Year: 1879

The City Hospiial and wh'sAeS


Bills.


As the assistant editor OF the va
.stts is also a city official, and one IN
whom We place much confidence an"
through his official relations has access
TO the books in which the city accounts
are kept, we presume that We can reason
ably rely upon the figures whioh IL
uses In its expose Of the amount ana
cost Of the whiskey bills Of the City
Hospital since January first 1879. 1t
Is 4 very we'll ascsrtained fact that the
patients in the City Hospital DO not
average three per month, and some
times there are not more than one IN
the institution and yet it Is remarkable
that for nine months 1t took s2Zl.b
worth Of drugs and $49.3o worth OF
liquors, mostly whiskey, to either cure
or kill them. 1t may be possible that
4 dsrable part of the s22l.76spent
for drugs covered whisksy bills Also
but whether they did or did not, is not
material, but the impartial reader will
be struck with the amount OF drugs
aud whiskey it takes to run hospital
with less than an average Of three pa
tients month in it. 1t is not to be
wondered at, that there are suspicious
that much of that liquor was used Tor
other purposes than for the relief OF
the very limited number OF patients
sent to the City Hospital, aud this cir
cumstanoe goes far towards strengthen
ing the declarations Of Mrs. Zisgler,t that
Jolly times were Of frequent recurrence,
though We think that in some OF her
deci arations a. to who participated in
tb csc festive occasions, she is slightly
mistaken. Besides this enormous drug
and whiskey bill, furnished gratni-
tously by the City Council for an aver
age Of about two or three persons
month, it must be remembered thatthe
City Council pays the Superintendent
of the hospital "a a week tor boarding
the patients, besides paying for the do
m.stic help required. By rule OF the
hospital it is required that each patient
should pay for his own board or the
friends who put him there were to pay
it for him. The collection Of these
board bills seems to have been entirely
neglected by the Superintendent and
the hospital committee, and according
to the way the accounts stand, not more
than about GIG have been collected from
them since within year past. This
makes a very dear hospital for the tax
payers of Wilmington to support. Ad
mitting that there are on an average
three persons in the hospital all the
time, which is a very large allowance,
the board bill for the year at "a per
week, would be $500. The drug and
whiskey bill in the same ratio for the
year would be s33S.S3. Two helps at
81 a week and board at the same rate
allowed for patients would be $3.50
more including board, drugs, whiskey
and hired help. This amounts to
$l458.s3. To be added TO this is the
Superintendent's salary of $500, the
physician S salary of 5000, and the fuel
bill OF not less than $3.50, incidentals
800, and interests on s27, 600 purchase
money 100000, and it will be found
that it requires about s402s at the low.
est calculation to keep up city hospi-
tai for the accommodation of about
three patients month on an average.
This is paying dear for an experiment
which has not only resulted in an un-
necessary expenditure OF money but in
the disgrace Of some of the city officials,
and now the best thing that can be
done will be to abolish the City Hospi-
tai altogether and that as speedily as
possible.