Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-04-12

Unearthing a Gang OF GhOuls.

III Is not entirely safe TO assume That
Ben. Butler is making Massachusetts
the worst executive that ancient COM
monwealth ever bid in, notwithstanding
the numerous and sundry erratic flights
from the dignity and decorum which
was wont to rest in the chief figure
head of the state. 1t is open for dis
cussion, moreover, whether that obi
guilty of vision, which has been so yari-
ously and vigorously caricatured, is not
useful in allowing him to see around
corners and into dens of rottenness and
rascality which have escaped the more
direct eyesight of former executives.
From present indications it is quite
certain that the inmates of the various
reformatories and charitable institu-
tons of the state will rise up and call
him blessed before his term of office ex-
pires, whatever may be the opinion of
the state at large.
The latest institution that has fallen
prey to the Governors double barreled
vision and had its record of cruelty
spread open to the world, is the Tewks-
bury state almshouse, the history of
which makes the tales of like institu-
tons, told by well-known novelists, pale
in comparison. Twenty children in
one night crying out with hunger, beds
of rotten straw for the insane with in
sufficient clothing and food, female pa
tients confined in attics without food
until they were nearly skeletons, are
among the more prominent miseries
which composed the everyday life of
the delectable institution. One witness
testified that of seventy-three children
who came there IN one year only one
lived Herod's massacre of the inno-
cents was only halfway measure COM
pared with the thorough-going methods
of these hyenas who fattened on the
flesh of the unfortunates committed 10
their care.
We do not know what the law pro-
vides as punishment for such cases in
Massachusetts; but if hanging has not
entirely played out in that state, the
present would be fitting opportunity
to prove the contrary.
Yet it is to be assumed that the proper
boards made their regular visits and
performed the annual stipulated white
washing, necessary to enable the human
ghouls to continue their occupation UNI
molested. Had not an unfortunate
disposition of the bodies of some dead
paupers shed ray of penetrating light
on the subject, they might possibly have
still continued their unholy cruelties.
1t is not on record that the visiting
board were not parties of eminent re-
spectability, who, probably like similar
bodies elsewhere, had penchant for
allowing the date of their visit to leak
out, and whenever they arrived nothing
could have been more completely in or
der than this den of infamy. We had a
similar unearthing in this state some
years ago, though happily for the good
name of Wisconsin, the evils uncovered
were not quite so hideous in their enor-
mites. But the proofs all 60 to show
that examining boards are much the
same all over the country. Work en-
trusted to committees of this nature is
very rarely satisfactorily done. Great
bodies move slowly. and it is easy to
prepare for their approach. The only
committee that ever succeeds in making
u thorough investigation, and whose
prying eyes are less often beclouded
with fog of attention and PLAUSIBLE
ties, is the people itself. Hence the ne
cessity of bringing all charitable institu-
tons, especially, so near that a constant
stream of selt-appointed committees
can be pouring over the threshold at all
times. An interested friend is worth a
dozen junketing committees, in ferreting
out negligence or inhumanity; and the
more this class interest themselves in
public institutions, the fewer Tewksbury
alms-houses will there be to breed hor-
rors.