The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-06-16
The Statistics Show Five Fer
Cent Increase Annually
In NORTH CAROLINA
Only Four States in the Union
Show a Decrease.
THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM
Insanity Among the Negroes discussed
by Capt. benson Before the
National Conference of
Charities.

chal, 1-Ih6 NdUlOIlt1 NChlOA yin
Charities and Corrections now in ses-
sion is so comprehensive in IT'S scope
that it includes separate sections III
charity organization, child-saving, SO
cial settlements in cities, juvenile re-
formatories, the care OF the chomc
insane poor, the care of the feeble
minded. scientific study of social prob
lens. municipal and county public
charities. and soldiers and sailors
homes-all these are separate from the
daily general session of the confer
ence. 1t would be impossible to detail
the matters of interest discussed IN
meetings four Jimes daily, which Till
volume of many hundred octave pages.
One dis impressed with the mastery
intellects here contending with the
social problems of the day. Such men
as Prof. Francis Peabody, of Harvard,
who delivered THE conference sermon in
the Park Congregational church, while
twenty-seven other pulpits were filled
by great diyineS from the same body
Prof Wayland, of Yale, President Gil
man, of Johns Hopkins; Prof. billiard,
of Tulane University, New Orleans);
President Angel, of the University of
Michigan. who followed the Gov
ernor and the Mayor in a cordial adj
dress of welcome. Prof, Patten, oil
the University of Pennsylvania, and a
long Line of others are among the great
thinkers of America.
The medical side is equally inter
esting. DR.. Percy, of Baltimore, read
a fine paper ON ''Convalescent Homes
for the After-TreaItment of the In
sane;" DR.. Wyman. of Detroit, on
''Some Methods of Caring for the In
sane Poor and Hon. w. z. Letch-
worth, of Buffalo, on provision for
Epileptics" Mr.. Letchworth was the
founder of the great Rochester Indus
trial Reformatory.
During the session very interesting
ceremony occurred in Fulton Park Of
the unwilling of a colossal statue to
the memory of Thos d. Gilbert, first
president of the Charity Organization
Society of Grand Rapids.
Mr.. Locke, of London, who has been
a great leader in charitable work, is
here and actively participating, and DR..
jules Morel, of Client, Belgium, read a
paper on observations for Five Years
in the Belgium Prisons"
1t may be of interest to some of your
readers that North Carolina was heard
in the General session of Wednesday,
The scientific study of social problems
was represented by Prof. Cooley of the
University of Michigan upon the ever
recurring problem of Nature vs.. Nur-
ture, as the respective work of here
dity and environment. I'm the discus
sion which followed, Capt. G. b. Den
son, Secretary of the Board OF Public
Charities of North Carolina, took up
the question from the point of view
presented by the demands of the negro
upon the resources of the white peo-
pie of the South, showing that in
sanity proper was EXTREMITY rare with
that race before their freedom by the
war, that idiocy and senile dememtia
mania was almost unknown i'm a race.
whose lives We're practically those of
children, without care for the morrow,
but now thrown into the battle of
life, to struggle for themselves, many
of the weaker fell into madness or
melancholy, and Non5h Carolina had
not only built the first insane asylum
for the colored race in the world but
had generously twice enlarged it
since. New environments had already
done its work in a generation, and the
wards under DR.. Miller's sl<ilfui care.
were filled, not only with mania and
melancholia, but general paresis itself.
supposed to be the result of extreme
nerve exhaustion, in the wear and
tear of life. incidentally, Capt. Den
son took the opportunity to place be-
fore this national audience the maeni-
tude of the work that had fallen upon
the people OF his State in the education
al and charitable guardianship of a
weaker race, and their manful deter
m1nation to do their whole duty. how
ever misrepresented and misunder-
stood by some. He was generously APP
plauded, and many sought him per-
SonaIly TO express their satisfaction.
and to offer the most courteous atten-
tions.
Thursday afternoon delightful rides
were made to the Catholic Protectory
and the Prostetant Children's Home.
Ibis city was trading port with the
Indians 90 years ago; twenty years
ago it had 1900, ten years ago $4,000;
and now 100000. Such is its marvellous
growth. Yet the surrounding county
has only one special gift of nature
gypsum. This is the greatest manu-
featuring center in the world, of gyp-
all the carpet sweepers are made here
also. Yet the water power is inferior
to that of many locations in North
Carolina.
Driving through miles of its streets,I
observed that the most attractive.
were those with five foot sidewalks, of
limestone, and a green street lawn to
the curbstone: no fences to be seen,
dividing the lots, at the rear there
were masses of shrubbery on trellises
You may look for half a mile down
the grassy strip, many of the houses
being above grade have turfed fronts,
down to the pathway, and ascend
ed by stone steps. If Raleigh's alder
men carry out their plans of street
improvement, this plan must be re-
sorted to, on some of lbs streets.
Accepting an invitation to inspect
Kent county jail, visited itearly Thurs
day before the session, and found a
structure of pressed brick and brown
stone, set in green lawn adorned
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