Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-18

We find in the Commissioners report that
the Municipal Lodging House cost over four
thousand dollars for the year named in the
report. For this sum 900 meals were
served and q, 900 lodgings given the unfortu-
nate and homeless. On the face of the re-
turns this does not look bad, but little
closer investigation and comparison shows
the need of reformation and change Of
management in that charity
For instance the Soldiers and Sailors
Temporary Home on Missouri avenue, ex-
pended for the same year $4,000 For this
sum the superintendent in charge served
1900 meals and gave 1000 lodgings to old
soldiers and sailors temporarily stranded in
the city.
There is no comparison in the meals and
as little in the lodgings given at the two
places. The writer was a guest Of Capt.
A. A. Maxim the superintendent of the
Soldiers Temporary Home for three days
on coming to this city, and before we Sc
cured employment. He served two sub
s.antial meals, in fact we have eaten no
better since because we prefer plain sub
stantial food such as healthy honest men
enjoy whose digestive organs are unm-
paired by excesses in solids or liquids.
The beds in this Temporary Home are
clean as are the rooms and Senator or
Representative do not rest their gigantic
intellects and overworked bodies on more
Testful couches than Captain Maxim offers
the stranded old soldier
The food has been described in these
columns which Capt Cutler the superin
tendeni Of the Municipal Lodging House
supplies the homeless tramp or stranded
strange Aud the information came direct
from the chef who cooked II 4 grub" A
dish Of soup or pot liquor piece Of bread
and coffee minus sugar and milk is the
unpalatable and insufficient meal one re-
ceives at the city lodging house, and be-
tween meals the recipient of this charity
must say nothing and saw wood" A
single cotton blanket is only furnished the
coldest nights.
How Captain Maxim could furnish almost
double the number Of substantial meals
with sugar in the strong black coffee, abuu
dance of bread and a generous supply of
meats and vegetables for $500 less per
annum than Captain Cutler supplies his pot
liquor soup and a small hunk of bread we
are unable to say but il Is worthy of investi-
cation by even as high aud mighty auto
Gratis as our District Commissioners. AT
any hour of the night Captain Maxim will
admit the old soldier applicant, after 10 p.
III. no lodgers need apply at the Municipal
Lodging House, where Captain Cutler and
his family occupy the upper floor and re-
ceive $I2Oo per annum salary. The super
iutendent of the Soldiers and Sailors Tenn
poraFy Home is not allowed to quarter his
wife and family at the home and they are
compelled to live and board elsewhere.
The GLOBE has been paihstaking enough
TO make these comparisons for an object,
and that object is, in view of the coming
National Encampment of the G. A. R., that
Congress enlarge the Temporary Home and
make more generous appropriation for its
maintenance.
We are pleased to observe that $500 extra
has been added to this years allowance,
bringing the total UP to 81 600, but the
capacity of the accommodation now at the
disposal of Superintendent Maxim ought
to be doubled as there will be many seeking
the shelter Of the home during the coming
encampmentand per cent Of those must
be kept until they are either sent to the
Hampton Home or helped to their former
homes Ten thousand dollars would not be
an exttavagant sum TO appropriate even an
nually for this Temporary home, but es-
pecially the present year and its National .
O.. A. R. Encampment contingencies and .
requirements.
Captain Cutler is assuredly not interested .
in circulating the Commissioners report /
which contrasts in such disDaraging figures
his management Of the Municipal Lodging
House and that of Captain Maxim's credi.
table management of the Temporary Sol /
diers and Sailors Home
Surely the Commissioners do not read .
their.owu report or they would ask for some
explanation and investigate the cause of
why it costs the city $1,000 for ten thousand
meals and four thousand lodgings Of much
inferior character to the eighteen thousand
meals aud nine thousand lodgings furnished
by the Temporary Soldiers Home for g., 500
And there we leave the subject