Morning journal and courier., 1892-12-10
MASSACHUSETTS, PAUPERs.


| with Unloading an Undue Number
of Paupers in New York-Superin-
tendent Wrightington Makes an
Explanation.
New YORK, Dec 9.-The Evening World
states to day that it has made the astound-
ing discovery that for months and even
| for years past the state charity authorities
| Of Massachusetts, have been sending their
paupers, idiots and incurables to this city
by wholesale and dumping them in patches
of dozen or more at time upon the
town without any means of support or
subsistence, and apparently expecting that
they will eventually drift into charitable
institutions here. According to the in
formation, which the Evening World says
has besn abnndantly verified. the practice
is one that has become regularly estab
lished, and this clearing out of the Massa-
chusetts poorhouses is matter of weekly
occurrence. They are almost all sent to
New York, it would appear, because in
the great city they are more easily scat
tered and their coming here attracts little
attention.
Although the members of the local
board of charities and correction say they
have long suspected that New York was
being used as dumping ground for
been able to obtain satisfactory direct
proof of these practices.
Six paupers came last night from the
| Tewksbury almshouse, of unsavory re-
pute, and two others came from some
| other institution, the name of which could
not be ascertained. They were all brought
down from Boston under the charge of
Agent Doane, and when the Pilgrim ar
rived at her dock this morning they were
called up to the main deck from the room
in the steerage, where they had spent the
night, and mustered on the gang plank by
the agent, who gave them twenty-five
cents each and told them to clear out.
They had absolutely nothing beyond the
ragged clothes on their backs and the
| quarter of a dollar which they had just
received. They scattered at once in every
direction and are now wandering at large
in the city, three of them lunatics or
idiots and the others not in fit condition
| to be out of hospital.
| Rusted, one of the paupers, is a man
| apparently of considerable intelligence
and has evidently employed his powers of
| observation to advantage since he became
an inmate of Tewksbury almshouse. al
though 1 was only at Tewksbury two
| weeks" he said, 81 know of three gangs
| of men that were sent away to New York,
| about dozen each time, and it struck me
| as very queer that they should be ship
| ping those people off to New York when
know for fact that lots of them lived
in New England and asked to be sent
home"
"By whose orders were you sent to New
York?"
ut was by order Of DR.. Lewis, who,
| was told, was the state agent of charities
in Massachusetts,. Dr. Howard is the
superintendent of the Tewksbury aims
| house, but he does not seem to have much
to say about it.
DR.. Lewis visited the almshouse every
| week and would send for lot of the in
| mates to see him in the Office. Sometimes
ss many as thirty would go in at once and
he would talk with them, and from among
the number he would select a squad to be
sent to New York. He seemed to be the
| one in authority"
"Were you sent for and examined in
| this way?'
eyes, he visited Tewksbury last Tues
| day and sent for about twenty men. They
| all went in separately to see him.
When it was my turn to go in he asked
me lot of questions, and told him
had lived three years in Boston and had
| worked as laborer. Before that 1 had
| worked in New York and in the west.
He then asked me if didn't want to go
| to New York, and l said no, because
didn't know anyone there. thought if
| was doctored for about a month more,
| would be well enough to go to work again.
Then he said, '.You had better go to
New York; the hospitals there are as good
as they are here, if not better, and you
will have better chance there to get a
| job"
told him again l didn't care to go to
| New York, but he cut the conversation
short and sent me out. I did not hear
| anything more about the matter till yester-
day, when was notified that I had been
| detailed to go New York with the squad.
1 was told this about 80 p. m. yesterday.
1 said to this agent then that did not want
to go, but he said that 1 must. 1 didn't
| know of any of the others who were going
till I reached the depot and got on the
is twenty-one miles from Boston. There
found the five other men. We were under
the charge of an sgent-I don't know his
name-all the way to Boston, where we
were hustled on board street car and
taken over to the Old Colony railroad depot
and put on a train for Fall River. Then
another man took charge of us and came
with us all the way to NewYork. He paid
our fares and kept a sharp lookout on us
all the way.
We arrived at Fall River some time be-
fore the Pilgrim started and were taken
down into the steerage and locked up in a
small roam there by the agent. We were
locked up until the steamer left her dock.
Then they opened the door and let us out
into the steerage.
While we were imprisoned come one
opened the door and threw in a bag filled
with bread and pieces of cold meat and
then locked it again. That is all we had
to eat on the way.
The Waterman in the steerage and some
of the other deckhands jeered at us and
tainted us with being paupers. I replied
that we were not and the Waterman said
"Oh, we know all about you fellows
: Why, I've known the agent that has charge
of you for the last fifteen years and he,
= always bringing paupers down to New
York"
: Boston, Dec. 9.-Superintendent of In
door Poor WIightington was seen at hi
Office in the state house this afternoon AND
made acquainted with the substance of tn
allegations from from New York that Mas
sschusetts was dumping her paupers int
Mr.. Wrightington the dispatch from Ney
York alleging that that city was gettin
more than her share of the pauper popu
. lation of the old Bay state and also allegin
u that the officials of this state were adm!
q and abetting these paupers to take up thei
residence in New York. 81 do not care
talk to any extent" said Mr.. Wrightingtor
"unless there have been specific charge
= made, but never knew of any paupeI
j. being sent to New York or anywhere els
from this state that did not belong wheI
70 they were sent There is certainl
g no systematic dumping of the poe
# of this state on to the cit
of New York. We furnish our psupel
with money to go to their homes; som
sr times that home is in this state and SOM
4 times it is outside the state limits. "
Of furnish transportation to New York,
q Canada, and even to countries ACROSS Il
re water. We believe that that ia the mo
10 humane way to do. We don't undertsl
n, to say that we do not sometimes get d
T. ceived, but if we make any mistakes '
eff are only too ready to be notified and
t, take back any paupers who do not belol
to | where we send them. This commonweal
O. wants to provide for its own people, b
or the fact that a pauper if he is sent to
b. home is going to be deprived of support
n sufficient inducement for us to aid him
In getting home. presume that three qut
tie ters of the paupers come right back to Il
to city. When we send a pauper back
n New York we pay his fare on the boat q
give him % cents to buy something to I
on the boat"
Mr.. WIightington went over the repo
Tor from Tewksbury almshouse since June
bo | Thosa reDorts showed that of the