Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1877-08-20
Shocking Revelations.

SnOcNluS
Dr.. Charles W. Chancellor, o member OF
the City Council Of Baltimore, and Secretary
of the Marsland State Board Of Health, who WAS
requested by Governor Carroll to visit and IN
spect all alms institutions 10 the State. has sub
nited a report ia which he says ut IS painful
TO report The shocking condition III which many
of the public institutions were found, aud 1t ls
difficult 10 conceive that anything worse ever
existed 10 civilized country There are now,
he says, "WithiD the aims houses and lal!s OF
our State over fqc hundred insane and !dlotIc
people, for whom there exists no proper pro-
vision, and who are utterly cast dnWn ana ne
elected, halt led and CHASTITY 10 their Wfctohcd'
ness" The report first lakes up the CONDITION
and MANAGEMENT Ct Stale Institutions 10 the
civ and elsewhere With one or two exceptions
1.-THE House Of Refuge aad tho Bay View Aay'
INN. which are o7ercto@de1,) the Stale lnstl.
tutions arc represented Us We'll conducted aud
Disciplined; and the Asylum Tor The DaHf and
Dumb, located at Frederick is pronounced
monument of public benellcence. In lbe
aims houses in some Of the counties an enlre'
~ different state of affairs exists, and ur.Chan'
cellor's report represents them 10 be disgusting
dens Of filth and prostitution, too shocking, SICK
epng and disgusting 10 contemplate:
Ia Allegany Coal County Almshousa the
sane aud insane were indlscrImlnateIy mixed,
without proper means OF separating the sexes.
Most of the insane were harmless. OhG Color
ed Girl, an epiIeptio Of feeble mind, had three
children with her, two CT whom had been born
in the almshouse The youngest, an infant SIX
months old, was undoubtedly the child Of &
white man.
Ia Anne Arundel county The almshonsa Is al
abode of misery. The keeper and his family
are comfortably quartered on the first floor OF
the building, while the white inmates dwell to-
pether in unrestricted concubnage on The
second floor. Ooo woman, aged about forty,
has borne three children in the house, all be.
gotten by the inmates These innocents had
fortunately been sent to an orphan asylum.
There was not in any room OF this almShcuso
| bed or pillow fit for use, aud such ~ were
found wero disgus,ingly filthy. The negro
quarters, if possible, were even worse than
these occupied by the whites. Every room was
in dirty condition, the beds filthy, without
sheets or pillows, and in several rooms no beds:
The common Jail Of this county is as filthy and
| Objectionable as the almshousc, promlscuouS
association of all classes existing.
IL The Baltimore Couaty Amshouse the
male department was 30 oVcrcroWded that the
dining room, bath roons and even the water
closets we're used for lodging rooms. The jail
| ia this county is pronounced one OF the best
constructed, best managed and cleauest in the
| State. With but two exceptions Of defects IN
construction this is a model prison.
The Caroline county slmshouse is mocke1y
of charity and nursery Of pollution nos the he
physical condition Of the pauper and insane IN
! mates One woman was tho mother Of tvs
children and another Of six, oil said to have
been begotten and born within the aimshouse;
If the colored department. should be compared
20 8 filthy pigstye it would be an Injustice to the
pjpstye, In one email loom were found four
men, 6yo women, two children, any quantity OF
cats and dogs and other living things too I'll,
merous to mention. Of the AFo women ono was
O centennarisr, two were mothers with infants
in their arms and two were young gir!s' aHeo
respectively fourteen and sixteen years. Onc
old man Was sick, with scarcely the semplance
| of o he'd on which to rest his aching bones. An
other, though sitting upright to .partake 81 inc
coarse and badly cooked dinner just served nm,
was too weak to dofend his scsnty, meal agMhi:'
down. Such an aggregate of human misery II
rarely seen, and more disreputs5le place can
scarcely BIO imagined.
In the Cecil county almshouso in both build,
ings the departments for MAILS and female:
arc parated only by narrow passage
and the evil result Of tho free communities
, ton between the sexes is manifested IN th'
number of illegitmate children born in the house
There are two instances in this aInshouSo II
which the mother and children were born II
: bastardy ur der its roof. One. an idlotc whit
woman forty years Of age, herself born IN IN
-, almhouse, has given birth to six children n TN
, institution. Another, an insane white woman
aged thirty. five years. whose mother still roslct
in the house has borne two children Ecre; and SUI
another insane white woman is tho mother or
r half nergo child. begotten anil born III the nst'
tuition. .
In Washington county the almshou,e sltust
ed in the suburbs Of HagersLown, ou!d DO pre-
sented as q common nuisance. The details ol Il
condition are, if possible, more revolving than (
Cecil and Baltimore counties. But there s.!
counties in which this shocking and disgustln
state Of affsrs doest not exist, in which order AZ
decency and civilization prevail
= The faculty of Was h:ngton- Lee uniseFais
Z have recommend to the board 0 trustees Of tn
:. University that they order that tho Museu
shall be hores fer Il signaLfd and known by II
title f"'1he LOWS Brooks Museum" and thA
= fit bs found practicable, e bust or portrait
It MIR. Brooks bs procured IS apermanent orh'
3. ment the same
= Moses Strong, Assistant state Geologst. &c
Of Hon. Moses NJ. Strong, Of Mineral FONT. WI
drowned in the Flambeau river Wis Saturaa-
It willis engaged in his geological explorstlohs
The winners at the Saratoga RACES to-day We