Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

Address of yesterday No. VI. to the Managers of the Alms House, I request it may be re-published; as follows:

No. VI.

To the Managers of the Alms House and House of Employment,

GENTLEMEN,

IN No. V I have shewed that for three years past you have paid no more than one hundred and fifteen cents per week for your patients in the Pennsylvania Hospital, and not three dollars as W. and Charitas endeavor to make appear. But their statement is altogether a deception and ought to be exposed; for they do not take into calculation any of those patients who have been admitted formerly at a very low rate, whose board has never been raised, nor those received on charity without any charge but for clothing and funeral expenses. If it be necessary further to elucidate and confirm my statement respecting the actual cost of your paupers in the hospital, I refer to the accounts rendered to your board at a late meeting for the last year's expenses; by which you will observe the average cost is at this very time, no more than 118 cents each.

With as much confidence, and the same view of blinding the eyes of the public, and if possible leading me off from my intended exposure of the real state of things, W and Charitas contend in your favor, that paupers in the Alms House cost no more than a dollar a week, when if the truth was known, I have reason to believe they cost two at least. To give a correct account is however impossible without knowing the exact amount of your debts which are not yet paid. These I have good reason to believe were forty thousand dollars when your last annual account was stated; and the whole was contracted within the last two years, for by your account in 1797 it appears you did not owe two thousand pounds; and I am well informed you had several thousand pounds more of taxes in arrears, to collect, than was sufficient to pay it. I will therefore take twenty thousand dollars for granted to be the expenses of the last year, not yet paid, or included in your annual account, and proceed,

Dls. Cts.
By your annual statement No. 2. the actual sum expended for the support of paupers is 12,284 11 7, or 32,758 88
Add, debts contracted, but not paid, from 1798, to 1799, 20,000
Repairs for one year I will say on an average, are 266 67
Two Swine per diem I suppose you received in the year, except on Sabbath days, for which I expect you paid one dollar and sixty seven cents each, and charged it, being half the value due to the person who brings them to the Alms House, say 626 at 1 6 by which ought to be to your debit, but we do not find it, 1,043 33
Butter, veal, sausages, fish and pork, forfeited. which you publish no account of, but is carried to your house by the Clerk of the Market. Yeo 40
Total expense of the year, for 605 persons, is - - - 54,169 28
Or 172 cents a week for each person, which is 57 cents more than the hospital have charged, and makes an aggregate saving of one thousand four hundred and twenty two dollars and seventy two cents per annum for the last three years.

In proof of which I exhibit the following statement, viz.
48 in the Alms House 52 weeks at 172 cents, is 4,293 12
48 in the Hospital 52 weeks at 115 cents, is 2,870 40
Difference saved to the Guardians to the poor is per annum 1,422 72

Having now proved that the price is less in the Hospital than in the Alms-House, if it is asked in which institution the most care is taken of the patients, I would recommend my fellow citizens to visit both houses and they will be able to judge.

* Charitas says. I well knew a considerable part of the clothing for near 2000 persons was made in the course of the last year in the house of employ; but I will prove the contrary—see your manufactory accounts, viz. No. 3, manufactured goods, consumed in the house 338 3—that among 2000 people is about 3/4 each, which instead of being enough to clothe them, would scarcely pay for soaling and mending their shoes.

The Members of the Society of the Sons of St. George, established at Philadelphia, for the advice and assistance of Englishmen in distress, are requested to attend a Quarterly Meeting of the said Society, at the City Tavern on Tuesday the 23d day of July instant, at 7 o'clock in the evening.

GEORGE DAVIS, Sec'ry.

There are several new members to be balloted for.

July 17 dt23