reel, 1 temporary extension ladder truck or cart, 1 50-foot extension ladder, 3 30-foot ladders, 3 20-foot roof ladders, 151 3-gallon chemical extinguishers, and a large quantity of fire buckets. There are also several other ladders, but mostly old and unserviceable, and unfit for fire protection. With this exception the apparatus is in good condition and adequate. Approximately, one-half of the fire hose, it was reported, has been in use for seven years and requires replacing with new. A light ladder truck suitable for men to handle would be a useful addition to the apparatus; also 3 more hydrants-one to be located at the canteen, and one at the farmers' mess house, and one at the clerks' cottage. Twelve additional ladders were also said to be needed to be placed at buildings that are located at some distance from the fire-fighting apparatus. This apparatus is tested every first and third Saturday in each month. The strength of the fire company is composed of 50 members and 25 civilians and consists of the guards, company commanders, orderlies, bandsmen, and civilian employees. ment. The shops of the engineer department consist of Engineer depart blacksmith, plumbers', and steam fitters', and tin shops, which are in one temporary structure located west of the power house; the carpenter shop, located in the laundry building, and the paint shop, in the temporary structure west of the carpenter shop. Water is furnished this Branch by the gravity system from the Los Angeles Water Company, and it was reported as being quite satisfactory in every respect. No drainage is required here except for the roofs and drainage for the surface of the ground. The roof drains have mostly been carried over the bluff, just east of the buildings, and the flow emptied at the foot of the bluff. For surface drainage, 2,217 linear feet of cement gutter have been laid during the past year; also 1,215 feet of vitrified tile pipe for crossing. The system was still unfinished at the time of inspection, requiring additional pipe for roof drains, and their completion around buildings, and a continuation of the cement conduit gutters and drains. The lines of sewers, with the exception of the hospital and one from the residences, are combined. into one near the power house, and the sewage pours into the septic tanks and passes away from the tanks in liquid form to the alfalfa fields and the gardens. They can be improved by extension and completion, and the sewers by an additional septic tank for use on the hospital line. The steam plant consists of 3 water-tube boilers, 100 horsepower each; 5 tubular returnable boilers, 50 horsepower; 1 locomotive fire-box boiler, 15 horsepower; one 30-horsepower engine, one 75-horsepower engine, for running laundry, carpenter shop, and machines in power house; 1 small 6-horsepower engine, for running meat chopper, coffee mill, and dough mixer; 3 air compressors, 1 heater, 1 condenser and heater, duplicate pumps, piping, etc. The steam plant is used for the purpose of propelling machinery, cooking and baking food, heating buildings, and for laundry purposes. It was reported to have cost $39,725, and the cost of maintaining it during the past fiscal year was $14,339.45-a cost per horsepower of $101.12. There are at the Branch 2,670,776 cubic feet of air space to be heated. The lighting plant consists of one 25-light (arc) transformer and a system of poles and wiring, switches, meters, arc and incandescent lights. It was reported to have cost $7,500, and was maintained during the past fiscal year at a cost of $7,541.60. There are 25 arc lights and 2,750 incandescent lights. The cold-storage and ice plant consists of 1 tank for making ice, condensing coils and cooling rooms at the main kitchen, coils and cooling rooms at the canteen, and one 5-ton compressor (ammonia), and one 8-ton ammonia compressing system of piping, boxing, etc. Eighteen thousand eight hundred and sixty cubic feet of air space are cooled. The cost of the ice plant was said to have been $13,501, and the cost of its maintenance for the past fiscal year was $3,471. It has a capacity for making 1,200 pounds of ice daily, and the cost per ton for making it was reported as $2.70, which is excessive when compared with the cost of making ice at the other Branches. ment. The dining hall was found in good condition, but it is Commissary depart of insufficient capacity, and authority has been granted for its extension. Its present capacity is for 560 members. The tables are always set twice and often three times. The kitchen seemed of ample capacity. Roaches were observed with the bread in the bakery. It was reported that the dining hall and kitchen are inspected daily by the quartermaster, monthly by the surgeon, and frequently by the governor. The facilities for receiving and taking care of supplies and for cooking and serving meals seemed ample. No improvements were suggested as needed in these respects. It was reported that there had been no sales of condemned subsistence property during the year. An average of 32 persons were said to be permanently employed in the kitchen, and 79 in the dining hall. It was reported that the average cost of the ration per month, including vegetables and fruit produced on the Home grounds, was $5.286, and that no meals had been given to transients not officially connected with the Home. No members, it was stated, received outdoor relief. The average cost of the hospital ration, including extra diet, per man per day was reported as 39.76 cents. The average pieces of crockery broken per man during the year was reported as four, and the breakage was said to be principally due to the infirmities of the waiters, who are old men, and to the crowded facilities for handling crockery while it is being washed. The following was the bill of fare for the week ending June 28, 1902: Sunday. Breakfast: Ham and eggs, bread, potatoes, coffee. Dinner: Roast beef, brown gravy, potatoes, onions, bread, plum pudding, coffee. Supper: Coffee cake, stewed fruit, bread, oleo, tea. Monday. Breakfast: Sweet pickled shoulder, potatoes, bread, oleo, coffee. Supper: Hot baked beans, bread, oleo, tea. Tuesday. Breakfast: Beef stew, potatoes, bread, coffee. Dinner: Vegetable soup, boiled beef, potatoes, turnips, bread, coffee. Wednesday. Breakfast: Beef hash, potatoes, bread, oleo, coffee. Dinner: Vegetable soup, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, oleo, bread, coffee. Supper: Hot lima beans, graham bread, wheat bread, oleo, tea. Thursday. Breakfast: Beef stew, potatoes, bread, coffee. Dinner: Sweet pickled shoulder, potatoes, onions, bread, coffee. Friday. Breakfast: Beef hash, potatoes, bread, oleo, coffee. Dinner: Pea soup, baked fresh fish, potatoes, beets, catsup, bread, coffee. Saturday. ment. Breakfast: Beef stew, potatoes, bread, coffee. Dinner: Sweet pickled shoulder, cabbage, potatoes, bread, oleo, coffee. The hospital was in a generally satisfactory condition, Medical depart- but some minor defects were noted. The letters-sent book was not properly indexed. The memorandums on the envelopes relating to the "Patients' deposit book" did not agree with the book. The liquor room was not in an orderly condition; empty boxes and other similar articles had been allowed to accumulate. Roaches and dirt were found in the kitchen, the appearance of which was not sufficiently clean. It was noted that the assistant surgeons and the nurses use the same dining room. This Branch is the only one which does not have a cottage for the nurses. Such a building seems desired, notwithstanding it was reported that the nurses prefer the existing arrangement. It has been found generally that better results are obtained to have the nurses live in a separate building from the hospital, where they can get the necessary rest, removed from the scene of their prolonged and exacting duties. The hospital is in five buildings, connected by covered corridors— administration building, north and south wings, annex, kitchen, and mess hall-and it has a capacity for the accommodation of 236 patients. Quarters for convalescents are in a ward in Barrack G. The ventilation of the hospital consists of conduits under the floors connecting with openings in the floors. In the annex it consists of openings in the walls, at top and base. The hospital did not seem to have sufficient fire hose. The attics are used for dormitories for employees, and the basements are used for the storage of the private property of patients and employees, and also of hospital property, and to some extent of lumber belonging to the quartermaster department. One compartment of the basement is used for sick call, and also as the office of a deputy county clerk. The construction of an additional barrack room to relieve overcrowding was mentioned as required to improve the sanitary condition of the Home. The average daily number of sick during the year was reported as 254, of whom 230 were in the hospital and 24 in barracks or sick call. The total number of patients treated during the year, including sickcall patients, was reported as 2,564, and, on an average, each was treated twenty-eight and one-half days. The total number of patients admitted to the hospital during the year was 587. The total number of deaths was 175, of whom 132 died in the hospital, 4 elsewhere on the reservation, and 39 outside of the reservation. One hundred and sixth-nine died from natural causes, 2 from suicide, and 4 as the result of accidents. The average age at death was about 63.1 years, or 4.273 years younger than the average of the Home as a whole; and the death rate per thousand of the whole number cared for was 53.39, and per thousand of average present and absent, 66.32. The principal chronic diseases were those of the nervous, circulatory, alimentary, and genito-urinary systems; and the principal surgical diseases were those of the eye and ear and of the alimentary and genitourinary systems. The principal acute diseases were alcoholism, and those of the respiratory and alimentary systems. The infectious or contagious diseases treated were erysipelas, influenza, syphilis, pulmonary tuberculosis, and variola. The number of members buried in the Home cemetery during the year was 141. The coffins are made at Los Angeles and cost $8.75 each. In the cemetery it was noted that 18 graves were entirely unmarked, not having even a wooden headboard or number. The facilities for bathing in the hospital consist of 6 bathrooms with 8 tubs, which gives 29 patients to each tub. Patients are bathed once a week, or oftener if needed, with the assistance of a nurse when required. The average number of hospital employees is 96, of whom 77 are members and 19 civilians, and their cost for the year was reported as $20,211.31, of which the members received $9,973.65, and the civilians $10,237.66. There is an average of 31.11 patients per employee; and the average monthly cost of employees is $12.35. It was reported that during the fiscal year $5,388.11 had been expended for medicines. The insane members are cared for in the hospital. Insane members. They are quartered or confined in the hospital wards. Those violently or permanently insane are committed to an asylum. They are afforded no other recreation than that furnished the other patients in the hospital; and no special provisions or conveniences are supplied in their quarters. No facilities are provided for the proper care of the insane, it was reported; and it was suggested that it would be well to construct a detention ward for the demented and mildly insane. It was reported that there were during the year 43 members showing indications of disordered minds, of whom 4 were considered permanently insane and were sent to the Southern California State Asylum for the Insane. The principal classes of illusions were: Dementia, 33; hypochondriasis, 4; melancholia, 3; and mania, 3. Members committed to asylums as insane are discharged from membership in the Home. An average of 4.5 were stated to be sent to the asylum annually. Blind members. There were at this Branch 14 members totally blind, and 21 had their eyesight so impaired as to be unable to read. Fourteen required attendance, and about 35 were read to daily for several hours in the afternoon. One member is employed to read to the blind, and they are given assistance at meals, in dressing and undressing, and such other care as their daily life requires. The per cent of totally blind to the annual average present is 0.7+. The inspection of the accounts and records at this Branch show the following: As the per capita cost for subsistence at each Branch is based upon the disbursements from the appropriation for subsistence, general fund, the charging of any of the usual expenses on account of subsistence, as cranberries for Thanksgiving and turkeys for Christmas, to the post fund instead of to subsistence disturbs the relative per capita cost. No charge, as at some of the other Branches, is here made for the cost of light and heat for the post fund buildings, but such items of expense are paid from the general fund. It was noted that the pension money in the hands of the treasurer, belonging to an insane member at the date of his transfer to the State insane asylum, was turned over with all his effects to the superintendent of the asylum. The shop accounts for the last fiscal year were indifferently kept and were not of much apparent value as records. In the bakery account bread was credited at 25 cents, coffee cake at 3, and pies at 54; to these amounts 10 per cent, as required by Home regulations, was added, but as the apparent profit thus obtained seemed to be too large, this amount was subsequently deducted. A comparison between the amount of bread reported as fabricated and that taken up from the same source during the same periods on the perishable property ledger shows large variations, as, for instance, the bakery account reports for July, 1902, as fabricated 33,417 pounds, while the ledger takes up but 31,175 as fabricated during the same period, a shortage of 2,242 pounds from the amount reported by the baker. For the hospital, dining-hall, commissary, and post-fund employees but one time book is kept for each for each month, and these books are turned in to the quartermaster at noon each day. The shop time books are in duplicate for alternate days. The quartermaster keeps but one general time book for each month, two alternate months are kept in each book, and he turns his current book over to the treasurer at least twice a week, and toward the close of the month daily. It seems possible to dispense with the second time book for each month, to be used for alternate ten-day periods, which requires the whole pay roll to be copied twice each month, once for the first and third ten days, and again for the second ten days. This system would seem to scatter the records and involve apparently unneeded clerical labor. Concluding re marks. All matters connected with this Branch and not commented on in this report were found to be satisfactory. No. 4.-REPORT OF AN INSPECTION OF THE WESTERN BRANCH, MADE Post-office. Local manager. Officers. AUGUST 18 to 21, 1902. National Military Home, Leavenworth County, Kans. Col. Sidney G. Cooke, Herington, Kans., is the local manager of this Branch, and his term of office as such expires in 1906. The following are the officers of the Branch, viz: Governor, Col. J. G. Rowland; treasurer, Maj. William W. Martin; surgeon, Maj. A. G. Hull; commissary of subsistence, Capt. D. C. Goodrich; quartermaster, Col. U. V. Pearsall; chaplains, Rev. James M. Payne and Rev. Thomas H. Kinsella; matron, Mrs. Martha J. Smith. The only change in officers since the previous inspection was in the office of treasurer, Major Martin having taken that office on September 1, 1901, vice Maj. W. B. Shockley, resigned. This Branch, in its main and important features, was entirely satisfactory, and the uniform tenor of its firm and just administration continues to produce the desired results. More harmony seems desirable among the officers. |