The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-10-26
THE POOR HOUSE.
Full Text of Rev. l. g. Broughton's
Startling Expose.

| Before beginning the regular ser
mon of tonight | want to speak OF a
| matter which concerns every citizen
| of FORSYTH county. A few days ago,
> bv the invitation of some good women
| in this city, | accompanied them to
what has been known, and rightly,
too. the county poor house. These
| ladies have been in the habit of going
out there occasionally, taking with
them articles of clothing, food, tObac-
co, sc, and giving them to the in
mates. 1t had been their custom,
also, to take some minister from the
city with them and hold short SER
vice, consisting of song ard scripture
reading and prayer.
When | started from the city l did
not dream of becoming in any sense a
detective or of viewing the sltua tion
from the stand point of critic, Tor
up till this time | had heard nothing
in the way of complaint concerning
the management of 5he institution.
| But upon our arrival upon the prem
| iseS and seeing the dilapldaJed COndl-
tiOn of the exterior | decided that as
| a citizen of this county | had j perfect
right to make some investigation OF
matters Besides, as Il minister of
the Gospel, interested in the up.ItU-
/ ing of humanity and especially the
care of the poor, that there was rest
ing upon me an additional weight OF
responsibility.
Consequently, without a word, [
went into every room in the InStItu-
tion. Seine of these good women ac-
cOmpanied me in all Of them; and L
want to say to you tonight that the
sights which presented themselves to
my eyes were simply horrifying in the
extreme. Some one or two of these
rooms were reasonably well kept, as If
there were some pets about them.
But the vast majority Of them were
not kept at all, and especially the de-
partment for the negroes. They
complained at determinations and
reasonably SO. The things upon
which they slept, called beds, were
dirty: the cover beneath which they
slept was thin and looked as if it had
never been introduced to water The
floors of the rooms looked as ii they
had never been cleaned, not so much
as with broom, say nothing or soap
and sand. In one room was live negro
men suffering with some loathsome
disease and the odor was so great and
offensive that all bat myself had to
fee. In this room there was not
single person able to hand drink of
water to another and one poor old ne
gro man was calling for water when
we entered.
l confess that during my four years
in medicine | visited sc me tough
holes, and since I've been in the min
istry I've likewise seen tough holes,
but the toughest hole that L have yet
visited was this seen in the Forsyth
county poor house.
WORSE STILL.
And this is not all, nor, by far, the
worst. In the lower room in the ne
gro department was negro woman,
half idiot, and white man, an idiot.
They stay in that room all the time
day and night, sleep in the same bed
for ought | know. L know they are
idiots, but that makes it worse. Be
sides, this ldiOtic negro woman, since
she has been an inmate of this insti-
tuition, has given birth to two or
three children. Whose are they?
Are they the children of this poor.
unfortunate white idiot who is forced
to stay in that relationship with her
as 30 make it extremely probable:
Whose children are being born to the
county?
WHO Is RESPONSIBLE?
Now | have given you some idea of
the state of things at your institu
tion, kept up by your money. L can
not give it IL detail. Respect for
your feelings will prevent. | ask you
not to take my word but investigate.
If you question these statements |
will give you the names of some of the
best women in Winston who will sub
stantiate what l say. The question
is: Who is responsible for this sad
commentary upon our civilization
| am not saying that the county COM
missioners or the county physician, or
the keeper, but evidently somebody
is responsible for this mighty shame
in the name of charity, and if l was
one of the officials, when duty it is to
look after this thing, I'd hide my
face in shame.
WORSE THAN THE COURT HOUSE.
We hear a good deal about the
County court Fouse as an eye-sore and
sure enough it is and I'm ashamed of
it. But let me tell you the biggest
eye-sore in Forsyth county so far as |
have seen is her poor house, where
the unfortunates, your brother and
mine, are pretended to be cared for.
ID