PENSYLVANIA 71 



This Hospital formerly had a fund of 10,000 Pd. 

 Pensyl. Current, for maintenance. But the war, and 

 especially the paper-money, entailed a considerable loss, 

 so that at the present time the established number of 

 sick cannot be cared for. Six Philadelphia physicians 

 take upon themselves the care of the hospital, without 

 charge, two every four months ; but by the arrangement 

 during two months, one of the two is to give his par- 

 ticular oversight, and the other may at his pleasure, 

 but both of them must be present at the reception and 

 discharge of a patient. A little old man from the 

 Neckar country paid down a moderate sum 23 years ago 

 and bought a berth for life in the hospital. He is now 

 in his Q8th year, having eaten out his franchise three 

 times over, and will live to be a hundred. I never saw 

 such dazzling, pure white hair as this ancient's, 

 beard, eyebrows, the minute growth on the cheeks ; 

 which, with his costume of nothing but white, gave 

 him a very strange appearance. 



Not far from the hospital is another public building 

 which in its plan and noble purpose does honor like- 

 wise to so young a state. This is the Bettering or 

 Working House, called also the House of Employ- 

 ment not intended for malefactors but for the old, the 

 poor, and the maimed, where those still capable of work 

 could ply their several trades, and be useful to them- 

 selves and the community as spinners, weavers, knitters 

 &c., earning in this way a part of their keep. And 

 everything before the war was in the best of order, a 

 number of looms being kept constantly employed in 

 the house. Afterwards it was turned into a lazaretto 

 by the American troops who, more than the English, 

 were superstitious about desecrating churches by using 



