Evening star., 1877-08-20
MaryIand's Badly Managed Aims In
stituttOuS

MoCKERIEs OF CHARITY AND NURSERIES
OF POLLUTION.
DIR. Charles W. Chancellor, a m smosr OF
the Baltimore city council aud secretary OF
the state board OF health, a physician OF eX-
tensive practice In Baltimore, who was re-
quest d by Governor Carroll 10 visit and IN
spect "sll aims institutions in the state, par
ticulslly with reference TO their sanitary
condition, the trea ment of the inmates, and
the number of Pauper insane who are con
lined therein at the public expense" as dis
charged that duty and submitted a report to
tie governor. In introducing his report. Or.
ChaEcellor says; at is painful to report the
shocking condition in which many OF the
public Institutions were found, and Ii is off
ncult TO conceive that any thi " worse ever
existed in civilized country" There are
now" he says, within the aims houses ami
Jalls OF our stale over five hundred insane
and idioiic people FOR whom there exists DO
proper provision and who are utterly cast
down ard neglected, half fed, aud ghsstly In
Their wIetchedneSs." The aims houses in
- me Of the count eS are reported to ba dis
eustipg dens OF filth and prostitution: too
thoeEirg, sickeniug aud disgusting TO con
template. 10 Allegheny county aims house
tbe sane and insane We re unfortunately
stsoclstei Without proper means OF separat-
ing the sexes. Most of the insane were
harmless: one colored girl, an epilepdc OF
Die mind, had three children with her
TWO OF whom had been born in the aims
mouse. The youngest an infant OF months
was evidently the child of a white man. Ia
Anne Arundel county the aims house
is al abode OF misery. The keeper and
his family are comfortably quarterel on
The first floor OF the main building, while the
Whlte inmates dwell together in unrestricted
cOncu binsge, on the second II Dor One in zane
woman, ged about forty, had bOrn tbre.
Chiioren in the house. all begOiten by the in
mates. These innocents had fortunately been
seIt 10 an orphan asylum. There was not IN
sIy r. ON Of This aimShouse a oed or pillow
ut for use, and such as were found were dis
gustingly filthy. The negro quarters. IL pos
slbie, were even worse than those occupIei
by The whites. Every room was i'm "A dirtv
CONDITION, The beds filthy. without sheets or
pillows, and in several rooms no beds The
baltimore county almshouse and the Caro-
line county almshOuSe are a mocxerv of
charity, and a nursery of pollution, no, the
slightest attention being pa d To the moral or
physical condition OF the paupe- and insane
inmates. One woman was the mother of two
children and another of six, all said TO have
been begotten and born within the aims
house. II the colored department should be
compared 10 filthy pig sty il would be an
II justice 10 the pig sly. In one small room
were found four men, five women, two chill
dren, and quantity of cats and dogs aud
other living things too numerous to mention
OI the fve women oie was q centennarian
two were mothers with infants I'm Their arms
ard Two were young girls, aged respectively
Icurteen and sixteen years. One old man
was SICK, with scarcely the semblance of a
bed on which TO rest his aching bones The
almshouse, situated in the suburbs of Ha
gerstOwn, should be presented as a common
nuisance. The details of its cond itIon are IL
possible, more revolving than OF the Baltj-
more county and Cecil.