Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1898-01-14
GOOD WORK GOES ON
AS to the Locating at Hot Springs of the
Northern Branch of the Nation
al Soldiers Home

al Soldiers Home
The outside city papers have taken
up the subject of locating the National
Home at Hot Springs. The Sioux City
Journal of the 9Th inst. contained over
q column upon the subject, and copied
a considerable portion of the senate
military committee report. The Jour-
nal said:
Communications have been received
in this city which indicate strenuous
revival of the project for securing an
appropriation from congress for the
location at Hot Springs, S. d., of the
Northern Branch of the National Home
for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers of the
United States army. Col. Il. Il. Clough
president of the board of commission
ers of the South Dakota Home, now
located at Hot Springs, has sent Cir
cular letter to the managers and sur
geons oflall the soldiers homes in the
country, and to others, urging them to
use every effert with senators and con-
gressmen in behalf of the project for
the establishment of federal home
there particularly for the treatment of
those veterans who are suffering from
rheumatism and other ailments for
which the waters at Hot Springs are a
specific.
"There will be general interest in
1E kl&n nkn IN, C11
Clough's communication, and others
which he incloses. He has been on the
board of commissioners ever since the
institution was founded, and therefore
knows whereof he speaks. He is pre-
siding elder of the Black fills district
of the M. E. church, and therefore q
man to be trusted in what he may say,
and in his circular he declares he has
personal knowledge of the facts set
forth, and that he is concerned only in
etfecting that which will be of benefit
to the old soldiers themselves, and that
there is absolutely no real estate specu
lation nor any other Interior purpose
in the movement for obtaining an ap-
preparation from congress.
"According to Col. Clough's circular
the South Dakota Home has had 517
members admitted since it was opened
on Thanksgiving, 1890, whose average
age has been 81, and all of whom were
in poor health, of these 46 have died
from all causes, while 255, or more than
ne-half, have been discharged-a very
large percentage because of the i'm
provement in health effected by the
waters of the springs. Four years ago
thirty members of the Leavenworth
branch of the National Home were sent
to Hot Springs as an experiment in the
treatment to be had there for nervous
and rheumatic ailments, and the re-
suits were SO marvellous that the nat
ional board has ever since been trying
to secure the location of a branch there
to which veterans could be sent from
homes anywhere throughout the coun-
try.
"The senate committee on military
affairs has reported most emphatically
in favor of the appropriation.
"The inmates of homes throughout
the west are much interested in the
proposition, and already the state
Home at Hot Springs has received ap-
plications for entry from the National
Home at Milwaukee and from inmates
of state homes in North Dakota, Min
nesota, Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, Kan
sas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana.
But as admission can be granted to
the present state Home at Hot Springs
only in case the applicant is resident
of South Dakota, the requests had to
be refused. This is an indication of
the necessity that is felt for the erect
+ ion of National Home to which vet
Grams from any part of the country
could be admitted"
***
III. d. Clark received letter the fore
part of the week from C. +. Perkins,
president of the Burlington system, in
reply to IA letter regarding the National
Home. He declared his interest in the
success of the measure and said he
would at once get into communication
with parties in Washington in behalf
{ of it's success. This means much.
**:
South Dakota people, and especially
the residents of Hot Springs, are max
Z ing an effort to secure the location of
\ q National Home for disabled soldiers
at Hot Springs. Much may be said in
support of the claims of this enterpris-
ing little city in the Black Hills, and it
4 is certain that if the Home is located
there the old soldiers who avail them
/ selves of it's hospitality will be sur
rounded by many comforts not posi-
ble elsewhere. The state Soldiers
h Home, located in Hot Springs, is one
s'Uf the best of these state institutions.
Omaha Bee.