The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-09-25
COUNTY ASYLUM.

The poor yG nave always Win you, Is as
true now as it was two thousand years ago
and always was and always will be until the
millennium. While every christian commu
nifty recognizes this fact, it also recognizes its
duty to minister to the wants of the destitute
But who are the poor? The term unfortu
nately is relative and while in general all
agree that the poor must be provided for, the
question as to what stage or degree of poverty
and destitution must be reached before the
public authorities can be called upon for re.
lief has always been an open one and in its
decision in the daily ministratlons has As oft
en- leo to abuse from excess Of liberality Is
from over niggardlness.
twenty-five or thirty years ago the people
of La Sale county scarcely realized that there
was such thing as pauperism in existence.
Then came time, however, as Ottawa put
on a new growth and outsiders were attracted
to her borders, that mendicancy appeared in
her streets, and the people said we must have
poor master. A klnd-heartcd old gentle
man VAS installed into that office, and he
gave relief out of the county funds as in his
judgment the cases demanded. In few
months he had some forty families in Ottawa
and vicinity receiving more or less weekly
:, "relief" at his hanus. The county commits.
sioners became alarmed, and grave and long
were their cogitatons over the formidable
problem thus encountered Finally it was
decided to stop this business of atfording pro-
miscuous rcliet and have poor house into
which all the mendican,s should be gathered
and maintained at the public charge. A
suitable building was rented, and the super
ntendcnt went around with big TWO horse
wagon to gather up the poor and convey
them to comfortable home in the county
house. He called on the forty families, and
out of all found but two individuals, two
helpless, crippled old women, that were vii.
ling TO 20 to the county house rather than re-
celve NO further aid from the public The
pauper expenses of the county by this one lit
tie maneuyre were cut down from 5000 to
800 month.
Since then the county house system has
been but nominaily adhered to, the capacity
of the county establishment being equal to
but sixty paupers, when the number in the
county is supposed to be more than double
that. The consequence has been the gradual
growth of a system something like that dis
carded thirty years ago. Each supervisor
was made sort of poor master in his own
town, to administer relief to such as in his
Judgment needed it. The result has been a
rapid and frlghtful increase of the pauper eX-
penses of the county In 1873 the outside
pauper relief thus afforded cost the county
$4,000, for relief to less than 100, while 60
paupers were gwen permanent, comfortable
homes at the county house for tritle over
$4,000
The duty of the supervisors under such a
state of facts was too plain to admit of shlrk-
ing. \ county asylum must at once be bullt
of sufficient capacity to hold all the poor of
the county, and the relief TO all others except
such as are willing to go to the county asy-
lum must be stopped.
1t was der such Il pressure that the su-
'pervisors a year ago decided on the erection
of the county house now approaching COM
pletion few miles west Of this city. On the
invitation of Superintendent Jackson we took
q ride ON Tuesday in company with the Board
of Supervisors, on the little steamer Belle Of
Ottawa" to the new county house The con-
tract for its erection was let to the well
known energetic firm of Colwell Clark & Co.
The building is 1870 feet in length, 60 feet in
depth, with wing at each end 4Ox9O feet,
two stories high, with 3 cut stone basement;
the superstructure of pressed brick with slate
roofs. A boiler house of brick is erected in
4 the rear, some 80 feet from the main build
ing, from which the entire structure is to be
heated The gas TO light the building IS to
be made upon the ground.
Its capacity will be 200 paupers besides
rooms for keepers family, &c, and provis'
ion is made for about 25 insane, IN apart,
mcnts separate from the rest.
From such hasty inspection as the super
vIsors could give the building, amid the din
and dust and dirt of from 60 to 100 busy work
men, they were well satisfied with the man
ia NllSu tuC WSiCu thCii
work, and although, on account of the fire.
quent rains during the past summer, there
has been some unavoidable delay In the com
pletion of the building, there is no doubt but
it will be ready in abundant time for occu-
patton before winter sets in.
Wien completed, the building will be a
credit te the county, which will then have
: the finest asylum Of the kind in the state {;
and there is he further gratifying considera-
=, ton, that though It's cost may be some 500
600, 1t will, after its completion, be the means
D of annually saving to the county not less than
5 from $4,000 to $4,000 in its pauper expen-
ses.
:, President Grant, in filling the ten cadet