Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-08-18
At
GLEN GARDNER
PR0BEO BY STAR
Adverse Criticism of Food Served
Patients Is Found
Unfair.

/ Visitors at the State tuberculosis
Sanatorium at Glen Gardner are
usually Indifferent to train times. If
they miss the SIS, so much the better.
This is partly due to the fact that
thirty miles of picturesque and hill
studded country sweep ava in full
view from the porch of the admins
tration building.
The letter which drew the attention
of the Evening STAR to the State
sanatorlum was as follows:
August II, 1911.
To the Editor Of the Evening Star;
1t will probably be interesting to
Newark to learn of conditions that
exist at the institution for t~ubercular
patients at Glen Gardner. The whole
system is a violation Of every law on
our sanitary and moral codes.
Some readers MA think that it is
an exaggeration when 1 say that the
patients are actually starved-not only
Is the latter fact true, but even the
food that is served in most cases Is
unfit to eat.
Let me quote some sections of . let
ter Just received from a patient who
has been at the Institution for about
six months, He says In part; ..
W stood for it long enough-this Is
what happened last night In the din
ing-room-we had stew for supper and
none of the patients would eat 1t. They
do not give you anything else IL you
patients started to yell and snout; give
lis more stew-wc want more stew;
rotten, rotten, etc." and bang on the
plates with their knives and throw
plates on the floor.
Once we sent back a plate of green
moulded bread, and again we sent back
a plate of butter full of hair and dirt.
but In neither case would the matron
change 1t. saying that 1t was good
enough. Some of the patients get two
eggs a day, and l tell you the eggs are
something awful Cthey stink,
There are at Glen Gardner about los
patients aud about 125 pigs. In order
to feed those 125 pigs they cook such
food as leaves plenty of waste. and
here Is another point. Does the Board
Of Health allow them to feed the. pigs
with l~eft-oVers from the patients
mouth? ! have seen patients cough up
and deposit their sputum among the
waste food 1t is about time that some
body got wise and did something to
better this condition."
The above statement of facts as they
are suggests questions that must soon
be answered, and public sentimSnt will
follow with a remedy. Is the Anti
Tuberculosis League aware of this con-
dition? Is the institution i~ll-provided
with funds by The State? Are they
trying to cure patients by feeding them
with meat which is open to all sources
of infection?
Or. are we up against. another over
brook sensation" Here is q chance for
the STAR to step in and open the eyes
OF the public to q condition which is
not only disgraeeful but dangerous.
| have been requested to sign
HUNGRY PATIENTS.
In place of conditions such as SuG-
gested In the foregoing letter, a re
porter for the Evening STAR found the
state Sanatorium as nearly an ideal in
stitQtiol for the cure of tubercular pa
tients as could be imagined instead of
uncoveri-g a big scandal story, with a
State investigation in view.
The principal impression a visitor re-
ceives in going through the institution
is that of brightness and c%leanness and
cheerfulness. The dining room of the
sanatorium is a large room, allowing
all the 1850 patients to sit down n one
time. In the same building with the
dining room are kitchen storerooms. in
Guiding gigantic ice-boXes that would
dwarf those in an ordinary butchers
shop, serving room, bakery. butcher
shop and a laundry where all the wash.
ing is done by machinery after the
clothes are steriliZed.
There are two ward buildings and
two other structures. known under the
misleading name of ''shacks.'
In these the men patients sleep the
year round in the open air. To keep
the snow from drifting on the beds in
winter; canvas curtains are lowered.
Otherwise the men sleep In the open.
On arising in the morning the
patients go to their shower baths and
take a cold spray. Then come break
fast. the tidying of their rooms and
recreation.
In the centre of each of he So
called 'shacks'' is "a sitting-room with
a table Uttered with ~libarary books and
writing materials.
DR., Samuel b. English. whose pres
nee alone is a breath of ozone. ex-
planned the work accomplished by the
sanatorium, forty patients of which
are from Newark.
The law says that we shall accept
only such patients who may be cured.
only such patients who may be cured"
the doctor explained. 1--WE are as lenI-
ent to the applicants as it is possible
to be, but We ave to be guided to Il
certain extent, nevertheless by the law.
I'm all s,1oS applications have beer
made. Treatment has been given 10
1887. Seventy per cent. of these l.tlye
gone home able to acknowledgements
ing, in a word. To q certain extent t
is up to them how long they con
tinue to be so well.
Approximately 40 per cent, of 'hs I
1900 are cured. so far as it y possible