II.

The Washington Night Lodging House opened its building on the 4th of March, 1876. This charity was exclusively for the benefit of the male and female nonresidents visiting the city in search of work, or who, having claims against the Government, became financially stranded while awaiting their settlement. Many of the applicants were ex-soldiers and sailors, who were thus substantially assisted while prosecuting their claims. Professional tramps were rigidly excluded. Every person was provided with a clean, comfortable bed and nightgown, and was compelled to take a warm bath before retiring. They were furnished with two substantial meals each day, and were allowed the privileges for three days and nights only unless there was good reason for their remaining longer. The inmates were admitted after examination by the officers in charge of the police stations, and were certified to by them or by the superintendent. No charge was made for the privileges.

The premises were located at 312 Twelfth street, next to the fifth precinct station house. The brick house occupied had a capacity of 50 beds, together with the rooms necessary for cooking, bathing, etc. The premises were bought for $4,500, of which $1,500 was paid by private subscriptions, leaving a debt of $3,000. The board of managers was composed of the following: Matthew G. Emery, Thomas J. Fisher, A. S. Solomons, John T. Mitchell, Edward F. Simpson, George E. Lemon, F. C. McGuire, William Ballantyne, James E. Fitch, A. C. Richards, Charles J. Bell, and H. O. Noyes. The president was Mr. A. S. Solomons, and the secretary Mr. H. O. Noyes. In a number of instances the directors sent out food for days and weeks at a time to the deserving poor in the District about the lodging house. Money in aid of the institution was received from the charity fund and expended in the purchase of food, all the furniture and present effects having been paid for from contributions by citizens and sojourners in the District. (Report of Commissioners Dist. Columbia for 1885-86, p. 147.) On July 14, 1892, the lodging house passed from private to municipal control, and has since received an appropriation for maintenance of $4,000 a year. The property, however, is still owned by the Night Lodging House Association. Persons out of employment can obtain shelter in the lodging house not to exceed three days at one time. They are required to perform certain manual labor, such as sawing and splitting wood, and the other work of the house. For a night's lodging, which includes a supper, breakfast, and bath, they saw one-eighth of a cord of wood. Cripples and sick inmates are maintained free without work. The house has accommodations for 72 people, but as many as 91 have been sheltered in stormy weather. In winter the average number of inmates is from 40 to 60, but in summer the average is about 14 a day.

About one-third of the inmates are what may be called "good" men. They are traveling from place to place seeking work. The other two

TEMPORARY HOME FOR UNION EX-SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE.

THE CENTRAL UNION MISSION.

153

thirds are men who will not work, except when they are compelled to do so by starvation. In deserving cases the District, through the sanitary officer, furnishes money to take inmates to their homes, and in no case are residents of the District maintained at the Municipal Lodging House. The house is well known throughout the country, and is one of the stations on the round of the great cities. The first superintendent of the Municipal Lodging House was William H. Dunn. The present superintendent is Capt. L. B. Cutler.'

III.

The Central Union Mission, located at 622 Louisiana avenue, with ten branches in different parts of the city, was organized August 19, 1884, and incorporated January 7, 1887, under the general incorporation act. The value of the lands occupied on Louisiana avenue is $60,000, and one branch and its lands valued at $1,000, the title of these lands being in the Central Union Mission. On the Louisiana avenue property are improvements valued at $30,000, and on one branch improvements valued at $1,500. Other property to the amount of $5,000 is owned by the mission.

The mission is organized as a Christian institution, its object being to preach the gospel to the neglected classes. Its managers do not regard it primarily as a charitable society, although its work is chiefly among the poor of the city, and, as an adjunct to its main work, it has done much to relieve suffering and furnish employment for the poor. The mission maintains an industrial department, including a wood yard for men and a laundry for the employment of women. At times it has had other industries, such as a broom factory, a mending department, and a cobbler shop. Attached to the industrial department is a dining room and lodging establishment. Meals are served at 10 or 15 cents each, and in the lodging department a bed is furnished at 10 or 15 cents a night, or in rooms at 25 cents a night. In the wood yard from 50 to 75 men can be worked, and the plant is capable of enlargement to double its present capacity. A laborer is required to saw one-twelfth of a cord of wood for a 10-cent meal or a 10-cent lodging, and the average laborer can obtain his meals and lodging by about three hours' work. The only drawback the wood yard experiences is the difficulty of disposing of all the wood sawed. The industrial department of the mission is fully self-supporting and has been maintained without financial assistance. Each branch of the work shows a small surplus to its credit, which is used in improving the plant. The religious work of the mission is supported by voluntary contributions, and such contributions are not used for the industrial department.

'Timothy Lubey, Commissioner of the Washington Asylum, in his report for 1875, says that it has been the custom of that institution to furnish food and shelter to that class of the poor termed "tramps" or transient paupers. Persons of this class to the number of 766 were accommodated during the year.

CHAPTER XIII.

REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS.

ΟΝ

N July 1, 1862, President Lincoln approved an act to incorporate the Guardian Society to reform juvenile offenders in the District of Columbia, by virtue of which act Amos Kendall, John M. Broadhead, Zenas C. Robbins, Sayles J. Bowen, Nehemiah B. Northrup, Benjamin B. French, Joseph Bryan, Peter N. Higinbotham, James C. Jenner, David W. Heath, James R. Barr, Matthew Waite, Samuel A. H. McKim, John R. Nourse, and Stephen Prentiss, being already members of the Guardian Society, were incorporated and made a body politic "for the purpose of encouraging and aiding such children of the poor, ignorant, and vicious as could be induced to make such efforts as they ought for an improvement in their condition."

The act contemplated a house of industry to which minors might be sentenced by the courts, and the trustees were empowered to receive children at the request of the parents, guardian, or next friend upon a written surrender of such child. The trustees were not to be required to receive any offenders known to be extremely vicious or to keep any who might prove incorrigible, but such were to be sent to the jail or penitentiary under an alternative sentence that the court was empowered to impose. It was also contemplated that persons committed as witnesses or committed for trial, if under the age of 18, should be placed in the house of industry instead of the jail or penitentiary. The trustees were empowered to bind out by indenture any who might appear to be sufficiently reformed, or the inmates might be hired during the daytime to employers whose work was not too far distant from the house of industry.

The Guardian Society raised some $5,000 or $6,000 through the liberality of a few citizens and banking institutions of Washington, and in 1865 obtained a large building that had been constructed for hospital purposes during the war. This building they removed to the Government farm, situated about one-half mile from the Potomac River and 4 miles northwest from Georgetown. The funds of the Guardian Society having been exhausted, Congress established, by

The "Laws, By-laws, and Rules and Regulations of the Reform School of the District of Columbia, 1894," contains the brief history of the institution that is the basis of this sketch.