Daily camera., 1897-08-04
PAUPER SALES.
Passing of an Old Custom in the
& State Of Maine.
The Poor People Were AuctfOned OFF
to Raise Funds for Town Ex-
penses Regarded as Gala
Occasion.


has not been put up at auction and
sold off to the lowest bidder. Careful
inquiry among the selectmen and other
town officers has failed to find single
case of this kind in 1897, though in
former years the practice was common
! in all the 16 counties of the state. In
all the cities and in most of the larger
towns of Maine are almshouses with
farms attached where the poor of the
municipalities are housed, clothed and
:ed at the public expense, the paupers
doing what work they can in order
to lessen the cost. The smaller towns,
having but few paupers, cannot afford
to support an almshouse, so they let
out their poor at SO much a week, and
allow everybody of good repute to make
bids, the lowest bidder getting the
paupers for the next municipal year.
Until long after the war there were
dozens of towns in Maine that sold their
paupers at auction, and nobody saw any
harm in the practice. The auction was
usually held on the day of the annual
spring election, as soon as the officers
were chosen and the money needed to
run the town was raised. The mod
orator, or first selectman, was the auc-
tioneer. Standing on the platform of
the town hall he would give al account
of the pauper he was about to sell, tell
ing his age and general habits, and
dwelling upon the work he was able
to perform When he had made a cata-
Of ri, ha
ask for bids, and the man who felt
the need OF pauper work, or who wanted
the money which the town would pay
for the pauper's support, would make
offers, splitting dimes and .tiye-cent
pieces until they came to cents, when
the lowest bidder would get the pauper
AID another unfortunate would be put
up for sale.
In the days when every Maine grocer
kept barrel of New England rum
housed up alongside of the molasses
hogshead the annual auction sale of
paupers was looked upon as general
holiday for the men, who came from
all parts of the town and never went
home until the last pauper was sold
off. Jordan Batchelder, pauper who
died in the town of Prospect about 20
years ago, was sold at auction 81 years
in succession, and was always present
to speak for himself and show his
strength when anybody doubted his
ability to labor. Bill Greene, pauper
of the same town, who was also shoe
maker, used to take his bench and cob
bling tools to town meeting and sit
on the platform mending shoes while
the citizens made bids for his keep. As
this was before the day of shoe fac
tories, men who had large families to
keep in footwear were always I'M
pressed with Greene's talents, so the
old man was frequently sold as low
as so cents week, or $25 year. Clarke
W. Menden, of Swansville, who has been
state senator, says he has seen IA pau
pers ranged in line on the town hall
platform and sold off, one by one, like
so many slaves. Daniel Hartman, a
reputable citizen of Searsport, remem-
bers seeing paupers sold at auction in
FRANKFORT, Stockton, Orland and other
towns.
v
ress was so good that everybody pros
Lered, and most of the paupers either
died or were able to earn their own
living. When the panic of 1878 struck
the country many persons became pau
pers, but the habit of selling at auction
had fallen into disrepute, and pauper
market day, as it was called, no longer
drew big crowds of spectators. In
spite of the strong sentiment against
the practice, auction sales of paupers
were held in several towns until the
middle of the present decade, and two
cases of this kind were reported in
1896 This year not town official
will confess to having followed the old
way.
The new way is kinder, perhaps, but
the result is the same. Soon after they
in different parts of the town saying
they will receive sealed proposals for
the support of the towns poor until
a fixed date, after which the letters Will
be opened in public and the contracts
awarded to the lowest responsible bid
ders. Appended to this-notice is a list
of the paupers, giving their names, ages
and an outline of their ability to work.
If any of the paupers has trade or
other accomplishment which will en-
hance his value, the fact is mentioned
in the notice. AT the expiration of the
specified time, which is always long
enough to allow prospective bidders to
make careful examination, the bids
are unsealed and the paupers are re-
distributed for another year.
From a purely humanitarian point
of view, no doubt, the new way is bet
ter than the old; but auction sales used
to make keener competition than sealed
proposals can ever bring about, and in
consequence of this the cost of support
ing pauper grows greater every year
IN. Y. Sun.
The Weight Of the Earth.
According to the most accurate cal
culations the earth weighs 6,069, ,00O,.