Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1858-05-20
Communications.
For the Gazette.
TOT EItb OttHcttDs
THE POOR HOUSE.

AYERS his determination hereafter to stick
to the text, which is | believe Broth TOR
the Poor" or, vuigarly rendered, " Broth
for Somebody" [ feel disposed, on this
understanding, should no more competent
hand occupy your columns, to say few
words as | have always regarded personal
applications with as much aversion as lpe-
cac, fly blisters and nauseous doses in gen.
era Going back then to the publication
of the medical card, find that my friends,
the doctors, proposed to charge $500 for
attending the poor house alone and the
usual rates for all outdoor cases or make
two visits each week and as many more as
might be necessary, at 81 per visit. Such
is the sum and substance of their c6icidt
proposition, Any one can figure out that
Sl20 is more than 81 per week, so that the
inference is plain they did not consider the
whole sum previously received for attend
ing the poor house and seven miles around
it, embracing about three-fourths Of a cir
Gle, the mountains to the south and south
east circumscribing that part, sufficient for
attending the poor house alone, leaving the
most populous part of the county under thea
employ whom-you-p please SYSTEM a privilege
| think that would lead to much abuse.
But say they, in their communication, we
would have been willing to compromise and
guarantee it should not cost the county over
$3.50. 1t is clear from this that my medi-
cal friends omitted to furnish the Directors
with one resolution, which must have read
or ought to have read as follows:
"ReSotced, If We cannot get $500, we'll
take $3.50"
Had you done this, gentlemen, the Di-
rectors would have understood you, and
probably taken you up at your ofer for as
a taxpayer here aootc my sanction, fully
and une9uicocaUy, that the Commissioners
shaN neat gear enter into contract 'oith
you to pay $3.50 per Ganun,, y0H gtUing
icrtttena guarantee that the charges shall not
.-Uceed that sum IN any one gear. The
"broth" can then be divided to your liking,
and as the public has confidence in most,
or perhaAsnall, it will matter but little to
the people%ho gets the lions share.
With these remarks | come to the last
communication of Justice He labors hard
to show that the poor house farm is not
only unproductiye, but losing concern,
and brings to his support a number of fig
ures. ! do not believe the farmers of this
county calculated on the poor house farm
paying six per cent. on its cost, for their
own experience has shown them that moth
ing but heavy crop and unusual high
prices will pay such dividend ON lands
intrinsically worth from $50 to 500 per
acre. Justices assumption therefore that
the county is losing is only partly true, be-
cause | suspect there is not farm in the
county that has paid six per cent for some
years. Any one who will take the trouble
of walking over the farm need not be told
that there has been something wrong with
its cultivation, for the evidence will meet
his eye wherever he may look The pres
ent occupant has already put different
face on it, and if he continues a year or
two more the farm will be in good eondi-
ton, and of course grow crops, for most of
the land is good and tillable Its sale and
the purchase OF smaller farm might per-
haps be sound policy, as advocated by JUS
tIce, but what assurance have the taxpayers,
If 1t IS done, that other items of expendi-
ture will not take the place such removal
would obviate? Take the poor away some
six or eight miles from town, and what will
the doctors say as to their attendance?
VIII they continue at the sum above pro-
posed, or establish new rates? Take it to
the valley, and who will then be the phy-
slclans! These are but few Of many dues
tiOns that might be asked, so that on the
whole | do not see a removal in the adyan-
tageous light Justice holds out. Enter
tanning wayfarers is another objection held
up by the writer. In this | differ from
hlm. 1t is part Of the system designed
by the law, and if the present location re-
heVes the greatest number, private charity
IS relieved IN proportionate degree. Lew
lstown and the townships around it have
enough Of the poor and needy on whom
those who have the will and ability can
exercise the noblest attribute of man and
woman, the handmade Of religion and
balm OF healing even to wounded hearts
an UNOsTENTATIOUs CHARITY-without
beng called upon to relieve those whom
the public ought to relieve. If the farm
Is too large, sell off all that is not wanted
pay off the debts, and with the residue
commence to put the present buildings in
more fitting condition, or erect an additional
one as hospital where the crippled and
debilitated may be better taken care of than
they can be now.
Although grossly mismanaged great
portion of the time, the present system is
still cheaper than the old one--a fact here
totore entirely overlooked by all engaged
IN TINS broth business. | have no data
at hand from which to give the actual fg-
ures' but from recollection of ney poor taxes
before the present system was adopted
am satisfied that the poor rates, in apv one
year under the old system, were far above
the highest sum Justice now sets down as