236 THE FOGY DAYS AND NOW; 



ducted thence into convenient parts of the building. Laundry 

 and bath rooms have been arranged, and the most convenient 

 pantry and safes! A splendid range and boiler and complete 

 outfit of cooking apparatus stands in the roomy kitchen ready 

 for use (a present); a heating arrangement has also been i)ut 

 in the building (a present); both presents from parties in 

 other States ; a nice organ (a present from an Atlanta firm), 

 and parties from another State offered to put in a gas plant 

 worth 82,000. This last gift, perhaps, is lost, by the delay of 

 the last legislature to accept the property, besides a crop on 

 the land and a year to the old soldiers. 



This valuable property is all paid for, nor has a single incum- 

 brance. Durino: the last leo-islature the whole outfit was ten- 

 dered by the trustees, as a gift to the State of Georgia, with 

 the single condition that the State accept and agree to take 

 care of her old and helplesss soldiers foi a period of 25 years, 

 and after the expiration of that time, the property should 

 belong to the State to dispose of as she thought proper. 



A bill was introduced in the house to that effect, and was 

 referred to the finance committee, where it seems to have 

 nodded a few times, and finally, just before adjournment of the 

 body, to have dropped off on the table into a dead sleep, and 

 if, like Rip Van Winkle, it shall ever awake again, can but rub 

 its eyes and discover that much valuable time has been lost. 



This property, so noblj^ offered as a gift to the State of 

 Georgia, is to-daj^ worth one hundred thousand dollars, and 

 the best real estate men say at the expiration of the 25 years 

 it will be worth from three hundred thousand to half a million 

 dollars. 



It is also estimated that an average of ten thousand dollars 

 p^r annum for the 25 years, or two hundred and fifty thousand 



