Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-05-26
WOEFUL PICTURES
Terrible Details Of Barbarity and Crime in the
East.
PAUPERs STARVED TO DEATH TO
GET THEIR BODIES.


of abuses in the Massachusetts Aims
House have shocked the whole coun-
try, and the people are appalled, that
such things can exist in an enlight.
ened community. The investigation
inaugrated by Governor Butler has
brought to light the following testi-
mony:
DR.. John Dnwell, the Governors
first witness, testified to his experience
with bodies of infants from the aims
house at the Harvard Medical School
during the three years he was in the
institution, from 1873 to 1876. The
School received between 300 and 400
bodies per annum. and the witness
dissected two or three per week often
at his lodgings. A majority of those
he dissected were those of infants
that woald have lived had they been
properly cared for. Most of them
had partaken of no food for forty
eight hours previous to death. 1t
was not the custom to give the re
mains proper burial after dissection
at Harvard, as required by law. The
defendants argued that that was the
fault of the medical school, and not
of the almshouse. The Governor re-
torted that if the almshouse manage
ment required a bond for the proper
burial of bodies, it was part of the
Superintendent's duty to see that the
conditions were complied with The
students at Harvard paid the janitor
81 to $5 for infant cadavers, the price
varying according to the supply.
John H. Chase, former employe
at the almshouse, described the pro-
cess of picking corpses. He men
toned an interesting case of deception
where the body of boy had been
sent to the dissection table. The
mother of the lad came for his re-
mains, and in order not to disappoint
her coffin was filed with wood. and
services were held over it in the
chapel. She supposed she saw her
boy buried, and went away satisfied.
Charles H. Dudley, formerly night
watchman of the institution, testified
that when he went to the almshouse
he was instructed not to see too much,
or know too much of events within
til" institution, " noticed several
times at night that boxes left in one
place would disappear before his re-
turn on his rounds. He finally
opened ono of these boxes and found
it contained silk, linen, blankets, and
other valuable supplies. Corpses dis
appeased from the dead-house in the
same mysterious way. He finally
lay in wait for the body snatchers,
and succeeded in surprising and cap
turing man who, on reaching the
light, proved TO be Thomas j. Marsh,
Jr., the Assistant Superintendent.
The story was told very dramatically,
and caused quite a sensation among
the crowd in attendance. He des-
cribed the sequel to his detecting
Assistant Superintendent Marsh rob-
bing the dead house. Marsh told him
to keep still about what he had-se
and said: "We have got to get some
pay for our trouble taking care of
these critters Dudley also testified
that he saw light in the trunk room
several times after the inmates had
retired, and going in quietly one
night, he saw Marsh's wife opening
paupers' trunks and taking clothing
from them. Mrs. Pope, the house
keeper, told him that she had seen
the same thing, and that the most
valuable dresses were taken by Mrs.
Marsh to her private storeroom and
made over for the Davis girls, her
relations. The witness told of some
twenty children in one ward who used
to cry at night because OF hunger
They were placed at the table with
the other inmates and had to look
out for themselves. One night, out
of curiosity. he went to the burying
ground and saw four bodies resur
rected and driven off toward Boston
in wagon. The state of the food
for the inmates of the almshouse and
the insane was always very poor, and
the quantity small. The bread was
sour nearly all the time. A man who
drove the hospital team told the wit
ness that he had taken up sixty eight
bodies in eight months. The man
was dissatisfied then, but the next
day he showed rev hundred" which
he said "Torl' (Marshl had given
him.
Witness was afterward appointed.
with his wife, to the care Of the female
insane. The beds were of straw in a
rotten condition. with insufficient
clothing. Most of the women were
without underclothing or shoes or
stockings. They had only calico
dresses. This was IN July. The cells
were also in filthy condition. In u
cell in the attic witness found woman
lying on the straw perfectly naked.
The straw was bad and filthy. He
was told by one OF the assistants that
this woman had been in this cell
about year. She was 80 violently
insane that she would tear her clothes.
She was so near a skeleton that she
would not have weighed more than
forty pounds. His wife Immediately
clothed her. and he had the room
cleaned out. She had had only one
meal q day, carried to her by an
idiotic girl, who said that she had
always taken care OF the old woman.
Witness allowed her to continue do.
s~~ 80 l,,& xr,okobo1 hos aud f0und