The herald., 1895-08-18

bail and protection are always forthcom-
ing, when there is the sex price to pay
for it.
Many OF the inmates are self-commit-
TED; that is. they get permission to come
ana stay for some weeks or even months.
Mahy, nay most OF them. go out penniless
and sometimes literally naked. and must
either find instant work-a miracle being
performed in their behalf-oI drift again
INTO begging, drinking and arrest-the old
vicious circle which the taxpayer keeps
running and the palliative philanthroplst
encourages.
Already too wise to put the question
on sentimental grounds, we asked the
matron IL 1T would not be as economical
10 supply the women with oatmeal or
soup instead of the unspeakable stuff
they now have which can conserve no
purpose for which food was ever intended.
ii er answer was prompt: Laws, if we
gave them that they'd stay here forever.
This seems to be the ruling idea OF all
institutions: to give the unfortunates the
worst possible time SO as to more effect
ually prevent their return, whether the
inmate is wicked or only unlucky.
In penal institutions we are still more
punitive than educative, and the student
OF the defective class knows only too well
what weight of inherited weakness,
crimes and sorrows make the task of
aught but detention under hard cOndi-
tions difficult one. DR.. Holmes still
continues to be wise as well as witty
when he recommends the careful choos-
ing OF ones parents.
And yet the poor creatures return vol
unfairly or rather are driven back by the
grim alternative of starvation or suicide.
One old lady" in a wIetched almshouse
"a thing to whom disease and pain and
cold were the daily burden-was asked by
the kindly woman inferno: MARY, why
do you want to live any longerY" Mary
having shown strong fears that her latest
collection of ills might end fatally. Mary
did not have to consider her answer too
curiously: "Well. you see, doctor, know
where am now.and l don't know where
l will be.''
When we stepped out again into the
ee air the big red sun was low on the
water and our little boat was giving its
first warning screech. We hurried along
the neat paths bordered with old fash
ioned box to the series of conjoined cot
tages which constitute the almshouse.
For here the newer and happier IDEA of
several small buildings instead of one
vast one has had partial exemplifica-
tion. AS We reached the largest of the
houses the inmates were fiocking in from
all about to supper-at 4:30. These peo-
pie are, as our jolly Irish guide said,
had the huddled, oowdy look that age
and poverty and ill-ftting clothes always
give. but inside the limp ruffie of the
faded blue bonnets were sweet old faces
upon which was written long page of
life's plain prose.
dining room, and stood agast at the
frugaliLy of this. the last mea! of the day
soon to end in so long night. On a
large table was stacked up squares of
bread and at each place was bowl OF
grayish, distdsteful fluid about the color
of dish water and hardly more appetiz-
ing. This is tsa, discoverable by tasting
with what the doctors call ''expectant at
tention." In one almshouse the tea is
boiled hard for forty-five minutes. As
strong tea of poor quality is a fine appe-
tlte destroyer, it doubtless has its subtle
economic uses beyond that of being Iill-
ing.
Beyond the dining room are the long
dormitories, with the big stoves in the
center and the rows OF beds along the
wall, SO close that the groans of their oc-
cUpants must intermingle, as must their
prayers also.
The oeds are fairly comfortable now.
Once the old ladies stretched their rheu-
matte bones on the rack of cheap wire
mattress, with only one blanket between
them and the cold air from the floor,
which no top covering can ever warm.
Fortunately for them, there came to be
women on the board of managers. who
ulu uOb Heou W ue dppchlcu W IWlCe, anu
SO mattresses were supplied to all. Wait
one moment-not to all, for in the ward,
where they ale old and poor. and feeble.
minded also, they sleep on large springs
still, and the head nurse wonuers why
''the provoking things will put all theil
nice blankets underneath" She. how.
ever, was refined and kindly woman
and allows her poor silly folk all the
privileges she dare, one of which 10 not
allowed elsewhere-to lie down bit dur
ing the daytime. In the aims mshouse tn s
is among the forbidden joys. 1t musses
things up and makes work. And so it
happens that we see two or three figures
crouched in the chairs at the bed $ head
leaning over on the pillow-the nearest
approach to rest thev can have durin Q
the day time hours. They were stran gely
pitiful, these humbly bowed. tired crea-
lures.
Being simply old and poor and not
criminal has it's other disadvantage also,
for while the workhouse has its apund-
ant hot and cold shower baths, the OLD
folks must cross a strip of yard to another
building, where they find rows of SIN all
bowls Of water and wispy towels.
We were very silent as we hurried along
to me vividly uay in my early girlhood
when l had overheard man say OIL the
streets solemnly Its terrible thing
to be just old and poor" The words had
had u tragic sound, but yet had been
meaningless, for they expressed an un-
known. an impossible evil. Tonight, in
the gathering winter dark, they came
to be eloquent.
a week later l was present at the con-
ference of settlement workers, where the
subject was Charities. These Institu-
tions came In for share of criticism and
approval. The one speaker, however,
who was sure they were the best possible
means at hand to deal with the problem,
when asked which would be preferred by
her for one of her own friends the aims
house or quiet death, replied only by a
cunfessing silence. When we have come
to realize the. real unity of the human
race and have learned the way to make
the defective classes our friends, as we
learn to look gently and speak softly of
the faults OF friends, we shall change the
ways of our institutions from cellar to
cupola. We shall have them in small
homes. not in great houses; we shall
have to wisely rule them the cultiva ted
and the refined; we shall classify them
according to their souls needs instead of
by ages and weights. and most import
ant we shall take the kindly scientific
courage to 50 frame our laws as to limit,
for the sake of the good, the posi- bill ty
of the continuance OF the deprav ed /;