The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-06-10
SHOWS GREAT PRoGREss.
Work I'm the State Along Educational
and PhiIanthrOpic Lines-Miss
Denson's Report to Conference of
Charities and Correction.
Especial to The Messenger.)

Especial to The Messenger.)
Raleigh. n. c.. June S.-Miss Daisy
benson. the secretary for North Caro-
lima, a prepared her report to the
31st National Conference of Charities
and Correction, to be held at Portland.
Maine, June 1872. The report says thar
never in all the history of the state has
there been such cooperation and or
g~anization along all lines IN education
al and philanthropic associations. and
n a public opinion Is favorably in
clined toward advanced legislation re-
garding the dependent, defective and
criminal classes. Two laws enacted in
1903 have but recently gone into effect.
one being the Watts Liquor regulation
law. which gives practical prohibition
in the rural districts and which, aided
by special county laws and dispense
ries, has greatly diminished drunken
ness in the towns and a decided check
upon crime is to be expected. The Sc
COMO law referred to Is that creating
the board Of examiners of trained
nurses. h upon passing the board
become registered nurses. The Attor-
ney General reprots 1T cases of aban-
Comment The law makes it a misde-
meanor, punishable by Imprisonment
to abandon wife or children without
also a misdemeanor to wilfully fail to
provide support while living with wife
and children, when it can be proved
that the husband neglects to apply
himself to some honest calling. The
State Board Of Charities recommends
the establishment of a reform school,
the enactment of a law creating a ju-
Venile court and probation; emphasizes
the need of state care for the feeble
minded and epileptic, and the necessi-
~ for further provision for the insane.
These recommendations will be brought
to the special attention of the next
legislature. The Kings Daughters
have accepted a gift OF so acres Of land
as a site for a reform school and will
ask the state for an appropriation for
It's support. A strong concerted effort
by many organizations will be made
for the establishment of such an in
stitution. A fight against tuberculosis
has been begun in Raleigh, requiring
report Of all cases by physicians to the
Board of Health and requiring disin-
NNAN III <iIllOh HAS dlSO
been k to properly isolate the tu-
in several Of the state insti-
tutionS and at the Soldiers Home, a
detached hospital has been built for
their care. At the GoIdsboro hospital
for the colored a building has been util-
lied as a ward and Solarium for such
cases. The wholesome restraint Of the
ante-bellum life of the negro having
been removed that race has become the
victim of insanity and tuberculosis.
DR.. Miller, the superintendent of the
Goldsboro hospital, says there is an
undoubted increase Of /inSanity in that
race and that it and tuberculosis were
rare among the negroes prior to eman-
cipation. That hospital now cares for
500, and for want of room is refusing
applications for admission. No less
than % per cent Of the deaths there
last year were due to tuberculosis. The
report says the state Institutions are
well managed by their respective boards
of directors and that improvements
have been made in all.
The number Of persons in state-aided
institutions at the end of the past year
was as follows: Insane 1851: deaf
mutes 23S, and blind 100, both these
whites; colored, blind and deaf mutes
1855; white orphans, 254; colored SO;
inmates of the Soldiers Home SO, total
2,915. The annual appropriation
amounts to 1890, 900 annually and the
special appropriations for improve
ments s., 500 and to pay debts S33, 765.
No private charitable institutions are
subsidized except the Oxford Orphan
Asylum for whites. which receives $780,
900 annually, n that for negroes,
which gets $4,000. These institutions
are inspected by the State Board OF
Charities. A 500, 900 building for wom-
en- and a $4,000 cottage for a colony of
men have been completed and occupiel
at the Morganton hospital for the in
sane, these buildings accommodating
270. superintendent Murphy says thar
the happy results in the colony have
been far beyond the most sanguine
expectation; that men hitherto in pro-
found melancholia occupy themselves
and are correspondingly happier. The
Raleigh hospital has been connected
| with the city water supply, n heat
ing plant has been installed in the
criminal insane department Of The pen
itentiary. Good progress has been made
at the school for the blind and type
culum. The population Of the peniten-
tiary is steadily decreasing, the num-
| Der at the end of last year being only
ia. This decrease is due to the deten-
| ton of criminals by the several coun-
ties in which they lave been convicted,
where their b is utilized in improv-
ing the pubic roads. There are 25
| county convict camps in the state, and
neighboring counties al send their
| convicts to nearby camps. Prisoners
| for life, long term men, the women and
the weak, and prisoners from counties
which do not maintain camps are sent
to the penitentiary. There these are
winnowed. the stronr sent out to build
| railways, or on the state farm on the
| Roanoke river and some contract work,
| while those remaining in the prison
make brick, the women working in the
laundry and sewing room. The peni-
| tertiary officials exercise no power over
the county convict camps, but all con-
| rictS sent out under contract work