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ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
and
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT

June 30, 2010


ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
and
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT

June 30, 2010

CONTENTS

Page

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT 1

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Statement of Financial Position 2


Statement of Activities 3
Statement of Cash Flows 4
Notes to Financial Statements 5-10

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

Functional Expenses 11
Functional Expenses as Presented in New York State Cost Reports 12
BOLLAM, SHEEDY, TORANI & CO. LLP
Certified Public Accountants
Albany, New York

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT

Board of Directors
St. Catherine’s Center for Children
Albany, New York

We have audited the accompanying statement of financial position of St. Catherine’s Center for Children (a New
York not-for-profit corporation) as of June 30, 2010, and the related statements of activities and cash flows for the year then
ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of St. Catherine’s Center for Children’s management. Our
responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. The prior year summarized
comparative information has been derived from St. Catherine’s Center for Children’s June 30, 2009, financial statements
and, in our report dated August 21, 2009, we expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements.

We conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America.
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial
statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts
and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant
estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe our audit
provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial
position of St. Catherine’s Center for Children as of June 30, 2010, and the change in its net assets and its cash flows for the
year then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Our audit was conducted for the purpose of forming an opinion on the basic financial statements taken as a whole.
The supplemental information presented on pages 11 and 12 is presented for purposes of additional analysis and is not a
required part of the basic financial statements. Such information has been subjected to the auditing procedures applied in the
audit of the basic financial statements and, in our opinion, is fairly stated in all material respects in relation to the basic
financial statements taken as a whole.

Albany, New York


August 26, 2010

An Independent Member of the RSM McGladrey Network


Page 1
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

June 30, 2010


(comparative totals for 2009)
2010 2009

ASSETS
Cash $ 178,026 $ 159,455
Accounts receivable, net 1,599,548 1,620,781
Prepaid expenses 57,080 18,635
Due from related party - 33,502
Interest in net assets of The Foundation of St. Catherine's
Center for Children 482,347 439,688
Land, buildings, and equipment, net 2,112,173 2,236,634

Total assets $ 4,429,174 $ 4,508,695

LIABILITIES
Lines-of-credit $ 628,753 $ 390,329
Accounts payable, trade 273,358 390,026
Accounts payable, related parties 4,442 11,545
Accrued expenses 592,833 781,977
Deferred revenue 103,958 22,267
Due to funding sources - 6,974
Long-term debt 154,386 168,122
1,757,730 1,771,240

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

NET ASSETS
Unrestricted 2,164,942 2,270,254
Unrestricted, Board designated - 3,565
2,164,942 2,273,819
Temporarily restricted 506,502 463,636
2,671,444 2,737,455

Total liabilities and net assets $ 4,429,174 $ 4,508,695

The accompanying Notes to Financial Statements are an integral part of these statements.
Page 2
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN
STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES

Year Ended June 30, 2010


(comparative totals for 2009)
Unrestricted
Unrestricted Board Temporarily 2010 2009
Operating Designated Restricted Totals Totals

REVENUES AND OTHER SUPPORT


Board and care $ 4,991,331 $ - $ - $ 4,991,331 $ 5,401,450
Homeless shelter 1,270,872 - - 1,270,872 1,104,483
Medical assistance 1,715,531 - - 1,715,531 1,716,173
Preventive services 1,137,960 - - 1,137,960 1,208,624
Tuition 2,807,952 - - 2,807,952 3,110,076
Other program revenue 359,893 - - 359,893 424,466
Contributions 50,891 - 49,275 100,166 45,077
Investment earnings 634 - 209 843 1,952
Miscellaneous 38,241 - - 38,241 9,067
Gain on sale of equipment 2,976 - - 2,976 -
Net assets released from restrictions
Satisfaction of donor and release of Board restrictions 52,842 (3,565) (49,277) - -
Total revenues and other support 12,429,123 (3,565) 207 12,425,765 13,021,368

EXPENSES
Program services
Group residence 1,407,450 - - 1,407,450 1,340,125
Copson 2,334,124 - - 2,334,124 2,496,190
Foster care 392,413 - - 392,413 376,267
Group home 563,853 - - 563,853 694,124
Medical 539,590 - - 539,590 666,110
Special education 2,447,903 - - 2,447,903 2,856,811
Clinic 589,080 - - 589,080 603,885
Family based treatment 383,271 - - 383,271 384,849
Prevention 666,879 - - 666,879 788,768
Transitional housing 1,144,337 - - 1,144,337 1,027,677
Community based services 407,710 - - 407,710 300,202
231 Sherman Street 141,777 - - 141,777 151,181
Access and visitation 46,549 - - 46,549 59,930
Total program services 11,064,936 - - 11,064,936 11,746,119
Management and general 1,469,499 - - 1,469,499 1,408,272
Bad debts, net - - - - 7,967
Total expenses 12,534,435 - - 12,534,435 13,162,358

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS BEFORE CHANGE IN


INTEREST IN NET ASSETS OF THE
FOUNDATION OF ST. CATHERINE'S
CENTER FOR CHILDREN (105,312) (3,565) 207 (108,670) (140,990)

Change in interest in net assets of The Foundation of


St. Catherine's Center for Children - - 42,659 42,659 (103,142)

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS (105,312) (3,565) 42,866 (66,011) (244,132)

NET ASSETS, beginning of year 2,270,254 3,565 463,636 2,737,455 2,981,587

NET ASSETS, end of year $ 2,164,942 $ - $ 506,502 $ 2,671,444 $ 2,737,455

The accompanying Notes to Financial Statements are an integral part of these statements.
Page 3
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

Year Ended June 30, 2010


(comparative totals for 2009)
2010 2009

CASH FLOWS PROVIDED (USED) BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES


Change in net assets $ (66,011) $ (244,132)
Adjustments to reconcile change in net assets to net cash
provided (used) by operating activities
Depreciation 197,417 210,402
Change in interest in the net assets of The Foundation of
St. Catherine's Center for Children (42,659) 103,142
Gain on sale of equipment (2,876) -
(Increase) decrease in
Accounts receivable 21,233 88,249
Prepaid expenses (38,445) (14,980)
Due from related party 33,502 (10,943)
Increase (decrease) in
Accounts payable, trade (116,668) (10,935)
Accounts payable, related parties (7,103) 7,238
Accrued expenses (189,144) 159,871
Deferred revenue 81,691 (8,277)
Due to funding sources (6,974) (28,181)
(136,037) 251,454

CASH FLOWS PROVIDED (USED) BY INVESTING ACTIVITIES


Acquisition of equipment (32,352) (74,918)
Proceeds from the sale of equipment 6,787 -
(25,565) (74,918)

CASH FLOWS PROVIDED (USED) BY FINANCING ACTIVITIES


Lines-of-credit, net 238,424 (145,467)
Repayments of long-term debt (58,251) (52,028)
180,173 (197,495)

Net increase (decrease) in cash 18,571 (20,959)

CASH, beginning of year 159,455 180,414

CASH, end of year $ 178,026 $ 159,455

SUPPLEMENTAL CASH FLOW INFORMATION


Cash paid during the year for:
Interest $ 47,997 $ 43,947
Noncash financing and operating activity:
Acquired vehicles in exchange for long-term debt 44,515 54,500

The accompanying Notes to Financial Statements are an integral part of these statements.
Page 4
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


June 30, 2010

NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES

a. Description of Organization

St. Catherine’s Center for Children (Center) is a private not-for-profit corporation operated under the auspices of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany (Diocese). The Center provides a variety of residential, community, and school
based programs for children and families directed toward the prevention of personal and family dysfunction. Included
are services to assess and treat children with mental illness, as well as education and support for parents of these children.
The Center offers a comprehensive visitation program for non-custodial parents coordinated with Albany County Family
Court. In addition to providing a special education program for children ages five to twelve with social, emotional,
and/or intellectual developmental conditions, the Center offers residential programs such as group care housing,
specialized foster families for children, shelters for homeless families, and other educational programs.

A summary of the significant accounting policies consistently applied in the preparation of the accompanying financial
statements follows.

b. Accounting Method

The financial statements are prepared on the accrual basis of accounting.

On June 30, 2010, the Center adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards
Codification (ASC). The ASC is an aggregation of previously issued authoritative accounting principles generally
accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) in one comprehensive set of guidance organized by subject area. In
accordance with the ASC, references to previously issued accounting standards have been replaced by ASC references.
Subsequent revisions to GAAP will be incorporated into the ASC through Accounting Standards Updates.

In preparing financial statements in conformity with GAAP, management is required to make estimates and assumptions
that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the
financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could
differ from those estimates.

c. Fair Value Measurement

The Center reports certain assets at fair value. Fair value is defined as an exchange price that would be received for an
asset or paid to transfer a liability (an “exit” price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability
between market participants on the measurement date.

d. Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable are carried at original invoice amount less an estimate made for doubtful receivables based on a
review of all outstanding amounts on a monthly basis. Management determines the allowance for doubtful accounts by
regularly evaluating individual customer receivables and considering a customer’s financial condition, credit history, and
current economic conditions. The allowance for doubtful accounts was $45,000 at June 30, 2010. Accounts receivable
are written off when deemed uncollectible. Recoveries of accounts receivable previously written off are recorded when
received.

An account receivable is considered to be past due if any portion of the receivable balance is outstanding for more than
90 days. Interest is not charged on outstanding accounts receivable.

Page 5
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


June 30, 2010

NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES - Continued

e. Land, Buildings, and Equipment

Acquisition of land, buildings, and equipment and expenditures, which materially change capacities or extend useful lives
are reported at cost, net of accumulated depreciation. Routine maintenance and repairs and minor replacement costs are
charged to expense as incurred. When buildings and equipment are retired or otherwise disposed of, the appropriate
accounts are relieved of costs and accumulated depreciation, and any resultant gain or loss is included in the Center’s
change in net assets.

Depreciation is provided for in amounts to relate the cost of depreciable assets to expenses over their estimated useful
lives on the straight-line method. The estimated lives used in determining depreciation vary from three to fifty years.

Long-lived assets to be held and used are tested for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate
that the related carrying amount may not be recoverable. When required, impairment losses on assets to be held and used
are recognized based on the excess of the asset’s carrying amount over the fair value of the asset. Certain long-lived
assets to be disposed of by sale are reported at the lower of carrying amounts of fair value less cost to sell.

f. Recognition of Donor Restrictions

Support is reported as an increase in temporarily or permanently restricted net assets depending on the nature of the
restriction. When a restriction expires, temporarily restricted net assets are reclassified to unrestricted net assets. The
Center had no permanently restricted net assets as of June 30, 2010.

g. Tax Status

The Center is exempt from income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of Internal Revenue Code and comparable New York
State law. Contributions to it are tax deductible within the limitations prescribed by the Code. The Center has been
classified as a publicly supported organization, which is not a private foundation under Section 509(a) of the Code. This
exemption from taxes is under the terms of an annual group ruling granted to the United States Catholic Conference.

Management evaluated the Center’s tax positions, including that the Center is exempt from taxes and not subject to
income taxes on unrelated business income, and concluded that the Center had taken no tax positions that required
adjustment in its financial statements.

Forms 990 filed by the Center are subject to examination by the Internal Revenue Service up to three years from the
extended due date of each return. Forms 990 filed by the Center are no longer subject to examination for the fiscal years
ended June 30, 2006, and prior.

h. Subsequent Events

In preparing the financial statements and notes thereto, the Center has considered subsequent events through August 26,
2010, the date the financial statements were issued.

i. Comparative Totals Summarized Financial Information for 2009

The financial statements include certain prior year summarized comparative information in total but not by net asset class.
Such information does not include sufficient detail to constitute a presentation in conformity with (GAAP).

Accordingly, such information should be read in conjunction with the financial statements for the year ended June 30,
2009, from which the summarized information was derived.

Page 6
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


June 30, 2010

NOTE 2 - LAND, BUILDINGS, AND EQUIPMENT, NET

A summary of the Center’s land, buildings, and equipment, net, is as follows:

June 30,
2010

Furnishings and equipment $ 944,693


Land, buildings, and improvements 3,351,956
Leasehold improvements 245,725
Vehicles 554,384
5,096,758
Less accumulated depreciation 2,984,585

Land, buildings, and equipment, net $ 2,112,173

NOTE 3 - INTEREST IN NET ASSETS OF THE FOUNDATION OF ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

a. Net Assets

The Foundation of St. Catherine’s Center for Children (Foundation) was organized to engage in activities to promote the
purposes, goals, and objectives of the Center to solicit contributions to carry out those purposes. The Center is required
to report its ongoing economic interest in the net assets of the Foundation. Each year the change in this interest is
reported in the statement of activities.

A summary of Foundation’s financial position and liquidity is as follows:

June 30, 2010

Total assets $ 483,259

Liabilities $ 912

Net assets, unrestricted 331,671


Net assets, temporarily restricted for specific Center programs 140,676
Net assets, permanently restricted for specific Center programs 10,000
482,347

Total liabilities and net assets $ 483,259

A summary of the Foundation’s change in net assets is as follows:

Year Ended
June 30, 2010

Revenues, gains, and other support $ 263,972


Expenses 221,313

Change in net assets $ 42,659

Page 7
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


June 30, 2010

NOTE 3 - INTEREST IN NET ASSETS OF THE FOUNDATION OF ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN
- Continued

b. Service Agreement

The Center has an agreement with the Foundation to provide personnel, office space, and certain administrative services
to the Foundation. The agreement is renewable on an annual basis. Reimbursement for these services totaled $85,854
during the year ended June 30, 2010. The Center received unrestricted contributions totaling $48,523. In addition, the
Center received temporarily restricted contributions totaling $49,275, which were used in the Center’s program services
in accordance with the donors’ wishes.

NOTE 4 - LINES-OF-CREDIT

The Center has available a $1,300,000 line-of-credit with First Niagara Bank, of which $628,753 was outstanding at June
30, 2010. The line-of-credit expires December 1, 2010, and is secured by accounts receivable. Interest is charged at the
bank’s prime rate with a floor of 4.0% (4.0% at June 30, 2010) or the three-month LIBOR rate plus 2.5%, with a floor of
4.0% (4.0% at June 30, 2010) at the election of management. The Center is required to maintain a zero balance for 30
consecutive days during the loan year.

The Center also has a $250,000 equipment line-of-credit with First Niagara Bank, of which $148,121 is available at June
30, 2010. The line-of-credit expires December 1, 2010, and is collateralized by the related equipment purchased. Interest
is charged at the bank’s prime rate plus .25% with a floor of 4.0% (4% at June 30, 2010) or at the Federal Home Loan
Bank rate plus 2.25% (4.0% at June 30, 2010) at the election of management. Any outstanding amounts on the line-of-
credit are converted, at the time of the advance, to a term loan with payment periods not to exceed sixty months at the
election of management (Note 5).

NOTE 5 - LONG-TERM DEBT

A summary of the Center’s long-term debt is as follows:


June 30, 2010

First Niagara Bank (Note 4)


Nine notes payable, in total monthly installments of $3,571, including
interest at rates ranging from 4.59% to 7.35%, maturing at various
dates from February 2012 through November 2013 (a)(b) $ 101,879
Saratoga National Bank
Two notes payable, in total monthly installments of $1,026, including
principal and interest at rates ranging from 6.40% to 6.78%,
maturing at various dates in December 2010 and February 2011 (b) 7,233
GMAC Financing
Four notes payable for vehicles, in total monthly installments of $2,085,
including principal and interest at rates ranging from 6.90% to 7.50%,
maturing at various dates in May 2012 and June 2012 (b) 45,274

$ 154,386

(a) Secured by equipment.


(b) Secured by vehicles.

Page 8
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


June 30, 2010

NOTE 5 - LONG-TERM DEBT - Continued


A summary of the Center’s future minimum annual maturities of long-term debt is as follows:

For the year ending June 30, 2011 $ 67,838


2012 60,782
2013 22,347
2014 3,419

$ 154,386

NOTE 6 - RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS


The Center is affiliated with the Diocese. At times, the Center receives cash advances from the Diocese for working
capital purposes. Interest on cash advances to the Center from the Diocese is charged at a rate of 5%. Interest paid and
expensed to the Diocese totaled $9,271 for the year ended June 30, 2010. The Center is also a member of a
multiemployer pension plan administered by the Diocese and rents office space from the Diocese as more fully described
in Notes 7 and 9, respectively. The Center’s indebtedness to the Diocese as a result of these transactions totaled $3,918
at June 30, 2010, and is classified as accounts payable, related parties.

NOTE 7 - PENSION PLAN


The Center is a member of a multiemployer defined benefit plan. The plan is administered by the Diocese. This plan is
available to all eligible lay employees of the Diocese and all Diocesan-related parties.
Employees who work at least 20 hours per week (1,000 hours per year) are immediately eligible to participate in this plan
at their own cost of 2% of their salary. Management of the plan has established an employer contribution based on 7% of
an employee’s salary upon completion of three years of service. An employee is vested upon completion of five years of
service. The retirement plan is a Church Plan, and as such, it is not subject to the minimum funding requirements of
ERISA.
Pension costs totaled $129,757 for the year ended June 30, 2010.

NOTE 8 - TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED NET ASSETS


Temporarily restricted net assets are available for the following purposes:
June 30, 2010

Program and renovations, capital projects $ 24,155


Interest in net assets of The Foundation of St. Catherine’s Center
for Children 482,347

$ 506,502

NOTE 9 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES


a. Leases
The Center leases office space at 40 North Main Avenue, Albany, New York, from the Diocese, a related party, on an
annual basis. The lease required payments of $7,246 per month for the year ended June 30, 2010. Rent expense on this
space totaled $83,913 for the year ended June 30, 2010. The lease for the year ending June 30, 2011, requires monthly
payments of $7,353 per month.

Page 9
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


June 30, 2010

NOTE 9 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES - Continued

a. Leases - Continued

The Center leases program space at 401 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, New York, from St. Teresa of Avila Church, a
related party. The lease required payments of $6,438. The lease expires during November 2012. The Center has one
additional five-year renewal option, with monthly rental payments of $6,631. Rent expense on this lease was $77,250 for
the year ended June 30, 2010.

The Center leased program space at 994 Madison Avenue, Albany, New York, from the Church of St. Vincent DePaul, a
related party. The lease required monthly payments of $1,320 during the first year increasing to $1,358 during the
second year, to $1,400 in the final year. The lease was set to expire March 31, 2010. During July 2009, the Center
vacated this property. Rent expense on this lease was $1,400 for the year ended June 30, 2010.

A summary of the Center’s future annual minimum rental payments due under the terms of its operating leases is as
follows:

For the year ending June 30, 2011 $ 165,486


2012 77,250
2013 25,750

$ 268,486

b. Concentration of Credit Risk

The Center maintains cash balances in several financial institutions located in the Northeast. Accounts at each institution
are insured, up to certain limits, by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). At times, the Center has bank
deposits in excess of amounts insured by the FDIC.

c. Significant Concentration

Approximately 53% of the Center’s total revenue and other support was derived from three funding sources. Accounts
receivable due from these payers was approximately $856,000 at June 30, 2010. No other funding source accounted for
more than 10% of the Center’s total revenue and other support.

d. Funding Sources

The Center is subject to audits and reviews of reimbursable costs by various governmental agencies. The outcome of
these audits and reviews may have the effect of retroactively increasing or decreasing daily rates charged for various
services. These charges, if any, will be recognized in accordance with the rules and guidelines established by the various
funding sources.

Page 10
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION - FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES

Year Ended June 30, 2010


(comparative totals for 2009)
Family Community Total Management
Group Foster Group Special Based Transitional Based 231 Access and Program and 2010 2009
Residence Copson Care Home Medical Education Clinic Treatment Prevention Housing Services Sherman St. Visitation Services General Totals Totals

Salaries and wages $ 997,609 $ 1,643,678 $ 111,200 $ 391,271 $ 144,604 $ 1,806,487 $ 379,554 $ 159,615 $ 482,181 $ 691,007 $ 276,498 $ 93,190 $ 32,986 $ 7,209,880 $ 901,989 $ 8,111,869 $ 8,489,808
Payroll taxes, fringe benefits,
vacation accrual 209,202 322,396 23,126 76,835 29,080 322,169 65,352 27,946 83,387 138,311 57,170 17,072 12,804 1,384,850 176,387 1,561,237 1,582,416
Transportation and worker expense 10,220 27,003 23,213 4,270 3,583 2,675 638 6,940 33,688 10,164 6,622 2,193 - 131,209 687 131,896 119,904
Children's activities/program supplies 28,104 47,931 4,864 13,536 279 35,532 4,931 2,068 4,464 14,850 22,849 2,029 - 181,437 4,250 185,687 260,364
Purchase of services 2,215 4,265 746 850 390 19,467 440 761 715 64,299 5,471 65 130 99,814 86,089 185,903 136,108
Purchase of health services - - - - 140,690 5,275 73,625 20,400 8,820 - - - - 248,810 - 248,810 280,525
Food 30,452 49,944 - 14,828 - 63,129 77 - - 44 - - - 158,474 - 158,474 203,805
Clothing 12,401 20,773 987 6,225 - - - 10,359 - 1,217 - 456 - 52,418 - 52,418 60,094
Bedding/linen/uniforms - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Supplies and equipment 13,836 25,053 5,229 8,666 302 18,121 4,428 2,828 319 39,558 - 3,043 - 121,383 43 121,426 97,490
Supplies and equipment, medical - - - - 171,989 - 6,286 - - - - - - 178,275 - 178,275 261,034
Rent, occupancy 5,846 75,470 1,007 2,061 - 1,088 1,306 972 24,702 326 7,305 - 154 120,237 42,343 162,580 178,596
Rent, equipment and fixtures 2,223 3,151 917 1,962 165 3,073 544 1,040 713 2,315 333 66 2 16,504 1,655 18,159 14,208
Utilities 18,269 12,124 2,509 8,056 4,197 34,801 8,573 2,509 - 61,918 - 5,174 - 158,130 - 158,130 172,927
Repairs and maintenance, plant 13,066 13,635 6,280 3,012 7,638 27,181 7,516 6,280 11 23,080 - 3,875 - 111,574 5,987 117,561 100,517
Repairs and maintenance, equipment - - - - - 459 - - - - - - - 459 - 459 1,771
Repairs and maintenance, vehicles 4,841 13,998 1,149 3,600 228 2,018 1,218 55 3,054 5,183 6,423 2,249 - 44,016 - 44,016 38,317
Telephone and telegraph 13,527 13,593 3,128 6,106 7,421 13,115 7,868 3,072 8,829 12,309 6,308 4,020 473 99,769 19,128 118,897 115,936
Postage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16,343 16,343 13,796
Dues/licenses/permits 204 752 337 533 - 241 253 936 169 278 385 147 - 4,235 36,032 40,267 43,040
Office supplies 3,270 5,751 100 1,908 2,793 10,281 2,863 100 4,334 7,102 603 380 - 39,485 21,040 60,525 115,985
Subscriptions/publications - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 176 176 42
Conference expense - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1,093 1,093 5,160
Administrative 199 417 897 136 1,063 11,534 441 1,210 775 3,314 2,008 - - 21,994 7,197 29,191 38,821
Staff development 1,761 3,155 947 801 267 9,502 1,296 1,059 2,645 1,069 213 1,028 - 23,743 4,691 28,434 45,259
Publicity - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18,048 18,048 16,664
Grant expense - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Audit/legal and advisory 15,310 21,478 - 6,126 - 4,322 3,878 - 1,175 140 - - - 52,429 76,964 129,393 102,980
Insurance 6,099 6,882 1,401 4,387 1,728 8,968 3,130 358 1,878 31,714 3,532 645 - 70,722 2,444 73,166 76,750
Interest 1,082 1,044 590 294 - 979 502 29 752 2,360 1,695 541 - 9,868 38,129 47,997 43,947
Boarding home payments - - 187,699 - - - - 130,184 - - - - - 317,883 - 317,883 301,748
Clothing/activity/special payments - - 8,774 - - - - - - - - - - 8,774 - 8,774 16,046
Replace reserve/amortization 602 16,659 - 288 - - - - - 9,931 - - - 27,480 524 28,004 27,719
Total expenses before depreciation 1,390,338 2,329,152 385,100 555,751 516,417 2,400,417 574,719 378,721 662,611 1,120,489 397,415 136,173 46,549 10,893,852 1,461,239 12,355,091 12,961,777

Depreciation, buildings 10,001 280 4,393 7,300 11,666 42,269 11,580 4,393 - 5,983 - 1,082 - 98,947 1,717 100,664 99,608
Depreciation, equipment 405 1,011 - 268 8,917 1,851 1,703 - - 8,563 - 503 - 23,221 6,543 29,764 34,405
Depreciation, vehicles 6,706 3,681 2,920 534 2,590 3,366 1,078 157 4,268 9,302 10,295 4,019 - 48,916 - 48,916 58,601

Total expenses $ 1,407,450 $ 2,334,124 $ 392,413 $ 563,853 $ 539,590 $ 2,447,903 $ 589,080 $ 383,271 $ 666,879 $ 1,144,337 $ 407,710 $ 141,777 $ 46,549 $ 11,064,936 $ 1,469,499 $ 12,534,435 $ 13,154,391

See Independent Auditor’s Report.


Page 11
ST. CATHERINE’S CENTER FOR CHILDREN

FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES AS PRESENTED IN NEW YORK STATE COST REPORTS

Family Community
Group Foster Group Special Based Transitional 231 Based Access and 2010 2009
Residence Copson Care Home Medical Education Clinic Treatment Prevention Housing Sherman St. Services Visitation Totals Totals

Salaries and wages $ 1,115,518 $ 1,832,782 $ 143,657 $ 437,723 $ 188,350 $ 2,006,363 $ 427,137 $ 191,288 $ 531,816 $ 782,488 $ 104,549 $ 309,905 $ 40,293 $ 8,111,869 $ 8,489,808
Payroll taxes, fringe benefits, -
vacation accrual 231,975 359,278 29,437 85,894 37,604 361,683 74,783 34,181 93,134 156,109 19,308 63,630 14,221 1,561,237 1,582,416
Transportation and worker expense 10,310 27,148 22,457 4,305 3,616 2,829 674 7,008 33,726 10,630 2,202 6,985 6 131,896 119,904
Children's activities/program supplies 28,655 48,823 5,126 13,754 486 35,075 6,572 2,219 4,698 15,262 2,083 22,899 35 185,687 260,364
Purchase of services 13,447 22,341 3,839 5,290 4,629 38,834 5,133 3,817 5,482 71,603 1,161 9,496 831 185,903 136,108
Purchase of health services - - - - 140,690 5,275 73,625 20,400 8,820 - - - - 248,810 280,525
Food 30,452 49,944 - 14,828 - 63,129 77 - - 44 - - - 158,474 203,805
Clothing 12,401 20,773 2,806 6,226 - - - 9,541 - 671 - - - 52,418 60,094
Bedding/linen/uniforms - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Supplies and equipment 13,842 25,062 6,024 8,668 304 18,131 4,431 1,034 321 40,108 3,499 2 - 121,426 97,490
Supplies and equipment, medical - - - - 171,989 - 6,286 - - - - - - 178,275 261,034
Rent, occupancy 11,336 84,360 2,528 4,245 2,055 10,614 3,580 2,475 27,046 4,424 539 8,879 499 162,580 178,596
Rent, equipment and fixtures 2,438 3,498 976 2,048 276 3,445 633 1,099 804 2,444 88 394 16 18,159 14,208
Utilities 18,269 12,124 2,509 8,057 4,198 34,801 8,573 2,509 - 61,916 5,174 - - 158,130 172,927
Repairs and maintenance, plant 13,842 14,894 6,495 3,320 7,897 28,528 7,837 6,492 342 23,692 3,951 222 49 117,561 100,517
Repairs and maintenance, equipment - - - - - 459 - - - - - - - 459 1,771
Repairs and maintenance, vehicles 4,841 13,998 1,932 3,600 228 2,018 1,218 11 3,054 4,783 2,249 6,084 - 44,016 38,317
Telephone and telegraph 16,007 17,609 3,815 7,094 8,349 17,417 8,895 3,752 9,888 14,162 4,261 7,019 629 118,897 115,936
Postage 2,119 3,432 587 843 793 3,677 878 580 905 1,582 207 607 133 16,343 13,796
Dues/licenses/permits 4,875 8,318 1,632 2,390 1,749 8,347 2,188 2,215 2,164 3,767 606 1,723 293 40,267 43,040
Office supplies 5,998 10,168 852 2,993 3,814 15,014 3,993 852 5,499 9,138 647 1,385 172 60,525 115,985
Subscriptions/publications 23 37 6 9 9 40 9 6 10 17 2 7 1 176 42
Conference expense 142 230 39 56 53 246 59 39 61 106 14 41 7 1,093 5,160
Administrative 1,065 1,932 1,157 509 1,414 13,158 759 1,466 1,175 4,130 92 2,276 58 29,191 38,821
Staff development 2,369 4,140 1,115 1,043 495 10,557 1,548 1,226 2,905 1,523 1,088 387 38 28,434 45,259
Publicity 2,340 3,790 649 931 876 4,060 969 641 999 1,747 230 670 146 18,048 16,664
Grant expense - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Audit/legal and advisory 25,288 37,638 2,766 10,095 3,735 21,636 8,010 2,732 5,437 7,590 980 2,859 627 129,393 102,980
Insurance 6,416 7,395 1,488 4,514 1,848 9,518 3,261 444 2,014 31,951 676 3,622 19 73,166 76,750
Interest 6,026 9,050 1,960 2,261 1,850 9,567 2,549 1,383 2,863 6,040 1,026 3,111 311 47,997 43,947
Boarding home payments - - 187,699 - - - - 130,184 - - - - - 317,883 301,748
Clothing/activity/special payments - - 8,774 - - - - - - - - - - 8,774 16,046
Replace reserve/amortization 670 16,769 19 315 25 118 28 19 29 9,981 7 19 5 28,004 27,719
Total expenses before depreciation 1,580,664 2,635,533 440,344 631,011 587,332 2,724,539 653,705 427,613 743,192 1,265,908 154,639 452,222 58,389 12,355,091 12,961,777

Depreciation, buildings 10,224 641 4,454 7,389 11,751 42,654 11,672 4,454 95 6,149 1,104 64 14 100,664 99,608
Depreciation, equipment 1,253 2,385 235 606 9,234 3,323 2,054 232 362 9,197 586 243 53 29,764 34,405
Depreciation, vehicles 6,706 3,681 2,920 534 2,590 3,366 1,078 157 4,268 9,302 4,019 10,295 - 48,916 58,601

Total expenses $ 1,598,847 $ 2,642,240 $ 447,953 $ 639,540 $ 610,907 $ 2,773,882 $ 668,509 $ 432,456 $ 747,917 $ 1,290,556 $ 160,348 $ 462,824 $ 58,456 $ 12,534,435 $ 13,154,391

See Independent Auditor’s Report.


Page 12
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“Thine!” returned the other, shuddering. “Well hast thou spoken.
The dead is thine.”
The proud girl started, and stared into her face with a ghastly
look. But a wild and mournful expression passed across the features
of the gentle one, and, weak and helpless, she sank down on the
bed, her head pillowed beside that of the corpse and her hair
mingling with his dark locks. A creature of hope and joy, the first
draught of sorrow had bewildered her.
39
“Edith!” cried her rival.
Edith groaned as with a sudden compression of the heart; and
removing her cheek from the dead youth’s pillow, she stood upright,
fearfully encountering the eyes of the lofty girl.
“Wilt thou betray me?” said the latter, calmly.
“Till the dead bid me speak I will be silent,” answered Edith.
“Leave us alone together. Go and live many years, and then return
and tell me of thy life. He too will be here. Then, if thou tellest of
sufferings more than death, we will both forgive thee.”
“And what shall be the token?” asked the proud girl, as if her
heart acknowledged a meaning in these wild words.
“This lock of hair,” said Edith, lifting one of the dark, clustering
curls that lay heavily on the dead man’s brow.
The two maidens joined their hands over the bosom of the
corpse, and appointed a day and hour far, far in time to come for
their next meeting in that chamber. The statelier girl gave one deep
look at the motionless countenance and departed—yet turned again
and trembled ere she closed the door, almost believing that her dead
lover frowned upon her. And Edith, too! Was not her white form
fading into the moonlight? Scorning her own weakness, she went
forth and perceived that a negro slave was waiting in the passage
with a wax-light, which he held between her face and his own, and
regarded her, as she thought, with an ugly expression of merriment.
Lifting his torch on high, the slave lighted her down the staircase and
undid the portal of the mansion. The young clergyman of the town
had just ascended the steps, and, bowing to the lady, passed in
without a word.
Years, many years, rolled on. The world seemed new again, so
much older was it grown since the night when those pale girls had
clasped their hands across the bosom of the corpse. In the interval a
lonely woman had passed from youth to extreme age, and was
known by all the town as the “Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet.” A taint
of insanity had affected her whole life, but so quiet, sad and gentle,
so utterly free from violence, that she was suffered to pursue her
harmless fantasies unmolested by the world, with whose business or
pleasures she had naught to do. She dwelt alone, and never came
into the daylight, except to follow funerals. Whenever a corpse was
borne along the street, in sunshine, rain or snow, whether a
pompous train of the rich and proud thronged after it or few and
humble were the mourners, behind them came the lonely woman in
a long white garment which the people called her shroud. She took
no place among the kindred or the friends, but stood at the door to
hear the funeral prayer, and walked in the rear of the procession as
one whose earthly charge it was to haunt the house of mourning,
and be the shadow of affliction, and see that the dead were duly
buried. So long had this been her custom that the inhabitants of the
town deemed her a part of every funeral, as much as the coffin-pall
or the very corpse itself, and augured ill of the sinner’s destiny
unless the Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet came gliding like a ghost
behind. Once, it is said, she affrighted a bridal party with her pale
presence, appearing suddenly in the illuminated hall just as the
priest was uniting a false maid to a wealthy man before her lover had
been dead a year. Evil was the omen to that marriage! Sometimes
she stole forth by moonlight and visited the graves of venerable
integrity, and wedded love, and virgin innocence, and every spot
where the ashes of a kind and faithful heart were mouldering. Over
the hillocks of those favored dead would she stretch out her arms
with a gesture as if she were scattering seeds, and many believed
that she brought them from the garden of Paradise; for the graves
which she had visited were green beneath the snow and covered
with sweet flowers from April to November. Her blessing was better
than a holy verse upon the tombstone. Thus wore away her long,
sad, peaceful and fantastic life till few were so old as she, and the
people of later generations wondered how the dead had ever been
buried, or mourners had endured their grief, without the Old Maid in
the Winding-Sheet.
Still years went on, and still she followed funerals and was not
yet summoned to her own festival of death. One afternoon the great
street of the town was all alive with business and bustle, though the
sun now gilded only the upper half of the church-spire, having left the
house-tops and loftiest trees in shadow. The scene was cheerful and
animated in spite of the somber shade between the high brick
buildings. Here were pompous merchants in white wigs and laced
velvet, the bronzed faces of sea-captains, the foreign garb and air of
Spanish creoles, and the disdainful port of natives of Old England, all
contrasted with the rough aspect of one or two back-settlers
negociating sales of timber from forests where axe had never
sounded. Sometimes a lady passed, swelling roundly forth in an
embroidered petticoat, balancing her steps in high-heeled shoes,
and courtesying with lofty grace to the punctilious obeisances of the
gentlemen. The life of the town seemed to have its very centre not
far from an old mansion that stood somewhat back from the
pavement, surrounded by neglected grass, with a strange air of
loneliness, rather deepened than dispelled by the throng so near it.
Its site would have been suitably occupied by a magnificent
Exchange or a brick block lettered all over with various signs; or the
large house itself might have made a noble tavern with the “King’s
Arms” swinging before it, and guests in every chamber, instead of
the present solitude. But, owing to some dispute about the right of
inheritance, the mansion had been long without a tenant, decaying
from year to year and throwing the stately gloom of its shadow over
the busiest part of the town. Such was the scene, and such the time,
when a figure unlike any that have been described was observed at
a distance down the street.
“I espy a strange sail yonder,” remarked a Liverpool captain;
“that woman in the long white garment.”
The sailor seemed much struck by the object, as were several
others who at the same moment caught a glimpse of the figure that
had attracted his notice. Almost immediately the various topics of
conversation gave place to speculations in an undertone on this
unwonted occurrence.
“Can there be a funeral so late this afternoon?” inquired some.
They looked for the signs of death at every door—the sexton, the
hearse, the assemblage of black-clad relatives—all that makes up
the woeful pomp of funerals. They raised their eyes, also, to the sun-
gilt spire of the church, and wondered that no clang proceeded from
its bell, which had always tolled till now when this figure appeared in
the light of day. But none had heard that a corpse was to be borne to
its home that afternoon, nor was there any token of a funeral except
the apparition of the Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet.
“What may this portend?” asked each man of his neighbor.
All smiled as they put the question, yet with a certain trouble in
their eyes, as if pestilence, or some other wide calamity, were
prognosticated by the untimely intrusion among the living of one
whose presence had always been associated with death and woe.
What a comet is to the earth was that sad woman to the town. Still
she moved on, while the hum of surprise was hushed at her
approach, and the proud and the humble stood aside that her white
garment might not wave against them. It was a long, loose robe of
spotless purity. Its wearer appeared very old, pale, emaciated and
feeble, yet glided onward without the unsteady pace of extreme age.
At one point of her course a little rosy boy burst forth from a door and
ran with open arms towards the ghostly woman, seeming to expect a
kiss from her bloodless lips. She made a slight pause, fixing her eye
upon him with an expression of no earthly sweetness, so that the
child shivered and stood awe-struck rather than affrighted while the
Old Maid passed on. Perhaps her garment might have been polluted
even by an infant’s touch; perhaps her kiss would have been death
to the sweet boy within the year.
“She is but a shadow,” whispered the superstitious. “The child
put forth his arms and could not grasp her robe.”
The wonder was increased when the Old Maid passed beneath
the porch of the deserted mansion, ascended the moss-covered
steps, lifted the iron knocker and gave three raps. The people could
only conjecture that some old remembrance, troubling her
bewildered brain, had impelled the poor woman hither to visit the
friends of her youth; all gone from their home long since and forever,
unless their ghosts still haunted it—fit company for the Old Maid in
the Winding-Sheet. An elderly man approached the steps and,
reverently uncovering his gray locks, essayed to explain the matter.
“None, madam,” said he, “have dwelt in this house these fifteen
years agone—no, not since the death of old Colonel Fenwicke,
whose funeral you may remember to have followed. His heirs, being
ill-agreed among themselves, have let the mansion-house go to
ruin.”
The Old Maid looked slowly round with a slight gesture of one
hand and a finger of the other upon her lip, appearing more shadow-
like than ever in the obscurity of the porch. But again she lifted the
hammer, and gave, this time, a single rap. Could it be that a footstep
was now heard coming down the staircase of the old mansion which
all conceived to have been so long untenanted? Slowly, feebly, yet
heavily, like the pace of an aged and infirm person, the step
approached, more distinct on every downward stair, till it reached the
portal. The bar fell on the inside; the door was opened. One upward
glance toward the church-spire, whence the sunshine had just faded,
was the last that the people saw of the “Old Maid in the Winding-
Sheet.”
“Who undid the door?” asked many.
This question, owing to the depth of shadow beneath the porch,
no one could satisfactorily answer. Two or three aged men, while
protesting against an inference which might be drawn, affirmed that
the person within was a negro, and bore a singular resemblance to
old Cæsar, formerly a slave in the house, but freed by death some
thirty years before.
“Her summons has waked up a servant of the old family,” said
one, half seriously.
“Let us wait here,” replied another. “More guests will knock at the
door anon. But the gate of the grave-yard should be thrown open.”
Twilight had overspread the town before the crowd began to
separate, or the comments on this incident were exhausted. One
after another was wending his way homeward, when a coach—no
common spectacle in those days—drove slowly into the street. It was
an old-fashioned equipage, hanging close to the ground, with arms
on the pannels, a footman behind, and a grave, corpulent coachman
seated high in front—the whole giving an idea of solemn state and
dignity. There was something awful in the heavy rumbling of the
wheels. The coach rolled down the street, till, coming to the gateway
of the deserted mansion, it drew up, and the footman sprang to the
ground.
“Whose grand coach is this?” asked a very inquisitive body.
The footman made no reply, but ascended the steps of the old
house, gave three taps with the iron hammer, and returned to open
the coach door. An old man possessed of the heraldic lore so
common in that day examined the shield of arms on the pannel.
“Azure, a lion’s head erased, between three flower de luces,”
said he; then whispered the name of the family to whom these
bearings belonged. The last inheritor of its honors was recently
dead, after a long residence amid the splendor of the British court,
where his birth and wealth had given him no mean station. “He left
no child,” continued the herald, “and these arms, being in a lozenge,
betoken that the coach appertains to his widow.”
Further disclosures, perhaps, might have been made, had not
the speaker been suddenly struck dumb by the stern eye of an
ancient lady who thrust forth her head from the coach, preparing to
descend. As she emerged the people saw that her dress was
magnificent, and her figure dignified in spite of age and infirmity—a
stately ruin, but with a look at once of pride and wretchedness. Her
strong and rigid features had an awe about them unlike that of the
White Old Maid, but as of something evil. She passed up the steps,
leaning on a gold-headed cane. The door swung open as she
ascended—and the light of a torch glittered on the embroidery of her
dress and gleamed on the pillars of the porch. After a momentary
pause—a glance backwards—and then a desperate effort—she
went in. The decypherer of the coat of arms had ventured up the
lowest step, and, shrinking back immediately, pale and tremulous,
affirmed that the torch was held by the very image of old Cæsar.
“But such a hideous grin,” added he, “was never seen on the
face of mortal man, black or white! It will haunt me till my dying day.”
Meantime the coach had wheeled round, with a prodigious
clatter on the pavement, and rumbled up the street, disappearing in
the twilight, while the ear still tracked its course. Scarcely was it gone
when the people began to question whether the coach and
attendants, the ancient lady, the spectre of old Cæsar and the Old
Maid herself, were not all a strangely combined delusion with some
dark purport in its mystery. The whole town was astir, so that, instead
of dispersing, the crowd continually increased, and stood gazing up
at the windows of the mansion, now silvered by the brightening
moon. The elders, glad to indulge the narrative propensity of age,
told of the long-faded splendor of the family, the entertainments they
had given and the guests, the greatest of the land, and even titled
and noble ones from abroad, who had passed beneath that portal.
These graphic reminiscences seemed to call up the ghosts of those
to whom they referred. So strong was the impression on some of the
more imaginative hearers that two or three were seized with
trembling fits at one and the same moment, protesting that they had
distinctly heard three other raps of the iron knocker.
“Impossible!” exclaimed others. “See! The moon shines beneath
the porch, and shows every part of it, except in the narrow shade of
that pillar. There is no one there.”
“Did not the door open?” whispered one of these fanciful
persons.
“Didst thou see it too?” said his companion, in a startled tone.
But the general sentiment was opposed to the idea that a third
visitant had made application at the door of the deserted house. A
few, however, adhered to this new marvel, and even declared that a
red gleam like that of a torch had shone through the great front
window, as if the negro were lighting a guest up the staircase. This,
too, was pronounced a mere fantasy. But at once the whole
multitude started, and each man beheld his own terror painted in the
faces of all the rest.
“What an awful thing is this!” cried they.
A shriek, too fearfully distinct for doubt, had been heard within
the mansion, breaking forth suddenly and succeeded by a deep
stillness, as if a heart had burst in giving it utterance. The people
knew not whether to fly from the very sight of the house, or to rush
trembling in and search out the strange mystery. Amid their
confusion and affright, they were somewhat reassured by the
appearance of their clergyman, a venerable patriarch, and equally a
saint, who had taught them and their fathers the way to heaven for
more than the space of an ordinary life-time. He was a reverend
figure with long white hair upon his shoulders, a white beard upon
his breast, and a back so bent over his staff that he seemed to be
looking downward continually, as if to choose a proper grave for his
weary frame. It was some time before the good old man, being deaf
and of impaired intellect, could be made to comprehend such
portions of the affair as were comprehensible at all. But, when
possessed of the facts, his energies assumed unexpected vigor.
“Verily,” said the old gentleman, “it will be fitting that I enter the
mansion-house of the worthy Colonel Fenwicke, lest any harm
should have befallen that true Christian woman whom ye call the
‘Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet.’”
Behold, then, the venerable clergyman ascending the steps of
the mansion with a torch-bearer behind him. It was the elderly man
who had spoken to the Old Maid, and the same who had afterward
explained the shield of arms and recognized the features of the
negro. Like their predecessors, they gave three raps with the iron
hammer.
“Old Cæsar cometh not,” observed the priest. “Well, I wot he no
longer doth service in this mansion.”
“Assuredly, then, it was something worse in old Cæsar’s
likeness!” said the other adventurer.
“Be it as God wills,” answered the clergyman. “See! my strength,
though it be much decayed, hath sufficed to open this heavy door.
Let us enter and pass up the staircase.”
Here occurred a singular exemplification of the dreamy state of a
very old man’s mind. As they ascended the wide flight of stairs, the
aged clergyman appeared to move with caution, occasionally
standing aside, and oftener bending his head, as it were in
salutation, thus practicing all the gestures of one who makes his way
through a throng. Reaching the head of the staircase, he looked
around with sad and solemn benignity, laid aside his staff, bared his
hoary locks, and was evidently on the point of commencing a prayer.
“Reverend Sir,” said his attendant, who conceived this a very
suitable prelude to their further search, “would it not be well that the
people join with us in prayer?”
“Well-a-day!” cried the old clergyman, staring strangely around
him. “Art thou here with me, and none other? Verily, past times were
present to me, and I deemed that I was to make a funeral prayer, as
many a time heretofore, from the head of this staircase. Of a truth, I
saw the shades of many that are gone. Yea, I have prayed at their
burials, one after another, and the Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet
hath seen them to their graves!”
Being now more thoroughly awake to their present purpose, he
took his staff and struck forcibly on the floor, till there came an echo
from each deserted chamber, but no menial to answer their
summons. They therefore walked along the passage, and again
paused, opposite to the great front window, through which was seen
the crowd in the shadow and partial moonlight of the street beneath.
On their right hand was the open door of a chamber, and a closed
one on their left. The clergyman pointed his cane to the carved oak
pannel of the latter.
“Within that chamber,” observed he, “a whole life-time since, did I
sit by the death-bed of a goodly young man who, being now at the
last gasp——”
Apparently, there was some powerful excitement in the ideas
which had now flashed across his mind. He snatched the torch from
his companion’s hand, and threw open the door with such sudden
violence that the flame was extinguished, leaving them no other light
than the moonbeams, which fell through two windows into the
spacious chamber. It was sufficient to discover all that could be
known. In a high-backed oaken arm-chair, upright, with her hands
clasped across her breast, and her head thrown back, sat the “Old
Maid in the Winding-Sheet.” The stately dame had fallen on her
knees with her forehead on the holy knees of the Old Maid, one
hand upon the floor and the other pressed convulsively against her
heart. It clutched a lock of hair, once sable, now discolored with a
greenish mould. As the priest and layman advanced into the
chamber, the Old Maid’s features assumed such a semblance of
shifting expression that they trusted to hear the whole mystery
explained by a single word. But it was only the shadow of a tattered
curtain waving betwixt the dead face and the moonlight.
“Both dead!” said the venerable man. “Then who shall divulge
the secret? Methinks it glimmers to and fro in my mind like the light
and shadow across the Old Maid’s face. And now ’tis gone!”
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
1807–1882

The very large proportion of narrative poetry throughout Longfellow’s work


suggests a native bent toward story. Outre-Mer (begun in parts, 1833; published
entire, 1835) at once reminded his reviewers of Irving’s Tales of a Traveller. The
parallel is obvious; but The Notary of Périgueux, slight as is its substance, is
superior to Irving’s typical form in narrative compactness.
THE NOTARY OF PÉRIGUEUX
[From “Outre-Mer,” 1835]

Do not trust thy body with a physician. He’ll make thy foolish
bones go without flesh in a fortnight, and thy soul walk without a
body in a se’nnight after.
Shirley.

YOU must know, gentlemen, that there lived some years ago, in the
city of Périgueux, an honest notary public, the descendant of a very
ancient and broken-down family, and the occupant of one of those
old weather-beaten tenements which remind you of the times of your
great-grandfather. He was a man of an unoffending, quiet
disposition; the father of a family, though not the head of it—for in
that family “the hen overcrowed the cock,” and the neighbors, when
they spake of the notary, shrugged their shoulders, and exclaimed,
“Poor fellow! his spurs want sharpening.” In fine—you understand
me, gentlemen—he was henpecked.
Well, finding no peace at home, he sought it elsewhere, as was
very natural for him to do; and at length discovered a place of rest far
beyond the cares and clamors of domestic life. This was a little café
estaminet a short way out of the city, whither he repaired every
evening to smoke his pipe, drink sugar-water, and play his favorite
game of domino. There he met the boon companions he most loved,
heard all the floating chitchat of the day, laughed when he was in
merry mood, found consolation when he was sad, and at all times
gave vent to his opinions without fear of being snubbed short by a
flat contradiction.
Now the notary’s bosom friend was a dealer in claret and
cognac, who lived about a league from the city, and always passed
his evenings at the estaminet. He was a gross, corpulent fellow,
raised from a full-blooded Gascon breed, and sired by a comic actor
of some reputation in his way. He was remarkable for nothing but his
good-humor, his love of cards, and a strong propensity to test the
quality of his own liquors by comparing them with those sold at other
places.
As evil communications corrupt good manners, the bad practices
of the wine-dealer won insensibly upon the worthy notary; and before
he was aware of it, he found himself weaned from domino and
sugar-water, and addicted to piquet and spiced wine. Indeed, it not
infrequently happened that, after a long session at the estaminet, the
two friends grew so urbane that they would waste a full half-hour at
the door in friendly dispute which should conduct the other home.
Though this course of life agreed well enough with the sluggish,
phlegmatic temperament of the wine-dealer, it soon began to play
the very deuce with the more sensitive organization of the notary,
and finally put his nervous system completely out of tune. He lost his
appetite, became gaunt and haggard, and could get no sleep.
Legions of blue-devils haunted him by day; and by night strange
faces peeped through his bed-curtains, and the nightmare snorted in
his ear. The worse he grew, the more he smoked and tippled; and
the more he smoked and tippled—why, as a matter of course, the
worse he grew. His wife alternately stormed, remonstrated,
entreated; but all in vain. She made the house too hot for him—he
retreated to the tavern; she broke his long-stemmed pipes upon the
andirons—he substituted a short-stemmed one, which, for safe
keeping, he carried in his waistcoat-pocket.
Thus the unhappy notary ran gradually down at the heel. What
with his bad habits and his domestic grievances, he became
completely hipped. He imagined that he was going to die, and
suffered in quick succession all the diseases that ever beset mortal
man. Every shooting pain was an alarming symptom—every uneasy
feeling after dinner a sure prognostic of some mortal disease. In vain
did his friends endeavor to reason, and then to laugh him out of his
strange whims; for when did ever jest or reason cure a sick
imagination? His only answer was, “Do let me alone; I know better
than you what ails me.”
Well, gentlemen, things were in this state when, one afternoon in
December, as he sat moping in his office, wrapped in an overcoat,
with a cap on his head and his feet thrust into a pair of furred
slippers, a cabriolet stopped at the door, and a loud knocking without
aroused him from his gloomy revery. It was a message from his
friend the wine-dealer, who had been suddenly attacked with a
violent fever, and, growing worse and worse, had now sent in the
greatest haste for the notary to draw up his last will and testament.
The case was urgent, and admitted neither excuse nor delay; and
the notary, tying a handkerchief round his face, and buttoning up to
the chin, jumped into the cabriolet, and suffered himself, though not
without some dismal presentiments and misgivings of heart, to be
driven to the wine-dealer’s house.
When he arrived he found everything in the greatest confusion.
On entering the house he ran against the apothecary, who was
coming down stairs, with a face as long as your arm; and a few steps
farther he met the housekeeper—for the wine-dealer was an old
bachelor—running up and down, and wringing her hands, for fear
that the good man should die without making his will. He soon
reached the chamber of his sick friend, and found him tossing about
in a paroxysm of fever and calling aloud for a draught of cold water.
The notary shook his head. He thought this a fatal symptom. For ten
years back the wine-dealer had been suffering under a species of
hydrophobia, which seemed suddenly to have left him.
When the sick man saw who stood by his bedside, he stretched
out his hand and exclaimed:
“Ah! my dear friend! have you come at last? You see it is all over
with me. You have arrived just in time to draw up that—that passport
of mine. Ah, grand diable! how hot it is here! Water—water—water!
Will nobody give me a drop of cold water?”
As the case was an urgent one, the notary made no delay in
getting his papers in readiness; and in a short time the last will and
testament of the wine-dealer was drawn up in due form, the notary
guiding the sick man’s hand as he scrawled his signature at the
bottom.
As the evening wore away, the wine-dealer grew worse and
worse, and at length became delirious, mingling in his incoherent
ravings the phrases of the Credo and Paternoster with the shibboleth
of the dram-shop and the card-table.
“Take care! take care! There, now—Credo in—pop! ting-a-ling-
ling! give me some of that. Cent-é-dize! Why, you old publican, this
wine is poisoned—I know your tricks!—Sanctam ecclesiam
Catholicam—Well, well, we shall see. Imbecile! to have a tierce-
major and a seven of hearts, and discard the seven! By St. Anthony,
capot! You are lurched—ha! ha! I told you so. I knew very well—
there—there—don’t interrupt me—Carnis resurrectionem et vitam
eternam!”
With these words upon his lips the poor wine-dealer expired.
Meanwhile the notary sat cowering over the fire, aghast at the fearful
scene that was passing before him, and now and then striving to
keep up his courage by a glass of cognac. Already his fears were on
the alert, and the idea of contagion flitted to and fro through his mind.
In order to quiet these thoughts of evil import, he lighted his pipe,
and began to prepare for returning home. At that moment the
apothecary turned round to him and said:
“Dreadful sickly time, this! The disorder seems to be spreading.”
“What disorder?” exclaimed the notary, with a movement of
surprise.
“Two died yesterday, and three to-day,” continued the
apothecary, without answering the question. “Very sickly time, sir—
very.”
“But what disorder is it? What disease has carried off my friend
here so suddenly?”
“What disease? Why, scarlet fever, to be sure.”
“And is it contagious?”
“Certainly.”
“Then I am a dead man!” exclaimed the notary, putting his pipe
into his waistcoat-pocket, and beginning to walk up and down the
room in despair. “I am a dead man! Now don’t deceive me—don’t,
will you? What—what are the symptoms?”
“A sharp burning pain in the right side,” said the apothecary.
“Oh, what a fool I was to come here!”
In vain did the housekeeper and the apothecary strive to pacify
him. He was not a man to be reasoned with. He answered that he
knew his own constitution better than they did, and insisted upon
going home without delay. Unfortunately, the vehicle he came in had
returned to the city; and the whole neighbourhood was abed and
asleep. What was to be done? Nothing in the world but to take the
apothecary’s horse, which stood hitched at the door, patiently waiting
his master’s will.
Well, gentlemen, as there was no remedy, our notary mounted
this raw-boned steed, and set forth upon his homeward journey. The
night was cold and gusty, and the wind set right in his teeth.
Overhead the leaden clouds were beating to and fro, and through
them the newly-risen moon seemed to be tossing and drifting along
like a cock-boat in the surf; now swallowed up in a huge billow of
cloud, and now lifted upon its bosom and dashed with silvery spray.
The trees by the roadside groaned with a sound of evil omen, and
before him lay three mortal miles, beset with a thousand imaginary
perils. Obedient to the whip and spur, the steed leaped forward by
fits and starts, now dashing away in a tremendous gallop, and now
relaxing into a long, hard trot; while the rider, filled with symptoms of
disease and dire presentiments of death, urged him on, as if he were
fleeing before the pestilence.
In this way, by dint of whistling and shouting, and beating right
and left, one mile of the fatal three was safely passed. The
apprehensions of the notary had so far subsided that he even
suffered the poor horse to walk up-hill; but these apprehensions
were suddenly revived again with tenfold violence by a sharp pain in
the right side, which seemed to pierce him like a needle.
“It is upon me at last!” groaned the fear-stricken man. “Heaven
be merciful to me, the greatest of sinners! And must I die in a ditch,
after all? He! get up! get up!”
And away went horse and rider at full speed—hurry-scurry—up-
hill and down—panting and blowing like a whirlwind. At every leap
the pain in the rider’s side seemed to increase. At first it was a little
point like the prick of a needle—then it spread to the size of a half-
franc piece—then covered a piece as large as the palm of your
hand. It gained upon him fast. The poor man groaned aloud in
agony; faster and faster sped the horse over the frozen ground—
farther and farther spread the pain over his side. To complete the
dismal picture, the storm commenced—snow mingled with rain. But
snow, and rain, and cold were naught to him; for, though his arms
and legs were frozen to icicles, he felt it not. The fatal symptom was
upon him; he was doomed to die—not of cold, but of scarlet fever!
At length, he knew not how, more dead than alive, he reached
the gate of the city. A band of ill-bred dogs, that were serenading at a
corner of the street, seeing the notary dash by, joined in the hue and
cry, and ran barking and yelping at his heels. It was now late at night,
and only here and there a solitary lamp twinkled from an upper story.
But on went the notary, down this street and up that, till at last he
reached his own door. There was a light in his wife’s bed chamber.
The good woman came to the window, alarmed at such a knocking
and howling and clattering at her door so late at night.
“Let me in! let me in! Quick! quick!” he exclaimed, almost
breathless from terror and fatigue.
“Who are you, that come to disturb a lone woman at this hour of
the night?” cried a sharp voice from above. “Begone about your
business, and let quiet people sleep.”
“Oh, diable, diable! Come down and let me in! I am your
husband. Don’t you know my voice? Quick, I beseech you; for I am
dying here in the street!”
After a few moments of delay and a few more words of parley,
the door was opened, and the notary stalked into his domicil, pale
and haggard in aspect, and as stiff and straight as a ghost. Cased
from head to heel in an armor of ice, as the glare of the lamp fell
upon him he looked like a knight-errant mailed in steel. But in one
place his armor was broken. On his right side was a circular spot as
large as the crown of your hat, and about as black!
“My dear wife!” he exclaimed, with more tenderness than he had
exhibited for many years, “reach me a chair. My hours are
numbered. I am a dead man!”
Alarmed at these exclamations, his wife stripped off his overcoat.
Something fell from beneath it, and was dashed to pieces on the
hearth. It was the notary’s pipe! He placed his hand upon his side,
and, lo! it was bare to the skin! Coat, waistcoat, and linen were burnt
through and through, and there was a blister on his side as large
over as your head!
The mystery was soon explained, symptom and all. The notary
had put his pipe into his pocket without knocking out the ashes! And
so my story ends.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
1809–1849

For an appreciation of Poe as a short-story writer see pages 15–23


of the Introduction.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF
USHER
[First published in Burton’s “Gentleman’s Magazine and
American Monthly Review,” September, 1839]

Son cœur est un luth suspendu;


Sitôt qu’on le touche il rèsonne.
De Béranger.

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn
of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I
had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary
tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the
evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I
know not how it was; but, with the first glimpse of the building, a
sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for
the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because
poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the
sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the
scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape
features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-
like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white
trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can
compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-
dream of the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day life
—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a
sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of
thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught
of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so

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