The evening times., 1898-11-05

attention Is given the yard, whlcn is al
ways damp. Liberal applications of
whitewash have improved appearances,
and on the whole the place is probably
in as good order as can be maintained.
AT Columbia Hospital the privilege of
attending patients occupying private
rooms has been granted to physicians
not the hospital staff.
the Board of Childrens Guardians has
completed successful years work, and
its appropriations. both for administra-
tive purposes and for the care of chill
dren, have been largely increased. The
number of children placed in permanent
free homes has been small. because the
former administrative fund did not JUS
tify the employment of an additional
agent to do this work.
COlOred Boys on Farms.
IAN arrangement has been made by the
board for the support of a small number
of colored boys at farm school near
Fort Washington, Md, where it is be-
lieved much can be done in the way of
fitting them for honest self-support. This
adds to the facilities still too small for
the care and training of colored boys be-
| tween ten and sixteen years of age, and
| inaugurates an experiment which, IL sue
cessful, may be developed into a powerful
agency for proper and necessary prepa-
ration of these boys for the performance
of the duties of citizenship. 1t has arisen
out Of an appreciation of the necessity
for teaching them TO do skllfully and ef-
fectively the precise sorts of things which
they will in all probability have to do all
their lives.
The Florence Crittenton Hope and Help
Mission has taken up seriously a most i'm
portant new branch of work; that of Sc
curing country homes for destitute moth
| ers with infants. 1t has also established
| school of domestic science and has re-
| paired and greatly improved the property
| which 1t occupies.
"A valuable piece of property adjoining
! the Emergency Hospital has been given
to that institution to be used as a home
for nurses.
/ Improvement in the nursing at the
! Washington Asylum Hospital has been
| brought about through the partial dis
! placement of ignorant and inefficient
nurses by capable young women trained
| in that work. An arrangement has been
made by which pupil nurses after receiv-
/ ing two years instruction at the Asylum
| Hospital, will finish their course at the
| Emergency Hospital and will receive
| their certificates from the Washington
! Training School for Nurses.
Extensive repairs TO the Municipal
/ Lodging House render the property more
safe and convenient, and enable the su-
! perintendent to require more work and
| maintain better discipline
The police We're withdrawn from relief
| work and the fund heretofore allotted
from the appropriation for relief of the
| poor, for relief through the police was
| allotted for relief through the Central Re-
! lief Committee The income from surplus
| of inaugural funds. under control of the
Commissioners. was also, by order of the
,TZ--s g
tral Relief Committee and disbursed for
the relief of families recommended by the
| Associated Charities. The work of the
Central Relief Committee, and particular
| ly its systematic cooperation with other
| agencies for the relief of the poor, de-
| monstrated the desirabiIty OF the creI-
tion of a permanent body with similar
powers and duties. and that committee
| has been reorganized on permanent ba-
sis by the appointment by the Commits
| sioners of thirty persons, many Of whom
We're members of the Central Relief Com
mittee, to be members of a permanent In
corporated body, having for its special
object the collection from citizens OF the
| District of such funds as may be requir-
ed, and as the people may be willing to
| give for the relief of the poor and the
application of those funds in the most
humane and effective way. An organiza-
ton has been completed. charter. con-
stitution and bylaws prepared and plans
of operation discussed
Before the time of necessary activity
of such society arrives it will be legally
Incorporated and will be in working or
Ger. It's relations with the District gov
ernment are close. | have given attention
TO their accounts as submitted at the
close of each quarter. There were some
practices in vogue which We're in viola
ton of laws governing such accounts, as
well as recent regulations of the Treasury
Department. 1t was found that accounts,
wholly irregular as TO FORM had been
accepted at the Treasury without ques-
ton because of direction given by former
officers of that department that no ques-
tionS were to be raised regarding such
accounts; the appropriations for charita-
BILE institutions being considered as gra-
tuities not subject TO the ordinary rnles
of the department, and in regard TO which
the precautions thrown about the ex-
penditure of other appropriations would
be unnecessary.
After consultation with the auditor
for the State and other departments a
circular was issued calling attention to
! the provisions of the law and the treasu-
| ry regulations, and saying that from and
after August /, 1897 compliance with
these requirements would be expected.
New Systems of Reports.
"A new system of quarterly reports was
devised and blanks furnished all institu-
tions at the close of the first quarter
These call for more full and valuable re-
ports of the work accomplished by the
various institutions and for a separation
of the public and private funds
''At the colse of the second quarter the
attention of the auditor for the District,
and OF several presidents of boards of
trustees of Institutions, was called to the
striking difference in the prices paid for
staple articles of supplies by the pur-
chasing agents of different institutions.
amounting, in some instances, to a differ
ence of 3o to 40 per cent in prices paid
for supplies presumably similar in quail
ity and value
| Various reasons were assigned for such
inequalities, some of which We're good and
others were not. Some of those who had
been paying high prices for supplies at
once made efforts to secure satisfactory
goods at prices approximating those paid
by the District for supplies furnished to
institutions wholly under District con-
troll. Others made no such effort.
The House of the Good Shepberd
From the reports of the House of the
Good Shepherd it appears that 90 Fer
cent of the women and girls discharged
from that institution either leave yolun-
tarily and without it appearing that any
arrangement is made for their en-
pioyment or for continuing the restrain
ing influence of the sisters over them,
There is also nothing in the reports
which shows for what reason they are
received, whether they have parents who
! fnr