Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-17
The County Home Matter.

Mayor Sargent made an interesting state ment yesterday in regard to the statement of visitors of the New Haven county home, which was made public yesterday, relative to the report of the committee appointed by the Connecticut Humane society to in- vestigate certain charges made by Dr. 0. B. Adams against the management of the county home.
 Mayor Sargent was chairman of that committee and consequently had much to do with the report. In his statement the mayor said that he did not understand that the committee were criticised 80 much for the report rendered, but that it was claimed in the rejoinder that their report was based upon untrustworthy infor
 nation.
 The board of management consists of
 the tsree county commissioners, the presi-
 dent of the board of health and member
 of the state board of charities. The two
 latter were Professor Brewer and Mrs Dr. Bacon.
 The investigation was continued over 8 period of Q yesr, which was ample time for the board of management to submit | whatever testimony it desired, but outside of Mrs. Bacon and one or two other ladies
 whom she called in no testimony was of fered in contradiction of the charges,
 while upon Dr. Adams part his evidence
 was very strong. The main point of the l defense was an attack personally against
 the reliability of Dr. Adams, and during the hearing we were compelled on several
 occasions to put stop to the allusions | which were made.
 No public records have been kept con- | cerning the inmates of the New Haven
 county home other than those in the pos- session of Mrs, Bacon which she considered
 her private property. Inquiry at the home itself brought out the fact that there were no records there, the matron saying that all the records which were kept were kept by Mrs. Bacon. If, therefore, those were the only records, and Mrs. Bacon regarded them as her own personal property and kept them at her house, then the records l were not public records and could not be held as such.
 In this connection it was found that the matron, for her own protection, had kept | 6 record which she regarded as her own personal property, and would not allow the committee to see it until after much persuasion. This memorandum was in- complete, inasmuch as while it gave the children received and the disposition made
 of them there was nothing to show what had become of the children, the matron saying that che kept no record of the chill dren after they left her care. Further more County Commissioner Burleigh was also called. and 1t was found that the book
 in which the record had been kept had not
 besn purchased until g month after Dr. Adams had preferred his charges. To be sure, the county commissioners had had all the commitments of the children to the county home, but that no record had been kept of them Is proven by the record book itself, nor were any attempts made to keep them until after Dr. Adams had preferred his charges. But even what record the county commissioners had was incomplete and practically amounted to nothing. All the evidence pointed to the fact that there were no public records, and 1t could not be decided other rwise than that Dr. Adams charges were sustained.
 In respect to the second charge that the board of management had not exercised proper supervision, Mayor Sargent said that Professor Brewer came before the board and said he did not know that he was member of the board as he did not know that he was 8 member of the state board of health. He was in considerable douDt upon that question simply because he had no notification that he had been ap- pointed to remain on the board. From his evidence and that of others we found that the board of management had never held meeting in year and that the man. agement of the institution had been in the hands of Mrs Bacon principally. Here again there was no contradictory evidence and the second charge remained without rebutting testimony.
 In regard to the particular cases of neg leot, cited by Dr. Adams, the committee was willing to receive any contradictory evidence, but none was introduced Thus the report was made upon the evidence at hand. If it becomes necessary the com mittee shall be perfectly willing that all the evidence in the case shall be given to the public and let it judge for itself as to whether 1t justifes the report or not"