FREEDMEN'S HOSPITAL AND ASYLUM. The Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum | about 4000 prescriptions were put up for was established primarily for the recep- the numerous poor who constantly apply tion of sick freedmen, in which they could for aid and medical treatment. receive medical treatment, nursing, and care. Both white and colored patients are now treated, and the Hospital has become a general one for the reception of all Surgeon-in-Charge........ classes of patients within the District of Assistant surgeon... Columbia. Many of the patients are Executive officer. Engineer Matron...... non-residents. The Hospital is located near Seventh OFFICERS AND ATTENDANTS. Per Annum. ..$2000 1800 1400 720 216 from $72 to 240 180 96 ...from $60 to 720 9 nurses, each....... COLUMBIA HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND LYINGIN ASYLUM. The Columbia Hospital for Women | patients treated during the year, and the and Lying-In Asylum was created by amount received from them was $1381. act of Congress of June 1, 1866. It is Congress appropriated $12,000 for the situated in the square bounded by support of this Hospital for the year Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, M, and L 1879. Streets, northwest, and fronts Pennsylvania Avenue. The grounds comprise two-thirds of the square, and the building is a large three-story and mansardroof structure of brick. The objects of the Asylum are the treatment of diseases peculiar to women, and where those unable to pay therefor shall be furnished with board, lodging, medicine, and medical attendance gratuitously. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1879, 299 patients were treated in this Hospital. There were 126 cases of delivery during the same period. Besides the patients treated in the Hospital, the management offered relief to a large number of poor women. There were 38 paying OFFICERS OF THE COLUMBIA HOS- A President, two Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, seventeen Directors, three of whom must be Members of Conserve without additional compensation, gress, and appointed by Congress, who and the other officers before named serve without compensation. Per Annum. A Resident Physician and Surgeon-in- A matron.... 13 nurses, cooks, laundresses, laborers, and others, with compensation ranging from $96 to $240 each, per an num. .$1800 600 POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. This Department was temporarily established by the act of Congress of September 22, 1789, permanently by the act of May 8, 1794. The Postmaster-General is the head of this Department. There are three Assistant PostmastersGeneral, at a salary of $3500 a year each. There is also an Assistant AttorneyGeneral for the Post-Office Department (mentioned under the Department of Justice), at a salary of $4000 a year. DUTIES OF THE POSTMASTER-GEN ERAL. It is the duty of the Postmaster-General: offering to become a contractor in any business before the Department, on penalty of dismissal from office, and liability to pay as much money as would have been realized from the contract, to be recovered by action of debt, for the use of the Department. The Postmaster-General reports the operations of his Department to Congress, annually. The postal revenues, and all debts due the Post-Office Department, when collected, are paid into the Treasury of the United States, by warrants of the Postmaster-General, countersigned by the Sixth Auditor. The Postmaster-General may prescribe To establish and discontinue post-ing for the government of the Sixth Ausuch general rules and modes of proceed offices. To decide on the forms of all official papers. To prescribe the manner of keeping and stating accounts. To enforce the prompt rendition of returns relative to accounts. To control, subject to the settlement of the Sixth Auditor, all expenses incident to the service of the Department. To superintend the disposal of the moneys of the Department. To direct the manner in which balances shall be paid over; issue warrants to cover money into the United States Treasury; and to pay out the same. To superintend generally the business of the Department, and execute all laws relative to the postal service. He may negotiate and conclude postal treaties with foreign countries, and may reduce or increase the rates of postage on mail-matter conveyed between the United States and foreign countries, in order to counteract adverse measures by foreign countries. No person employed in the Post-Office Department shall become interested in any contract for carrying the mail, or act as agent for any contractor or person ditor in ascertaining the fact in all cases of fine, penalty, forfeiture, or disability, by way of damage, or otherwise, under or alleged liability for any sum of money any law in relation to the officers, employés, operations, or business of the postal service; and upon the fact being ascertained in any case, the Auditor may, with the written consent of the Post master-General, mitigate or remit such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, remove such disability, or compromise, release, or discharge such claim for such sum of money and damages, and on such terms as the Auditor may deem just and expedient. The Postmaster-General may discharge in jail on any judgment in a civil case from imprisonment any person confined obtained in behalf of the Post-Office Department, if it be made to appear that the defendant has no property of any description. POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. He may establish post-offices at such places on post-roads established by law as he may deem expedient, and he may discontinue any post-office when the safety and security of the postal service supplied and owned by the postmaster, and two-thirds of the box-rents, and not to exceed $1000, when the boxes are not supplied and owned by the postmaster, commissions on all the other postal and revenues are endangered from any cause whatever, or when the efficiency of the service requires it, and he must give prompt notice of such establishments and discontinuances to the Sixth Auditor. He must supply vacancies of post-revenues of the office to an amount not masters without delay, and when the exceeding $1350, at the following rates, exigencies of the service require, he may namely: On the first $100 per quarter, place vacant offices in charge of special sixty per centum; on all over $100 and agents. not over $300 per quarter, fifty per centum; on all over $300 and not over $700 per quarter, forty per centum; and thirty per centum on all revenues exceeding $700 per quarter, but the aggregate of the said commissions not to exceed $1350; and at all offices where the total revenues exceed, respectively, $4000 per annum, there is added to the compensation from box-rents and commissions a percentage of the gross revenues at the following rates, namely: One per centum on all The Postmaster-General must furnish to postmasters at the termination of each route a schedule of the time of arrival and departure of the mail at their offices, respectively; also shall notify them of any change in the arrival and departure ordered; and must cause registers to be kept, at short intervals, showing the exact time of the arrivals and departures of the mails. He must direct every postmaster to keep a record of all postage-stamps, en-sums over $4000 and not exceeding velopes, and other property received from his predecessor, or from the Department; of all receipts in money for postages and box-rents, and of all other receipts on account of the postal service. He prescribes the form in which every postmaster shall render, under oath, a quarterly account of all moneys received or charged by him, or at his office, for postage, rent of boxes, etc. $10,000; nine-tenths of one per centum on all sums over $10,000 and not exceeding $20,000; eight-tenths of one per centum on all sums over $20,000 and not exceeding $40,000; six-tenths of one per centum on all sums over $40,000 and not exceeding $80,000; five-tenths of one per centum on all sums over $80,000 and not exceeding $160,000; four-tenths of one per centum on all sums over $160,000 and not exceeding $320,000; three-tenths of one per centum on all sums over $320,000 and not exceeding $640,000; twotenths of one per centum on all sums over The exact number of postmasters can $640,000 and not exceeding $1,280,000; never be given, as changes are being and one-tenth of one per centum on all made every day, and discontinuances and sums exceeding $1,280,000; and in order establishments almost every hour in the to ascertain the amount of the postal reday. The approximate number now exceipts of each office, the Postmaster-Genisting is 41,000, and that number is prob-eral may require postmasters to furnish ably not one hundred, more or less, than NUMBER AND COMPENSATION OF POSTMASTERS. the exact number. The highest compensation paid is $4000 a year, except at New York City, which, by special enactment, is $8000. duplicates of their quarterly returns to the Auditor at such times and for such periods as he may deem necessary in each case: Provided, That at offices where the Offices of the fourth class receive no after be, established, the box-rents, in fixletter-carrier system is now, or may herefixed salary, but are allowed their boxing the compensation of the respective rents and commissions on cancelled stamps. Some of this class receive as low as $5 per annum. COMPENSATION. postmasters at such offices, must be estimated at not less than $1000 per annum; but at all such offices where the compensation is now $4000, they must be estimated at an amount which, with the The respective compensation of post-commissions and percentages hereby masters of the first, second, and third classes is their annual salaries, assigned in even hundreds of dollars, and payable quarterly fixed by the Postmaster-General, by adding to an amount of the boxrents of the office received or estimated not exceeding $1350, when the boxes are : allowed, will make the salaries of the postmasters thereat not less than $3000. Fourth-Class Postmasters. The compensation of postmasters of the fourth class is the whole of the box-rents collected at their offices, and commissions upon the amount of the cancelled postage-due stamps, on amounts received from waste-paper, dead newspapers, printed matter, and twine sold, and on postage-stamps, stamped envelopes, postal cards, and newspaper and periodical stamps cancelled on matter actually mailed at their offices, at the following rate, namely: On the first $100 or less per quarter, sixty per centum; on all over $100 and not over $300 per quarter, fifty per centum; and on all over $300 per quarter, forty per centum; the same to be ascertained and allowed by the Auditor in the settlement of the accounts of such postmasters, upon their sworn quarterly returns: Provided, That when the compensation of any postmaster of this class reaches $1000 per annum, exclusive of commissions on money-order business, and when the returns to the Auditor for four quarters show him to be entitled to a compensation in excess of that amount, the Auditor must report such fact to the Postmaster-General, who must assign him to his proper class, and fix his salary: Provided further, That in no case must there be allowed to any postmaster of this class a compensation greater than $250 in any one quarter, exclusive of money-order commissions. The Postmaster-General may adjust salaries of the first, second, and third classes (except New York) once in two years, and in special cases as much oftener as he may deem expedient. The Postmaster-General may designate offices at the intersection of mail-routes as distributing or separating offices, and where any such office is of the third or fourth class, he may make a reasonable allowance to the postmaster for necessary cost of clerk-hire. CLERKS IN POST-OFFICES. There are now employed in the different post-offices throughout the United States about 5000 clerks. They are appointed and their compensation is fixed by the local postmasters, and it is paid out of an allowance made by the Postmaster-General for clerk-hire. Their salaries range all the way from $100 to $4000 per annum, the chiefs of divisions in the New York City Post-Office each receiving the latter sum. This class of employés, as may be said of all branches of the postal service, is constantly on the increase. LETTER-CARRIERS. It is the duty of the Postmaster-General to cause the employment of lettercarriers at every place containing a population of 50,000 within the delivery routes of its post-office. They may be employed at any city of 20,000 inhabitants within its corporate limits, or at cities the post-offices at which produce $20,000 a year. Letter-carriers are classified, with compensation at $1000, $850, and $800 per annum, each, with a provision for the employment of a class called auxiliaries at the largest offices, with compensation at $400 per annum each. Two-thirds of the whole number em ployed in any city may be placed in the $1000 class, and not less than one-half must be so placed, the remaining onethird or one-half to receive $800. Letter-carriers are employed and their pay fixed by the Postmaster-General as follows: |