Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-11-21
A Brutal OmciaI.


The guardian Of the county charity
and honor of Kent county, Michigan,
appeats to have been principally dis
tinguished for brutality worthy only of
a iailor of the Middle Ages. He seems
to have delighted in torturing the weak
and starving the strong into submits
sion. Whenever healthy pauper was
guilty of the improperly of proclaim
ing that the demands of his appetite
we're by no means satisfied By the
meagre diet accorded him in the poor
house, this gentle official was wont to
beat and otherwise maltreat said
healthy pauper until complaints were
no longer possible, inasmuch as there
was no more breath in the complainant's
body. If an idiot was confded to the
care of the tender-hearted overseer, he
forthwith stabbed the wretched creature
like COW or pig. When the investi-
cation prompted by the complaints of
the much-maltreated Kent county pau
pers disclosed their wretched condi-
ton, it turned out that the inmates of
the poor-house had been beaten on
many occasions until their starveling
frames were covered with bruises that
many of them had been allowed to lie
for days in wretched receptacles, un-
worthy the name of rooms, on straw
and saw-dust; and that this model
county institution had q department,
called the "fosls' room," into which all
disagreeable cases of infrmity or pow
erty were dismissed, and whose in
mates died from fright or privation,
much to the satisfaction of the over
| seer.
The examination which the county
officials were finally induced to make,
says the New York Times, disclosed
other equally astonishing facts. The
overseer and his assistants were con-
victed of having on numerous occasions
beaten weak-minded and aged women
until they could nots stand alone and
the testimony shows that it was then
customary to drag the fainting crea-
lures by the hair of their heads to the
cell-like rooms allotted them, or even
to thrust them into the "fools' room, "
in case they rebelled against such out
rageous treatment. This ''fools' room"
seems to have been species of black
hole. Connected with the poor-honse
was species of jail, into which pau
pers were thrust on very slight provo
cation. A word of complaint, grimace
from lunatic, demand for a proper
quantity of decently-prepared food,
were enough to procure the unlucky
offenders sojourn in cells such as the
vilest criminals are rarely familiar with.
So strict was the discipline in this
abominable institution, and so careful
had the overseer always been to keep
complaints of his infamous conduct
from the outer world, that it is re-
markable that the paupers succeeded
in calling attention to their heavy
grievances. ..
The Michigan overseer who has
shown such brutality, and to whose ac-
count several deaths are clearly charge.
able, will undoubtedly be severely
punished. The people of his neighbor-
hood, and of the State in general, de-
mand that heavy penalties be visited
upon such monster. They are natu-
rally shocked at the manner in which
he has betrayed their confidence. But
there is scarcely State in the Union
from which there has not, at one time
or another, come abominable stories OF
cruelty similar to those now told of the
Michigan overseer. Many of the
poor-houses in New England and
the Middle States have long been nc
better than they should be.