New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-01-17
Oar Public Charities.


Having devoted last Saturday to an earnest and
principal Charitable Institutions of cur City, We
propose to state few Of the facts which impress
ed US during that visit, and tie suggestions of i'm
rrovemen' to which they gave rise.
AIMS HousE.-We were frs: shown through
many if not most of the apartments occupied by
the Poor OF our City al the Aims House, Bellevue.
This immense establishment, consisting OF several
spacious edifces, occupying an enclosure OF many
acres, may be said TO be densely packed with hu-
man beings. It's inmates ara well fed, comfortably
clad and housed have excellent Medical attendance,
and are treated with kindness. Yet very grievous
defects in the system are painfully evident In
the first place. the Architect Of the various edlfices
ought to be shut up in a close and rather warm
boiler while, until ne shall have learned by ex-
perence that human beings BREATHE and, to do so
beautifully, require frosh air. Here are rooms
after rooms intended for sleeping roons in each OF
| which forty TO sixty or women are expected
to pass their nights and the greater part ct their
DAYS vet moi the least provision has been made IN
their construction for their ventilation the i'd
mission of fresh air! Such air seems to have been
regarded by the Architect only evil to be re-
sisted and excluded as thoroughly possible We
saw fifty men sitting around the room in which
their days and nights passed with barely two
windows at one end and door at the other, each
kept closed rigidly as possible, with hot stove
in the middle, cooking Casual, only going on upon
it, and but slim chance OF fue to carry of the
| 81 al tba ata
of hogshead per minute Now if the object OF
! our Aims House System is to get the Paupers TN
der the turf as rapidly as possible, the arrange
| ment ia admirable but on no other presumption
can it he upheld or justified
| It is q little less abon1iuable in the Female de-
partment, simply because the Women have more
sense and keep their door or a window open into
each apartment much of the day. As TO cleanh'
ness all but personal, it s well cared for and pre-
served throughout: but fifty human beings, (not
generally of nice suscep;iblities delicate breed
,ng,) annot preserve The sentiment OF cleanliness
| if crowded into such dens and breathing such
libel on Gods air Even should they enter them
clearly they would soon learn to doze in sluggish
Indifference and cherish hydrophobia Of The skin.
When one finds he cannot be oieanly, be soon be-
gins 10 reconcile himself as he may 10 al opposite
condition.
The next great defect OF our Aims House estab-
Iishment is the want OF regular md diversified
Employment for all Its inmates who are able 10
work. We have preached 50 much and often from
this text that the theme must be trite and weari'
some vet we cannot avoid it now. The evils
| which result from it are many and desperate. In
the first place, the health of the Poor is abso-
lutely, necessarily undermined ana DESTROYED BY
it. They come here generally with eneebled or
shattered constitutions; they are now deprived OF
Intoxicating Liquors and other means oil dissips-
| ton, save such as they obtain by stealth at long
| intervals Half Of them might be restored 10
| yigor and independence in a month BY pure air,
early rising strict temperance and moderate, suit
able labor Instead OF this, ninetenths even ef
| the vigorous have absolutely nothing 10 do they
| have no employment, no object, no hope; they
lounge about from day TO day, breathing the stu
pefying gases generated il their dens 10 which
thew soon become reconcied, in which they sub
sist. for tweny-three of every twenty-four hours.
| Who does not see that they are likely to become
more degraded and helpless with every dey they
remain thus
Now if the opposite course were pQrsued-if
| the rule were made absolute that every person
| sent or coming to the Aims House nos positively
unable to do any thing should be supplied with
employment no matter if upproftable) and re-
| ouired to labor moderately eight hours per day
while those who refused should be, beaten, but
put on short allowance as sick-these advan-
tases could not fail TO accrue: |. The number of
paupers woald be speedily and greatly reduced
| by the departure of the indolent, who there
simply because they are ZOO lazy 20 work for
living; p The health of the inmates would be
greatly and permanently improved by their regu-
lar exercise, change Of sir, &c. and there would
be great saving TO the City in Medicine and
Nursing merely; 5. Many of them who are bro
ken-down merchants profliga,e heirs, &c. whose
prido revolts at Paupcrisn, but who are imPeed
to endure it because they knotr no means OF Sef-
| ting q liring, woald eagerly learn some calling,
and then take themselves eff TO follow 1t on their
| own account: 4 The very fact that they were
! earning their own livelihood Cor doing what they
could toward it) would revive their self-respect,
their desire for independence, and ser them on the
lookout 10 learn that they might and be indie
pendent and 5. Every dollar earned would be so
much saved TO our grooming taxpayers, and the
| net saving after the FIRST year. could not be less
than 100000 per annum-we are confident it
would be vastly more. There sre many towns in
New England in which the Poor now support
themselves and actually pay surplus into the
treasury These are no longer paupers.
| One abuse in The Alrns-Ho is the introduc-