Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1909-09-30
Unexpected Visitor Finds Conditions There Much
 Better Than Expec- tel.
JUDGE GOULD ACTIVE
COuats Judge Has Made Evcrv Pro- vision For Proper Care of
 niortUnates.

II the flrSt duty III personal euuc2- tion is. according to tLe Gree& paiios- Opher, to know oneself, then the first duty in civic outlook is to become ac- quaintcd with the resources and shortcomings of ones own cominuni- ty Accordingly l have vent:,:e'i e indulge myself in the opinion .nrt q description and valuation of the char itable and penal institutions of Pine Bluff and Jefferson County woull not be unacceptable to the local reading public.
 House or Almshouse and Hospital as
 it is officially known. wonder now
 many of you have ever been out to
 that | didn't get to see it until after
 I had lived here nearly five years
 and this notwithstanding the fact that I have for long time been student
 of philanthropic institutions and in- spected numbers of them elsewhere.
 It just goes to show that there is a good deal of truth in the sayings dis tance lends entertainment and 'famil- iarity breeds contempt although of course very few of us think things ought to be so.
 We'll, since most of you have never visited the Poor House and the dis
 tance is rather great, l shall attempt to describe it for you. Nevertheless, l would urge all who care to see defec- tive products of the human mill go out to the institution in person. We'd
 nesday and Sunday afternoons are vis- iting days
 The Poor House is situated west of the city. about half a mile directly west of Sawyer X Austin S lumber plant It is in the nature of a farm, consisting of 20 acres of land, a com- modious. though rather fimsily con- structed house, and several sheds and outhouses The main house is sur rounded by a we'll kept garden and pretty flower beds. The Poor House is over 90 years old but the present structure dates only from 1885.
 went out there without notifying the superintendent beforehand and took care to choose a day that was in the morning-when the house, if not ran we'll, would appear to the least advantage 1 had to adopt this course, as | had to embody my fnd- 1 in9s in a report to the School of Phil l anthropy in New York l must admit | that went out there ready to find 1 fault But my predsposition to criti- | cize was disar1ned at the door was | surprised to find everything neat and l in perfect order. notwithstanding the ! early hour The beds had been made 1 two hours before, as the inmates are ! required to get up at six o'clock in | the morning, to wash themselves and l make their own beds under the pen alty of forfeiting their breakfasts. Of 1 course, those who are not able to l make their beds are exempt. There l are separate rooms for the sexes and | for the whites and negroes The white men and the colored men occu- 1y separate wings on the second floor, while the white women and the col ,red women use separate parts or tne irst floor Under the previous super ntendent the colored men and women 5ere kept on the same floor and so, DO. then white males and females. ut Dr. Sacconi, the present superln- ,ndent, changed the old order and I le change, small as it is, has re- llted in a great improvement in the orals of the inmates le The laws of Arhansas require that fl