The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-10-11
HOW BIG CITY
CARES FOR SICK
PhiIadeIphia'S New Municipal
Hospital Practices StriCteSt
Sanitation.

No one ever need starve or be in want
in this fruitful country.-William Penn
Constituting that statement literally the
great city of Philadelphia has built up.
system Of charities and relief for the
sick that is now regarded as the best in
America. In publication issued by the
city, a copy of which has Just reached
Salt Lake. the changes from methods N
vogue among the Quaker cGlOnistS to
modern charity are interestingly de-
scribed. As early as 1712 Philadelphia
became acquainted with the genus tramp.
That period is described as follows:
In 1112 it was necessary to establish
a workhouse for the detention of tramps
who came to Philadelphia from the neigh
boring settlements and were a most I'M
ruly and undesirable class of people.
THE burden of the dependent class had
by this time become so great that the
Friends decided to make special provis-
ion for such members Of their own de
nomination. John Martin. tailor, who
died in 1902, left property on Walnut
street above Third for the use of poor
Friends. The six buildings were utilized
as a strictly sectaTian asylum on a sort
of cottage plan and some of the old
women made a little money by growing
herbs and roots in the garden
Inmates as Boarders.
In 1876 the buildings were torn down
and the inmates were placed out as
boarders in private families.
persons receiving relief should wear on
the right shoulder of the upper garment
large Roman p with the initial of the
county, city or place of which the pau
per was an inhabitant. Every poor per-
son who should neglect or refuse to wear
such badge was liable to the suspension
or withdrawal of the relief and also to
whipping and hard labor for twenty-one
days.
''The winter Of 1775 was very severe and
shelters for the poor were greatly over
crowded. The following year the board
of managers we're ordered to clear all
such refugees for the kings troops, but
they refused to do so. The British Off
cials then turned the inmates, about 200
in number, out into the street and only
eighty-two of them survived the ex
pOsurs.'
System Now In Vogue.
In great contrast from these primitive
methods Of dealing with the needy is the
modern system. In the center of a tract
of 500 acres of park line farm land the
city has a hospital which cares for one
hundred tubercular patients. permitting
them meanwhile to do work which pays
the larger part of the expense of caring
for them. This is called ByberTy farms.
The great institution, however, is the
new municipal hospital. Here the pre-
cautions taken to guard against contagi-
Gus diseases are the latest known to
modern science. Even the ambulances
are disinfected by being placed in the
tumigating room. The drivers are re-
quired to change clothes. One feature
is an electric hair-drying machine by
which the drivers may thoroughly dry
their hair before going out on a new
trip and thus avoid their catching cold.
The floors are unbroken concrete. In
the children's department the radiators
are covered with wire netting to prevent
the smaller children from burning them
selves. and similar devices are in use
throughout the entire establishment.
Supplies are delivered at one door, the
doctor enters at another and the nurse
at the third. Bath rooms for patients
doctors and nurses are all separate and
all provided with the latest sanitary
facilities.
Since the establishment of this hospital
the city has had the lowest death rate
known, the rate per thousand being 1886.