NATIONAL ASYLUM FOR DISABLED SOLDIERS.. The building of the Asylum for Disabled Soldiers, located near Milwaukee, is called The Northwestern Branch of that great National Institution. The Central Asylum is located at Dayton, Ohio. Other branches are located at Augusta, Maine, and Hampton, Virginia. The whole are under a Board of Managers, consisting of the following persons: THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ex-officio. THE CHIEF JUSTICE, ex-officio. THE SECRETARY OF WAR, ex-officio. Maj. Gen. B. F. BUTLER, President, Lowell, Mass. Maj. Gen. J. H. MARTINDALE, 1st Vice President, Rochester, N. Y. JAY COOKE, Esq., 2d Vice President, Philadelphia, Pa. Hon. LEWIS B. GUNCKEL, Secretary, Dayton, Ohio. Gov. FREDERICK SMYTH, Manchester, N. H. Dr. ERASTUS B. WOLCOTT, Milwaukee, Wis. Brig. Gen. JOHN S. CAVENDER, St. Louis, Mo. Gen. THOMAS O. OSBORNE, Chicago, Ill. THE NORTHWESTERN BRANCH Is beautifully situated, three miles from the city of Milwaukee, and within sight of its towers and domes. It is a capacious brick building, containing accommodations for 700 or 800 inmates. The plate which accompanies this sketch gives a fair view of the main edifice, and its style of architecture. In addition to this building, which contains the main halls, eating apartment, offices, dormitory and engine room, are shops, granaries, stables and other outbuildings. A farm of 425 acres surrounds the building, of which considerably exceeding one-half is under cultivation. The balance is a wooded park, in the care of which the greatest industry and good taste are displayed, traversed by shaded walks and drives, beautifully undulating, and a landscape of marked and peculiar loveliness throughout its entire extent. The main line of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad runs through the farm, and the track of the northern division passes beside it. WHO ARE ADMITTED, AND HOW. Any disabled volunteer or regular soldier, sailor or marine, who has been honorably discharged from the service of the United States, is entitled to admission, in case the disability was contracted in the line of duty, in the service. The present inmates are suffering from all kinds of disability. The loss of one leg or both, one arm or both, blindness, insanity, chronic disease, or acute disease if contracted in the service, ulcers and unhealed wounds, or any sort of affliction that deprives the sufferer of the ability to labor for his livelihood, entitles him to admission. Admission is procured on a certificate of which blank forms are furnished, to every applicant, setting forth his enlistment, with date, rank, place of muster, and the company, regiment or other organization to which he belonged, and the date and cause of discharge; and that he is receiving a pension. His identity is set forth in the same certificate, and a surgeon's statement of his disability and its nature. These certificates in blank, with full directions for filing them out, may be procured by applying therefor, either in person or by mail, to the Governor of the National Asylum for Disabled Soldiers, at Milwaukee, or to Dr. E. B. WOLCOTT, Manager. The post office address of Dr. WOLCOTT is Milwaukee, as is that of the Governor of the Asylum. Letters addressed to the 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 of almshouses, trustees of benevolent institutions and public or private hospitals throughout the State and country, having knowledge of disabled soldiers, or such persons in their charge, are cordially invited to address either the Governor of the Asylum, 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 endorses his order for the admission of the disabled person, and furnishes an order for free transportation by railroad to the Asylum. LABOR, INSTRUCTION AND AMUSEMENT. Such inmates as are able to do so have the opportunity to practice various mechanical trades, or to work on the Asylum farm, for which they are paid a compensation of from $6 to $15 a month, averaging all around, about 40 cents a day. Skilled laborers earn more than these wages. The trades practiced, are boot and shoe making, carpenter and joiner work, tinsmithing, plastering and stone masonry, gas fitting, cigar making and broom making. They have just begun to grow willow for basket making. Farming is largely carried on, and some of the finest products exhibited at the State Fairs have been from the fields and gardens cultivated by the soldiers. All the labor of the institution, including care of the buildings, repairs which are found necessary, and farming operations, is done by the inmates. The Institution has an excellent library of over 2,500 volumes, contributed by friends of the soldiers in various parts of the country. The reading-room contains twenty-seven daily newspapers, 130 weekly newspapers, and 37 magazines, all of which are in constant use and requisition by the inmates. The wise policy has been adopted of not excluding newspapers, on account of their politics. Schools are taught, which have from 130 to 150 attendants. The common branches of education and book-keeping, music, telegraphy and printing are subjects of study. Inmates who have aptness and good charac ter, but who are unfitted for severe manual labor, are here qualified to earn s livelihood as teachers, or to enter the professions. Several teacher, printers and telegraph operators have gone out from these schools the past year. |