Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-07-23
OUR BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

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! fortunate fellows, we doubt if Tennessee
could lay claim to a very high state of
! Christian civilization. 1t has always been,
and will continue to be so until the mill
! lennium comes, that there are unfortunate
persons in every country, in the highest
favored as well as the poorest, who, without
the aid of their fellows, must suffer and
die.
We have made excellent provisions for
the education and comfort of that unfor-
tunate class of our people who are deprived
of the power of hearing and speaking,
The asylum in our city, under its excellent
management is a credit to the State
! and monument to the benevolent spirit
of our people. From time TO time, the
State has munificently provided for the
wants of the institution, and hundreds OF
mute children are educated, so that life is
pleasure to them instead of blank and
they go forth into the world useful men
and women.
| Near Nashville, we have the asylum for
the insane, which is also under excellent
management. Spacious halls, well venti-
lated rooms, clean apartments, beautiful
grounds, sparkling fountains of crystal
water, magnificent lawns and fragrant flow
ers, make the place and its surroundings
almost an Eden, but for the sorrow
full picture presented by unfortunate
men, women and children who were
inmates of the institution. But there are
scores of persons in the State who ought
to be in such an institution, but they can
not be accommodated for want of room.
The last Legislature provided for branch
institution in East Tennessee, but as yet
we have heard of no steps for its location
and completion. 1t is duty we owe to
this class of unfortunates, and to the God
of humanity, Who has clothed us with
reason and placed the means of acquiring
wealth, and living in ease and pleasure at
our disposal, to care for their wants.
The blind in Tennessee, have, up to this
time been very inadequately provided
for. Provisions haYe been made for
their education in building at
the State capital which is inadequate
in its dimensions, and which, is in the
midst of the crowded city, with no
grounds surrounding, where the inmates
can have recreation and pleasure in the
open air. Steps have been taken for pro-
viding more comfortable quarters for these,
and we trust ere long to see school and
home for the blind which will reflect credit
upon our State.
But there is another class, dependent
upon the bounties of benevolent and
Christian people, for whose maintenance
the provisions made are most inadequate
We mean the unfortunate poor,
to be found in every county,
in the State: Their maintenance
is left to the various counties, and the
manner in which it is regulated is
shame and a disgrace to the boosted civil
lization of the nineteenth century and to
the Christian sentiment of the age. In
most of the counties we have what is
popularity known as poor house." and
they are generally poor houses indeed.
They are generally poor, miserable excuses
for human habitations, with just such
surroundings as will continually remind
their unfortunate inmates of the abject pow
erty and misery that will follow them
through life. 1t is no wonder that scores
of persons who should be cared for at
them, would rather go to their graves with
starvation and want than 10 find a home
at the county poor house.
A recent issue of the Nashville Banner
illustrates the unfeeIing manner in which
applications from the destitute for aid
from the destitute are frequently discussed
in the County Courts. If the applicants
were dogs, their claims for help could not
be treated more unmercifiully. 1t makes
one blush for our civilization when we hear
it,
1t is the duty of our County Courts to
guard the interests of the people, and see
that the county treasury is not depleted by
giving aid to unworthy subjects, but in
doing this they should discriminate wise
ly, and consider always in spirito of Chris.
tian charity and humanity. Let them see
to it that the county poor houses are built
with view to comfort Let the surround
ings be made pleasant. Let them be locat-
ed with view to health. Let them have
q capacity for the accommodation of all
who are entitled TO admission. Then let
them be managed by men Who will look
to the comfort of those committed to their
charge. We cannot avoid the responsible
ity of caring for the mutes, the blind, the
insane tbp Iagtifuta Inv