Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-13
SUPPORTED BY THE PUBLIC FUNDS.
Cases Of Distress From All Parts Of the
County Sent to the City Authori-
ties to be Cared for.
BECOMING A GUEST AT TIE POOR Farm.
a Close WaIcA Kept Over the Little Wards Of the
Municipality.

their INDECENT or insane relatives. For years
and years persons have been kept atthe City
Poor Farm whose relatives were well able to
pay for their keeping, but who preferred to
let the taxpayers put up. Mr.. Hoffman
only started after these people at the begin
ming of this year, but he has already secured
tie paymsnt of nearly $4,000, and will prob
ably double it before the end of the year.
OF course, this revenue will largely cease
when all the delinquents have been brought
to time, but these people will have to keep
up their payments SO long as they are able
or until their friends are removed from the
City Home by death or other circumstances.
Examiner Hoffman does not try to push
these people, but he insists that they shall
pay something toward the support of their
relatives who have been defeated in the bat
tie of life. In one case Mr.. Hoffman Sc
cured the payment of s., 800 in a lump, and
in another 5000. He is now working with
man whose wife has been in the insane de-
psrtment of the City Farm for over Is years,
but whose husband has contributed moth ing
toward her support in all that time. He
will come up to the rack now or there will
be trouble.
DoDGIEG THEIR DUTY.
One case which has troubled the depart
ment greatly, and which may result in three
men going to Jail, is that of the Fox family.
There are six adult children in this family,
three sons and three daughters, the latter
married. Some time ago they sent to Ire
land for their parents, but when the old peo-
pie got over here they were neglected. Su-
perintendent Dean, of the Anti-Cruelty So
cietY, took hand in the matter, but finally
the Department of Charities took charge of
the case. The sons were taken into court
and each ordered to pay 81 25 a week tow
ard their parents support. The daughters,
who were not held responsible, volunteered
to furnish all the -four and potatoes the old
people needed. The sons have failed to
keep up their payments, and the depart
ment expects to take the case into court
again. If this is done it will probably go
hard with the sons.
The Department Of Public Charities is a
city institution, and is not supposed to care
for any person who has not established
residence in Pittsburg Nevertheless, num-
berless cases come to them which they are
forced to care for as a matter of humanity.
This results in numerous law suits to COM
pei the repayment of expenses incurred in
behalf of persons chsrgeable to other poor
districts.
HARD TO FIND.
One serious complaint made by the Off
GERS of the department is that the County
Poor Directors are SO difficult to find when
needed. If a man takes sick in Braddock,
a foreign laborer working on railroad, for
instance, he is at once shipped to Pitts
burg. His employers have no time to scour
the hills and dsles Of Allegheny county in
search Of poor director. When the man
reaches Pittsburg the police are notified,
and they in their turn notify the depart |
ment. The officers of the latter cannot see |
Che man die on the streets, and so they take |
care of him, notwithstanding the fact that |
he should be charge to the county.
Many people have an aversion to becom-
ing inmates Of the City Poor Farm, but to
obtain admission to it in the regular way is
really credential of past decency, from a
financial point Of view. 1t is in one respect
like the heaven Of the stern Puritans-there
is Dot room for everybody. To become
eligible to bed and board in the CITY Poor
House, with a marine view from the front
window, is not SO easy. The law on the
subject is peculiar in that it discriminates in
favor of political carpet baggers A man
who has held a public Office in the city for
one year can sit at the first table, if he has
not saved enough from the perquisites of
his Office to enable him to live in luxury for
the balance of his life. But the household
rbo hoa |
the morning with his tin dinner bucket, and
at night with nothing but good
appetite and a hole in his pants, caused by
resting frequently while the boss was look
ing another way, must have paid taxes for
two years to give him the right to inscribe
his name on the Poor Farm register.
wEALTH's UNIVERSAL POWER.
Wealth appears to be an 'open sesame"
to tine Poor Farm as well as to some circles
Of society. A citizen who has lived upon
and controlled. q leasehold of above $40
year is all right after the first II months, as
is q freeholder. Apprentices indentured
here can become guests of the Poor Farm
when hard luck overtakes them, and a
mariner coming into the Commonwealth, or
q foreigner arriving here in good health and
living and working here for a year, is well
coined, if not with effusiveness, at least with
There is one point the householders want
to watch. If in the charity of their hearts
they take in sick and penniless stranger
they had better notify the Department of
Charities within ten days. or they will be
held responsible for the support of the
stranger SO long as he remains q public
charge.
The Department of Charities looks closely
and carefully after its wards. Mr.. Hoffman
has charge of all the lunacy cases in addi-
tion to his other work. He has prepared an
indeed record in which he keeps history
Of each case from the time it first comes un-
der his notice until it is finally disposed of
or taken out OF his jurisdiction. In the
same way a record of outdoor relief fur
nished is Kept. Therea are some amusing feat
ures connected with the latter, The ma
jority Of the recipients are widows with
and most of them dislike to give
up their monthly dole when fortune favors
them. The officers drop around to the
houses occasionally and sometimes find that
the widow is no more. She has married
again. On one occasion a recipient of
charity has been discovered running very
speak-easy. All cases are closely
and it is not often that the de-
partment is very badly fooled.
CARING FOR THE LITTLE ONES.
A great number of children are cared for
by the department. There is no trouble in
of healthy youngsters, and nearly
all of them are adopted by well-to-do peo-
pie, whose autecedents are carefully inves-
tigated. It is not always q chIldless person
who applies for a boy or girl. but very often
the request comes from old people whose
children have outgrown the age Of petting.