Daily Republican., 1881-04-22
ALMSH0USE SKELETONS.
THOSE CONCEALED IN THE CL0-
SET or THE POOR BOARD.
Facts Which Show that the Trus'
tees Have Cause to Drive the
Reporters from the Prem-
Uses. and Keep their
Doings Secret.


Poor for admission to their special scs- :
sion Yesterday. And this literally has
been the answer given to all applicants
for legitimate information as far back
rs there has been y newspaper in Will
minrton. But unusually persistent,
even desperate Of late have been the
endeavors of the Board Of Trustees now
in Office to throw the mantle of secrecy
over their doings. At the quarterly
and yearly meeting for more than three
years past persons have gone there and
asked to bc present NJ the business seS'
sionS, but they have been refused.
when the meetings We're over II slip
Of paper containing a number OF IN
mates would he handed thr reporters,
who wuuld be told that was all to
be published. except that about 50
many Thousand dollars was ordered to
hr paid ont The meetings of the Sup
plv Committee have been as secretly
held, and only the names of those re-
ceiving the contracts have been given
-upyer the amounts. \ rcpurtrr some
time ago applied for permission to look
at the minutes, desiring to see if it was
true, rs charged and not denied, that
n certain member OF the Board, one Mr..
Lackev Of Wilmington, did do Il cunsid-
.rahlr lob of work for the Board in viO-
latiun OF the law, and receive pay for
the same. The application was very |
firmly refused. \ representative of the !
REPIBiICA% called some tim" ago, at
the last quarterly meeting of the Board |
but was refused admlttanCc on the
ground that no "viSitUrS' wer" allow
ed, because there was a case of small
puX in All out building, Ga square away |
! from the almS-houSc.) The reporter
stated that he was not present AS II vlSi- |
tor, but came on business, and asked to
see Mr.. Bird the chairman
! Word was brought back that Mr..
| Bird would not see him, and the news
gathcrcr had to depart. The same re-
porter applied yesterday. The small
! poX Subtcrtlgc was abandoned and he
was refused information point blank
and driven from the yard with angry
words and pushes by deCrepit OldI
man, whom to punish for impudence
and assault would have been inhuman,
and who boaSted that in acting AS he
did he was carrying ont the orders OF
the Board, and So nothing definite is
known of the business of the Board of
! trustees OF tlt lOhT,
In spite of the o-reportcr-to-hc-a adj
uittcd policy of the Board some matters
have come TO light, which have set pHo-
pie 10 talking, and made the remark
current that there must bc dnninu-
tive African in the wood pile. But
they have have gone further than this,
and show that there has been improper
management at the Poor House, if moth
ing worse.
AIMS HOUSE REMOVAL.
This is not shown by any thing more
clearly than the action of the Trustees
upon the Aims House removal. Three
years ago, when being possessed Of one
Of the finest and most suitable OF farms
in New Castle hundred which had been
purchased years before for the purpose
, of erecting new aims house, some
malcontent in the Board said they had
. better sell the farm and allow the pres
ent building to remain. DiSpite some
opposition in the Board and much out
side of it, the farm was sold at an enOr-
. nous sacrifice, and the old togieS who
I had been at the bottom of the sale folded
Q their hands and said they We're willing
h to remain in the illy-GonStructcd build
n ing for half IA century more In March
last, understanding that the Trustees
contemplated eXpending cOpSidera-
= Bile sum of money upon the old insane
ASYLUM, the REPUBLICAN raised Its
voice against it and urged the aims
. house removal III both its local and edi'
toral columns. 1t argued that now
was as good Il time as any other To take
steps toward removing the aims house.
Il that the property occupied by the Old
II building would sell for enough to pur,
c chase u farm in the country and erect
y new buildings, and that if the proposed
Improvements were made, they would
tend to postpone the removal Of the
n aims house for fifty Years more. BuSi
If ness men took the hint; meetings were
h held petitions aggresating 2OOO names
e. went in to the Trustees asking for aims
house removal and an influential dele
= CATION Of business men waited upol
- them, only to be refused and sent away
- without even decent treatment.
The Trustees went ahead and spent
something like twelve thousad dollars
y, on the insane department, and now
u strange to say, having sold the farm an,
spent enough on the old place to buy
III another one, they are seriously contem
Iy Mating the removal of the aims house
ii if this is the way the Trustees Of tn
Poor act at all times it is not SurpriSln!
,s that they do not want their mlnut
9. book laid open to the public it is no
w astonishing that they lock their door
% and pass resolutions that no reporter
, are to be admitted.
nv nv WE'RE THE MINUTES DESTROYED?
n About a wear ago decided sensatio
was created in the city by the charg
$. that certain records, bearing upon in
tn portant business transactions OF tn
It. Trustees had been destroyed. No chal
res were made, but the origin of the r,
at port was reliable and almost author
st tive. The effect upon the Trustees wa
magical. They strcnuously denied tina
- such was the case, saying the minul
~ ~ book was complete. When asked t
~ show the book they ceased to tai
about the affair, and it finally bleN
:! over with no one the wiser, and som
people wondering what ground thel
had been for the report getting out an
why the minutes had been destroyeC
'a' (if such was the,caSe) unless there ha
ios been miSdoings.
or: THE SUPPLY CONTRACT.
bs Regularly four times year the SUI
ak My committee of the Trustees of I'll
he moor holds meeting, opens proposal
raj for furnishing supplies TO the ain
,nt ,ni house, ami awards the contracts. TT
he committee have never allowed anythin
i've to he published except "A list of the name
.in of the lucky bidders, and of late wi
l'a not even permit that to be published
1 They have always refused to give Il
amount OF the contract price or of IL
-, other proposals. just here let it be r
,Ss nu marked that it is a notorious fact thi
nd Republicans never get the contracts fo
OF furnishing supplies no matter how 10
oV,. their bids are and this shows that pol
md -. =. :, 4 ,,,,+ ,,ubl;o a,onon