The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-12-05
INSTITUTIONS NEED
ALTERATIONS, SAYS
RETIRING JURY
Inquisitorial Body in Report To-
day Suggests improvements
in City and County.
ARE WELL MANAGED,
PRESENTMENT DECLARES
Washington Avenue Crossing
and Busy Justices of the
Peace Are Scored.

CROSSING, and the old story thdts JUS
tees Of the peace are altogether too
busy in taking trivial complaints, was
the burden of the presentment made by
the second September grand jury when
1t went out of business today before
Judge Ten Eyck in the Court Of Oyer
and Terminer, after a six weeks duty.
Here are some of the points made
by the jurors, and the court, after
thanking them for their services, d.
rected that the recommendations be
sent to the proper authorities
The Penitentiary.
THE kitchen and bakery are situated
In the basement, a very poor position
for either, being damp and more or less
underground, with poor ventilation. The
kitchen Is not over clean n needs a
thorough overhauling and whitewash-
ing to keep it sweet. Som improve
ment could be made, at no great ex-
pense, to have both of these depart
ments above ground where they could
get plenty of light and air. On account
Of the dampness, some of the inmates
complain that they run the risk OF bad
attacks of rheumatism.
About fifty women occupy cells thai
to all appearances, are kept In very
good order, but not having their minds
occupied in any way. In the opinion
Of the grand jury these women should
have occupation.
City Hospital for C~onsumptives.
1.-THE City Hospital for Consumptives
is in a condition that calls for one
of two remedies-its proper equipment
to meet conditions for which 1t was es-
tablished. viz, the care and cure of in
cipient cases only, or its transfer to the
care of the managers of the State Hos
pital in Glen Gardner.
"Sixty-one patients are housed in one
building today, under the care Of one
physician and two nurses, and the re-
sult secured by this small force has
been very creditable.
sThe hospital has been In existence
about one year and thirty patients have
been discharged as either cured or
vastly improved, and there has been
but n death. An average of thirty
applicants a week is rejected, because
they are too far advanced to permit
admission and keep within the a%ppropri-
alton allowed by the city, and for lack
of room to care for them properly. An
isolated building equipped with proper
l~abor-saving and sterilizing machinery
would seem absolutely necessary. The
dining-room is too small for the COM
fort of the PATIENTS. Both sexes sit at
the same table. There should be an
outdoor pavilion.
THE hospital has no method of on
veyance for any purpose and the in
mates are at the mercy of a village
livery. 1t costs about $50 a month TO
convey supplies and inmates and this
would more h a pay for a proper out
fit and stable.
IF it be possible to transfer the in
mates of the City Home to The Boys
Home in Jamesburg, and turn over this
group of buildings to the Board of
Health for the use of patients with ad-
vanced tuberculosis, it WOULD meet the
requirements for lar years, and the
appropriation now allowed to the City
Home would be sufficient to make
needed changes and maintain the hos
pital in a proper manner
City Hospital.
''There is a matter which should be
brought to the attention of the city
authorities. The wards for incurables
WCtC IOdiio " NC app ASAAA VA v
crowded condition, owing to the COM
p%aratively great length Of time that the
beds are occupied. One patient was
found to have been cared for during
a period of eight years, and others for
three years or more. Although at the
present time such patients can be cared
for at the City Hospital yet, at the
ordinary rate of increase, the pressure
will surely be felt at no very distant
date, resulting in a decrease of eff
ficiency ~for the entire institution. A
patient remaining under treatment for
three years occupies q bed to the ex-
clusion Of something like a hundred
patients who may require from n to
two weeks treatment.
at. is therefore recommended that a
home, or hospital for ~incurables, be
established at some suitable place out
side the city where such u~nfortunates
may be cared for, thus relieving the
City Hospital of a burden which 1t Is
not the province of a general hospital
to bear.
The jury recommends the removal
of the city afmshouse from it's present
location as speedily as possible, and
hat the mode of punishment to the
inmates in the so-called cooler" be
dispensed with.
Justices of the Peace.
1.-THE time of the grand jury is very
much occupied by cases of a trivial
nature sent in by justices of h peace,
many Of whom would seem to have
but one interest, viz, to exact a Zee
for drawing the complaint. Complaints
not entertained by the police justices
are eagerly taken and turned over to
the grand juries for disposition and
almost invariably dismissed. A legis-
lative act %forbidding the accepting OF
a fee would remedy the trouble.
THE jury would call the attention OF
the Essex County Park Commission to
the dangerous road entrance to the
Branch Brook Park at Elwood avenue.
The Strengthening Of this roadway en-
trance and the clearing away of such
shrubbery as now obstructs a clear
view is Immediately necessary. 1t is
also the opinion of the Jury that all
vehicles driving in all parks after dark
should be required to carry lights.
bridges.
'The attention of the authorities Is
called to the narrowness and steep
grade of the road bridge over the Nor
ris canal at the northern end Of Branch
Brook Park on the old Bloomfield road.
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