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Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
HEAD QUARTERS 2nd SUB-DISTRICT, VIRGINIA,
Petersburg, Va., April 21st 1868.

Brevet Brig. Gen'l O. Brown,
Assistant Commissioner,
Richmond, Va.

General: -

In reply to your endorsement on my communication of the 18th inst. enclosing Estimate of Rations for the month of May, 1868, inquiring why the Civil Authorities do not care for the indigent of this city and City Point.  I have the honor to inform you, as I have at other times mentioned, that the authorities will care for the indigent in the usual manner; that is, by sending them to the Poor House.  To this institution they persistently refuse to go, and will die in their hovels in preference.  About 80 paupers are now in the Poor house here, kept at an expense of nearly $1000.00 per month.  The authorities claim 'tis unjust to force them to encourage idleness, and a continued influx of paupers into the city, by distribution of rations throughout the corporation.

This city is the receptacle of more colored indigents than any other in Virginia.  Arriving here en route for Richmond, on two great Southern roads, and finding a large population of their color already established, being out of money, and strongly gregarious in their habits, they are continually settling here, and the matter is one causing deep solicitude on the part of the civil authorities.  Many also wander in from the Counties immediately adjacent, and are returned by the City authorities,

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