NATIONAL SOLDIERS           HOME.                371

  Admission is procured on a certificate, of which blank forms are furnished
to every applicant, setting forth his enlistment, with date, ranik, place
of
mukter, and the company, regiment or other organization to which he be-
longed, and the date and cause of discharge; and that he is receiving a pen-
sion. His identtity is set forth in the same certificate, and a surgeon's
state-
ment of his disability and its nature.
  Tl:cse certilicates in b ank, with full directions for filling them out,
may
be p:-oc-:.ceb i   tu:.1.ng thitrefor, either in person or by mail, to Gen.
E. W.
lIII6c,  Che cutunauidaut of the National Home for disabled soldiers, at
Mil-
waukec. or to Dr. E. B. WOLCOTT, Manager. The post office address of Dr.
Wot.=c-, iS   watkce, as is that of the commandant of the Home. Letters
audressed to tLe last named officer, in his official capacity, as above given,
cannOt fail to reach him.
  Disabled soldiers, or their friends, county, city and town authorities,
police
officers, guardians of the poor and almshouses, trustees of benevolent insti-
tutions and public or privaite hospitals throughout the State and conntry,
having knowledge of disabled soldiers, or such persons in their charge, are
cordially invited to address either the commandant of the Home, or Dr.
WOLCOTT, by whom the necessary blanks and instructions will be sent by
return mail. On the application and certificate thus made out, Dr. WOLCOTT
indorses his order for the admission of the disableil person, and furnishes
an order for free transportation by railroad to the Home.
                 LABOR, INSTRUCTION AND AMUSEMENT.
  Such inmat-es as alre able to do so, have the opportunity to practice various
~ec:.auic.l s., or to work on the Home farm, for which they are paid a
cotMt)enL-a:.on of fl''om 'ti to $15 a month, averaging, all around, about
40 cents
pc: Ca;. Sh:-l labo-'ers earn more than these wages. The trades practiced
    .    m":d sho, making, carpenter and joiner work, tin-smithing,
plaster-
iu r.A-. stonc masonry, gas fitting, cigar making, broom making, and basket
          Farnifng is largely carried on, and some of the finest products
        a. a: the State fairs have been from the fields and gardens cultivated
bv "e soe:irs. All the labor of the institution, including care of the
build-
mugs, repairs wbich are found necessary, and farming operations, is done
by
the inmates.
  The institution has an excellent library of 2,500 volumes, contributed
by
friends of the soldiers in various parts of the country. The reading room
contains newspapers and magazines, all of which are in constant use and
requisition by the inmates.
  This institution is not a public charity, and the disabled soldiers of
the
country should understand it. The money that supports it has been for-
feited by bad soldiers, and has been nrade by the law of congress, the abso-
lute property of the disabled soldiers of the country. They do not place
themselves in the list of paupers by becoming inmates of the Home.