Heaven
came down on that district, and bore back to
| their bright abode the names Of doctor, grocer,
and lieutenant of police, aud the recording
angel entered well done" We have listened
with delight, MS our old citizens have portrayed
In the most glowing cOlOrs the beautiful
character Of that clear r-headed, sprightly old
gentleman. lie has resided for almost half Il
century among them, and has gone in and out
without money or price, healing the sick and
caring for the poor aud needy, and was espe-
cially adapted for the,pOsitOn. As pOndered
On tie eulogiums of our old citizens, we thought
whqt precious legacy for his children, far
richer than gold.
In conclusion we will say, we hear so much
about 4 mean Congress and Senate, aud Is 1t
wonderful when 1t Is pledged that an appro-
pratiOn will be distributed without loss, and
then as soon rs II is given those in power ig-
more those pledges aud serve their own ends
1t was pledged that there should be no loss in
the distribution Of that fund that 1t should
b. given out by our best people, who were
ready and willing TO SO do The lady who was
mainly instrumental in securing the passage Of
the above resolution was obliged to ask Con.
RT,1ss aud Senate TO make II over TO tho Com
missioner, for she told them she could not
allow one penny to touch the palm Of her hand
for shc could not afford the suspicion that self
or selfrecDIupsnse was the motive power that
caused her TO brave winters storms and the
glare Of publicity, for II was that Gods poor
might be the recipients Of tho liberality OF
Congress, and her reward that "inasmuch W. ye
did II unto one Of the least Of these ye did II
unto ne" CHARITY.
| Tournament ut the National Driving Park.
The season for tournaments il fast approach
ing, when gentlemen Of the District and ad-
jaCent cOuntics will meet in the arena, mount