The Bureaucratic Cruelty of City Hall

The board of public works, with a generosity forced by the opinion of Corporation Counsel Donworth, has seen fit to win for its own the case of Frank Kennard, the city prisoner at Providence hospital, and signed the requisition giving him food and attendance. But the bill of Sylvester Grant, who was taken from the city jail to the hospital with a permit from the city physician and a requisition, when presented to the board of public works, bore the word 'prisoner' and was not allowed. A bill has never been presented to the board of public works from Providence hospital in the case of patients currently at the hospital who were transferred from the city jail. The list of patients includes: Henry Wilke, John Holm, Henry Kennard, Abe Anderson, Sylvester Grant, and M. A. Brennan. The hospital board went to the city hall yesterday and certified to the correctness of the bill, but did not draw a cent. They are not worrying about being able to collect for the patients, but have been allowed for one only on technicalities. The board of public works claims that because the city pays 50 percent, the county would be bearing a double burden on its shoulders to also pay for the care of all the hospital cases. In the meantime, Providence hospital is taking care of all the sick picked up within the city, and when the time comes, will be called on for both city and county taxes. The hospital authorities are willing to do their share, and have been for several months, taking care of men for weeks who entered with $10 or $15. If a laborer, injured in the city, far from home, without friends and home, was refused admittance to the hospital there would be censure on all sides. As it is, the city and county are both standing back, allowing the hospital to shoulder the expense of every case, without either making a move to have the matter settled amicably.