USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1883 > Part 7
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Instruction will be given by attending and resident physicians, and surgeons at the bedside of the patients, and in various other ways, also, by the Superintendent of Nurses. Examinations will take place from time to time.
The pupils will pass through the different wards, serving and being taught, for one year. They are supplied with board and lodging, and will be paid ten dollars ($10) per month for the first year, for their clothing and personal expenses. At the expira- tion of one year they will receive such increase of pay as the Trustees shall see fit.
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CITY HOSPITAL.
When the full term of two years is completed, those who have passed a satisfactory examination will receive diplomas, certifying to their period of training, their proficiency and good character.
The right is reserved to terminate the connection of any nurse or pupil with the school for any reason which may be deemed sufficient.
A blank form will be furnished to applicants to be filled in with answers to the following questions in the candidates' own hand writing, and sent to the Superintendent of the City Hospi- tal, Worcester, Mass.
QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERD BY CANDIDATE.
1. Name in full and present address of Candidate.
2. Are you a single woman or widow ?
3. Your present occupation or employment?
4. Age last birthday, and date and place of birth?
5. Height? Weight?
6. Where educated ?
7. Are you strong and healthy ? and have you always been so ?
8. Are your sight and hearing perfect ?
9. Have you any physical defects ?
10. Have you any tendency to pulmonary complaint ?
11. If a widow, have you children ? How many? Their ages? How are they provided for?
12. Where (if any) was your last situation? How long were you in it?
13. The names in full and addresses of two persons to be referred to? State how long each has known you. If previously employed, one of these must be the last employer. One of them must not be a relative.
14. Have you ever been a pupil of any other training school?
15. Have you read and do you clearly understand the Regulations ?
I declare the above statement to be correct.
REPORT OF THE VISITING STAFF.
To the Trustees of the Worcester City Hospital :-
The Conimittee appointed by the Visiting Staff to report to the Trustees upon the condition of the Hospital respectfully submit the following :-
The object of our report is to make known to the Trustees the directions in which the Visiting Physicians and Surgeons have found the Hospital lacking in its service to the public, and in which it seems to them that improvements can be made.
In the first place, there is not room enough for male patients even without proper division and isolation. Several times the male ward has been overrun, the private rooms filled and beds placed in the corridor, while the new isolating ward is most of the time occupied by ordinary patients.
The lack of accommodations is more troublesome still when it comes to the matter of isolating patients who should be kept by themselves, either because of the bad effect they have, or are likely to have, on other patients or other patients on them. A patient with erysipelas or septicæmia is a source of danger to other surgical patients. A wounded man would be safer most anywhere else than in a ward where these infectious diseases exist, but in our Hospital such exposure has been necessary more than once during the past year.
On the other hand a man with an approaching delirium tremens is more hopefully treated with a view to avoiding the attack if he is alone than if he is in a ward with other patients. An extremely sick, dying or delirious patient often requires to be alone.
There is a special class of patients who have never been admitted for whom provision should be made, namely : women
129
CITY HOSPITAL.
expecting confinement. The number is not great and the provi- sion required not extensive, but the hardship which might be relieved is often extreme.
The accommodations for ordinary female patients are sufficient, but facilities for isolation are lacking here as well as on the male side. There is now no place for a woman requiring isolation but the end of the corridor, and that is by no means fit.
Some further suggestions in regard to hospital management, coming properly within the sphere of the Superintendent, have been made and left in his hands.
LEONARD WHEELER. J. O. MARBLE. J. B. RICH.
WORCESTER, December 27, 1883.
-
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS
OF THE
JAQUES FUND AND OTHER FUNDS OF THE CITY HOSPITAL.
WORCESTER, Mass., Jan. 7, 1884.
To the Honorable City Council :
In compliance with the provisions of the City Ordinances governing this Commission the undersigned beg leave to present the following report of their doings, in and about the several funds in their charge, for the financial year ending November 30, 1883 :
Balance on hand, Dec. 1, 1882, $127,838 36
Receipts to Nov. 30, 1883, inclusive, 15,409 19
Total, $143,247 55
Payments to Nov. 30, 1883, inclusive, 5,965 16
Balance, Nov. 30, 1883, $137,282 39
The several investments and cash balances belonging to the different funds have been carefully examined by the under- signed and found to be properly accounted for. Sundry state- ments, prepared by the treasurer of the board, showing, in aggregates and in detail, the receipts and payments on account of the several funds, together with the investments and cash balances carried forward at the end of the year, accompany this report and make a part thereof.
In presenting this account of the financial condition of the hospital funds the undersigned desire to add thereto a brief
131
CITY HOSPITAL.
statement giving some statistics relative to the disposition of the real estate bequeathed to the city by the late George Jaques, of honored memory. Of the nearly twenty acres of land, origi- nally belonging to the estate, some thirteen and -7% acres, or about 600,413 square feet, in all, have already been sold, to fifty- eight different purchasers, in seventy parcels, of varying dimen- sions. One parcel, consisting of 8,905 square feet of land, was disposed of July 20, 1877, under the direction of the trustees of the hospital ; and, since the 11th of January, 1878, when this board was organized under the City Ordinances, sixty-nine parcels, comprising about 591,508 square feet of land, have been sold under the supervision of the Commissioners. The proceeds of the sales of said land, during the period from July, 1877, to November, 1883, inclusive, amount to the sum of $84,075.01, the average price per foot for the land sold being about fourteen cents. There still remains undisposed of a balance of about 245,622 square feet of land, some five and 6.4 acres, in all, the bulk of which is located between Wellington, Chandler and Piedmont streets, and on both sides of Jaques Avenue, as extended easterly to Wellington street. It may be of interest, in this connection, to state that nearly all of the land sold under the direction of this board has been built upon, and otherwise improved, by the purchasers, and that the Jaques Fund investments, which are in charge of the undersigned, con- sist largely of notes secured by first mortgages of the land so sold.
Respectfully submitted,
BENJ. WALKER, CHAS. B. PRATT, ALBERT CURTIS,
Commissioners of the Jaques Fund and other Funds of the City Hospital.
132
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 38.
To the Commissioners of the Jaques Fund and other Funds of the City Hospital :
GENTLEMEN : - The undersigned respectfully presents the following statements, in tabular form, and in detail, covering all cash transactions on account of the several hospital funds during the financial year ending November 30, 1883 :
STATEMENT OF THE FUNDS.
Dec. 1, 1882, to Nov. 30, 1883. .
No.
TITLE OF FUND.
Balances Dec. 1, 1882.
Receipts during year.
Total.
Paym'ts during year.
Balances Nov. 30, 1883.
1
Geo. Jaques Hospital Fund, $119,770 66 $14,977 84 $134,748 50 $5,707 16 $129,041 34
Isaac Davis
66
66
1,865 13
115 41
1,980 54
1,980 54
3
Albert Curtis 66
66
1,014 03
40 80
1.054 83
8 00
1,046 83
4
John B. Shaw 66
66
188 54
25 14
213 68
213 68
5
Jos. A. Tenney " 66
5,000 00
250 00
5,250 00
250 00
5,000 00
Totals,
$127,838 36 $15,409 19 $143,247 55 $5,965 16 $137,282 39
INVESTMENTS AND BALANCES.
Nov. 30, 1883. .
No.
First Mortgages on Real Estate.
Stock in National Banks.
Bond of R. R. Co.
Special Bank Deposits.
Cash on Deposit.
Balances Nov. 30, 1883.
1
$125,700 00
$1,500 00
$1,000 00
980 54 1,000 00 213 68
46 83
1,046 83
3
213 68
4
5.000 00
5,000 00
5
$130,700 00
$1,500 00
$1,000 00
$2,626 77
$1,455 62
$137,282 39
$432 55
$1,408 79
$129,041 34
1,980 54
2
133
CITY HOSPITAL. RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS.
RECEIPTS.
Dec. 1, 1882, to Nov. 30, 1883.
No. 1. Proceeds of sales of real estate, viz. : 6 parcels, containing 52,001 square feet of land, . . $8,679 10
Proceeds of sales of turf, 13 00
Interest on mortgage notes, 6,035 95
Interest on National Bank deposits, . 137 50
Dividends on 15 shares of Bank stock, . 82 50
Bank tax of 1882, refunded by Commonwealth, . 29 79
$14,977 84
No. 2. Interest on Rail Road bond, . $80 00 Interest on Savings Bank deposits, . 35 41
$115 41
No. 3. Interest on Savings Bank deposits, . $40 80
$40 80
No. 4. Rent of Shaw estate, one-fifth part (net), $17 75 Interest on Savings Bank deposits, . 7 39
$25 14
No. 5. Interest on mortgage note,
$250 00
$250 00
$15,409 19
Cash balances, Dec. 1, 1882, viz :
Fund No. 1, .
$830 31
Fund No. 2,. 14 03
$844 24
Total,
$16,253 43
PAYMENTS.
Dec. 1, 1882, to Nov. 30, 1883.
No. 1. Surveying and preparing plans, $28 67
Concrete walk on Chandler street, . 24 60
Salary of treasurer, . 100 00
Net income to Oct. 1st, paid into city treasury, 5,553 89
$5,707 16
10
134
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 38.
No. 3. Sundry medical books, . $8 00
$8 00
No. 5. Net income to Oct. 1st, paid into city treasury, $250 00
$250 00
$5,965 16
Transferred to investment acc't, viz :
Fund No. 1, $8,692 10
Fund No. 2, 115 41
Fund No. 4, 25 14
$8,832 65
Cash balances, Nov. 30, 1883, viz :
Fund No. 1, $1,408 79
Fund No. 3, 46 83
$1,455 62
Total,
$16,253 43
WM. S. BARTON,
Treasurer.
Worcester, Mass., Dec. 19, 1883.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE COMMISSION OF
PUBLIC GROUNDS.
To the Honorable CITY COUNCIL :
A "Report of their acts and doings, of the condition of the Public Grounds and Shade Trees thereon and on said Streets and Highways, and an account of Receipts and Expenditures for the same "-during the official year that closed on the Thirtieth day of November, A. D., 1883, is herewith submitted as required by the Twenty-First (21st) section of the municipal Charter :
COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS,
In account with
CITY OF WORCESTER.
Cr. :
Annual Appropriation,
$6,500 00
Revenue :
Grass from Elm Park,
$50 00
Labor (lent),
30 60
$80 60
$6,580 60
Per Contra, Dr .:
Grading-regular labor for year,
$2,287 46
Occasional hire of men and teams,
158 75
Plants, shade-trees, and planting,
1,338 15
136
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 38.
Loam and manure,
675 06
Seeds (grass, &c.),
97 65
Printing,
51 16
Freight, express, and trucking,
9 15
Blank-books, stationery, and stamps,
30 56
Tools, and hardware,
167 30
Blacksmithery,
14 25
Blue Herons and Water-fowl,
26 62
Grain and keep for same in winter,
16 45
Lumber and carpentry (Tree guards),
662 33
Stone, for flagging pools, &c.,
348 39
Building tool and boat-house (shelter),
525 00
Water department-plumbing (pumps),
18 40
Engineer office-marking for shade-trees,
10 52
Settees-new, and repairs to old,
95 00
Plant and flower stakes,
9 95
Advertising,
16 06
Cement,
1 40
Sewer (rubber) boots,
9 15
$6,568 76
To be sunk,
$11 84
COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS. Worcester, Massachusetts, December 24th, A. D., 1883.
To
Henry Griffin, Esq.,
Auditor :
In response to your request for an estimate of the sum that should be appropriated for the purposes of this COMMISSION, I have the honor to state that the amount ought not to be less than Seven Thousand Dollars ($7,000.00).
With each successive year the demand for Shade-Trees increases and grows. more importunate. The opening of new streets anticipates and exceeds the wisest possible prevision by this COMMISSION. They can but do what they may with inadequate means. On every hand they are reproached for not ask- ing for a larger sum.
Again,-as Elm Park becomes more and more a Public Garden, the cost of maintaining it properly is correspondingly increased.
Appreciating the great and pressing demands upon the Public Treasury, from all quarters; demands never to cease until the City elects to stagnate and become worthless as a place of residence; the COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS continue moderate in their requests.
I have the honor to subscribe myself,
Very Respectfully and Truly, EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN, Chairman.
137
PUBLIC GROUNDS.
Consider the case of the PARK, as stated in that note to the Auditor. It is not wholly graded in the judgment of the COM- MISSION ; whereby will be understood, by those who read as they run, that more work remains to be done at the S. W. corner,- and thoroughly. Slatternly or slipshod grading and trenching do not pass muster with men who would approve themselves honest servants of the city. But even when superficial labor is com- pleted,-if so that may be termed which fixes the soil and forms the turf ; the season of bud and bloom supervenes, with its own peculiar, oft-times overwhelming toil. Weeds must be kept down ; not the easiest task, when soaking showers and torrid suns com- bine to force vegetation of every kind into premature and rank development. The grass must be cut or clipped ; for only in the early stages of improvement is it permissable to make hay,-de- riving some small revenue therefrom. Where there are Islets,- they must be cared for, so far as to look neat, at least ; and when, as in the case of ELM PARK, they are purposely studded to pro- fusion with flowering and fragrant shrubs, manuring and pruning become absolutely necessary-yet not to be undertaken as botch work. Never, within the past four years, have the COMMISSION been able to purchase as much manure as they imperatively required. The City, through its Highway Department, doubt. less finds its advantage in peddling the ordure from its stables. Raw dung would be unsuitable for Park purposes, save at rare times and for hap-hazard needs. But an abundance to compost, so as to have it in mass and quality when wanted, should be sup- plied by the City, either by money-appropriation or in kind ; if it would have its Public Grounds kept in a condition that might inspire contentment, if not pride, when displayed to the official, or espied by the casual stranger within our gates. For possibly our inns will not always repel Conventions that represent the brains and not the stomachs of Massachusetts !
The Public Garden of Boston is a theme for admiring compli- ment with those who can see a good thing-away from home ! even if they cannot properly judge it or compute its cost. But our ELM PARK is three (3) acres larger, and, all told, has never had expended for its development as much as was lavished upon
138
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 38.
the Boston Garden in single years. Yet it is the simple truth to state that there is a greater diversity and wealth of flowering and rare shrubs, as well as of deciduous and coniferous trees, in ELM. PARK, than could be discovered by the most diligent search in the pet pleasure-resort of the metropolis. As heretofore sug- gested,-two-thirds of the charm attributed to the Boston Public Garden is reflected from the massive piles of striking architect- ure that encompass it; by which the gaze is fascinated and whereto it constantly recurs after the diverted attention of the moment. The COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS, in Worcester, neither challenge nor invite comparison of their work with any in other cities : but being fully cognizant of actual results as accomplished here and elsewhere, they shrink from no competent criticism or scrutiny. Again,-elsewhere, they have paid service, if only for superintendence. Here,-the COMMISSION not only serve for the honor and satisfaction of it, finding their own team ; but the Chairman is crowded out from the garret and cellar of his house by the bulbs and tender plants belonging to the city, because nowhere else is there a place wherein to protect them from the severity of winter. Not for them is the green- house or cold-house, to multiply or preserve ! Split slabs instead of hammered blocks, the wooden bridge rather than the monu- mental Arch; one man with his wheelbarrow where, in any other place, you would block the way by a hundred with their horses and carts ! If the COMMISSION appear to move slow it is because now, as in the old song, it is
" Money that makes the mare to go."
But yet, whatever has been achieved in ELM PARK has been done within Nine (9) years, as means and opportunity allowed. And so far as the work accomplished is not submerged, it is con- spicuous to every one who has taken note of the gradual steps in landscape improvement.
Since their last Report was submitted, the COMMISSION have caused two new Islets to be constructed,-one by the deposition the other by the retention of earth ; have had a new channel ex- cavated along the westerly shore of the Oval Pool ; have had, or
. 139
PUBLIC GROUNDS.
will have had, by the time the ice breaks up, the entire retaining wall or embankment of that Pool reconstructed, and finished with a coping of large, split stone from the civic quarries on Millstone Hill. Almost the entire shore line will be completed, when the ground is free from frost; thereby affording a safe, level, and agreeable promenade for those who enjoy proximity to sparkling water, cheerful companionship, the sight and cheer of passing boats, and it is to be hoped, the resonance and echo of instrumental music " making a joyful noise unto the Lord " upon the First day of the week.
They have in process of thrifty development, a very great variety of ornamental plants and shrubs which will serve, as they enlarge, to decorate the PARK; and they possess even now suit- able for the roadside, a superior lot of Shade-Trees that are designed for the suburban districts, if only through the local Granges or otherwise the task of planting may be assumed upon the assurance that the trees themselves, having been procured for little or nothing, as saplings, are paid for once and forever. Quite a number of the outlying School-Districts have their road- sides well shaded at present, thanks to the energy and self- sacrifice of men who found their remuneration in those very virtues. But the COMMISSION have noted gaps that ought to be closed up, in various directions ; and they will be glad to supply the trees, upon the assurance that they will be properly planted along highways that might be neglected otherwise; and that they shall not be browsed down thereafter without complaint or effort at redress.
As to the actual condition of the Shade-Trees of the City, the COMMISSION would assert nothing with confidence. They have continued planting, as was alike their preference and duty ; yet they cannot but dread the revelations of the coming summer. They are aware of what "Science " assumes-that taking the years in their sequence, the amount of rainfall from one to another, scarcely varies. Yet they have greater faith in facts, whether the theory conflicts with them or not. They know, from positive experience, that the little patches of earth intrusted to their care were drier throughout the last three years than ever
1
140
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 38.
before. They can understand that with digging for Gas and Water Mains; and much more by the construction of Sewers, ever porous and always draining ; the highways may get parched so that scarce even the Ash or Elm should maintain a miserable vitality. Besides, brick and stone pavements, or that queer macadam,-if a mulch after a fashion,-can hardly be accounted manure or moisture. But ELM PARK re-inforces the argument. The Pools keep up their level until the in-gathering of hay. Thereafter, at once as it were, throughout the whole alluvium or diluvium, for the spade can justify either term, the water subsides in a night, sinking into the veins that percolate the shifting subsoil or quicksand underlying all that part of Worcester which stretches from Highland Street to Coes's Reservoir and occupies the entire valley between Fruit and Piedmont Streets to the East and Newton Hill on the West. When heavy showers have saturated the surrounding country, the water in those Pools again rises, evidently supplied from subterranean fountains that respond to the bounteous clouds with the regularity of tides. But, throughout the three years last past, the average flood was sensibly diminished. Cultivation might absorb a part; yet that and evaporation united would fail to respond for even a fraction of the old-fashioned lavish down-pour from that capacious water- shed.
Were the writer over-credulous,-more inclined to believe all that he reads,-he might attribute somewhat of the increasing dryness, or at least its manifest effects, to a vastly augmented plant and shrub growth. What that has been found to do elsewhere, as stated in the foot-note,* was long since observed by the Chairman of the COMMISSION. In cleaning the well, upon
* THE THIRSTY EUCALYPTUS .- Where there is surplus moisture to dispose of, as, for example, a cesspool to keep dry, a large eucalyptus will accomplish not a little, and a group of them will dispose of a vast amount of house sewerage. But if you have water which you do not wish to exhaust, as in a good well, it would be wise to put the eucalyptus very far away. Daniel Sweet of Bay Island farm, Alameda county, recently found a curious root formation of the eucalyptus in the bottom of his well, about sixteen feet below the surface. The trees to which the roots belonged stand fifty feet from the well. Two shoots pierced through the brick wall of the well, and, sending off millions of fibres, formed a dense mat that completely covered the bottom of the well. Most of these fibres are no larger than threads, and are
141
PUBLIC GROUNDS.
the Common some years since, a precisely similar mat to that ascribed to the eucalyptus was found, whose origin was neither more aristocratic nor far-fetched than our American Elm. Unquestionably vegetation will, nay must absorb moisture : but that well, within the knowledge of the COMMISSION, has ever maintained the same steady level and volume.
The writer has sometimes favored a theory that the continual as it were incessant, jar over City streets, would of itself prove fatal to the life of Shade-Trees. The old Town-way, lined by Horse-Chestnut or over-arched by Sycamores, carpeted for half its width on either side with the greenest turf, was seldom disturbed save by the periodical trip of the stage-coach or the more precipitate passage of the village Doctor. The tremendous weight of loaded wire was not imposed upon that tract of virgin soil, to which perhaps it might have been as appropriate as its palpable and evident avoidance of the iron tracks,-alike saving of friction and wear, yet possibly not its exclusive spoil. Nor was there a massive pavement for a mortar, whereon the tramp and concussion of myriad feet,-as a gigantic pestle, could disintegrate and comminute the solid earth beneath. Solid under ordinary conditions and in the usual climatic vicissitudes, but pulverized by chronic drought, without the least moisture for months to make its particles cohere. But it is a question of water,-and the writer's theory may not hold it.
The COMMISSION would fain be discharged upon this occasion, from a renewed load of obligation. At all times they have been the recipients, from green-house or garden, from florist or amateur, of superfluous but valuable plants which, having outgrown the limited premises of their owners might well gain a new and ampler home within a public pleasure-ground. Their efforts to recover for cultivation the hardy perennial plants and shrubs,
so woven and intertwisted as to form a mat as impenetrable and strong as though regularly woven in a loom. The mat when first taken out of the well was water-soaked and covered with mud, and nearly all a man could lift, but when dry it was nearly as soft to touch as wool, and weighed only a few ounces. This is a good illustration of how the eucalyptus absorbs moisture, its roots going so far as to find water, pushing themselves through a brick wall, and then developing enormously after the water is reached. Mr. Sweet thinks one of the causes of the drying up of wells is the insatiable thirst of these vegetable monsters. - Pacific Rural Press.
.
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 38.
that formerly lent such attraction to the old-time gardens of Worcester, have been materially aided by the generosity of those whose shrewd sense and fine taste had led them to hold fast what has approved itself, ever and in all seasons, good. The only return possible for the COMMISSION, has been an occasional load of peat which, in the way and of extreme plenty, has enabled them now and then, to make an acceptable if slight acknowl- edgment of floral gifts and courtesies.
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