The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-06-12
State Institutions Must Be Run
by Experts.
Declares Mrs. Crane In Report al
Owensboro to Women Of
kentucky.
BOARDS OF HEALTH PRAISED.


lthat the crying need in Kentucky Is
to take all state Institutions out Of
politics and to put some medical men
upon the boards of control who VIII
properly care for the inmates OF the
asylums and prisons. Mrs. Caroline
Bartlett Crane, of Michigan, who has
spent a month in studying the sani-
tary and general health conditions in
Kentucky. brought her tour to a close
in Greensboro.
The occasion was a report to the
meeting of the Kentucky Federation
OF women's clubs in session in Owens
boro. Mrs. Crane declared that the
greatest surprise she had met In Ken
tuclH were the shocking tenement
hnftfs in Louisville, Lexington and
frankfort. " II Is in your beautiful
capital city. however, that 1 have
been panied to find the worst human
l%habitations | have seen in Kentucky
she said.
She sharply criticised the condi-
tion in the jail at Paducah. She said
she found condemned murderers as
|sociating with other prisoners.
Women in this jail are waited mp
on by men prisoners, who unlock
their doors and carry their meals In
to them, she said.
81 found no matron at any Jail
visited by me-" She declared that
the school for feeble-minded at Frank
fort is not a school in any worthy
sense and 1t would better be called
merely a custodiai home. She told
of finding a boy IS years OF age In
the penitentiary at Frankfort be-
cause there was no room for him at
the school Of reform. Another boy,
said to be IS. was serving his second
Iyear on a life sentence. She con
demned the conditions in the work
house at Lexington.
Work for Better Education.
A high tribute was paid to the ed
EDUCATIONAL awakening in Kentucky.
Mrs. Crane said that everywhere she
visited she saw evidences OF work for
better educational facilities and inn
provements. ana gave credit for the
awakening to the women's clubs OF
the state.
Mrs. Crane said In part:
There are but few cities in Ken
lucky where nature interposes any
Especial difficulty In the matter OF
beverage and drainage; but there IL
Ian acute need of further develop
ment in most OF your cities. In al
most every city | have visited. some
beautiful creek has been transformed
Into an offensive open which,
during the drouth Of summer, be-
comes a special n to health.
"The greatest danger from lack OF
sewerage is to the water supply,
since private wells or cisterns are not
infrequently depended upon in tbese
quarters lacking seferage.
',But few OF the Kentucky cities
visited have grappled with this vital
matter. Most Of them are still drink
ing the unpurihed sewerage Of the
cities above them upon the river
which furnishes their drinking water.
What is more surprising. most OF
these cities defend the purity Of their
water. Notwithstanding typhoid fever
seems to be in perpetual mild cpl
demic in many OF these cities.
81 have found the paved streets Of
Kentucky cities rather better cleaned
tb., A. .wor.na Tbo ooro hoofowod
upon macadam streets. both in the
city and country. is notable. The use
OF oil and asphaltum as dust hers
is much to be commended, and 1 am
glad to note a rapid extension Of this
practice.
Garbage collection and disposal
has failed to receive, In most Of your
the attention which your eli
matte conditions demand,
Kentucky cities show great varia-
tion in breathing spaces, from Hen
derson. with almost an acre to each
hundred Of population. to Paducah.
with scarcely an acre for all its peo-
pie.
81 have found some of the best,
and some of the worst. of markets
In Kentucky. IL seems to me that
the most effectual means Of bringing
these places up TO the mark would be
the frequent visitation Of committees
of notedly good housekeepers into the
back rooms and hidden places whence
their food supply issues.
Paducsh, Meat 800
"The health department Of most OF.
the Kentucky cities visited seem to