Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-01-09
normal diseases. I refer to drunk ards. morphine-eaters. syphlitics and

normal diseases. I refer to drunk ards, morphine-eaters. syphlitics and the like.
 1 Under present conditions in our region, semi-barbarous as they are. any plan for new almshouse must be taken into consideration the cal ibre of the inmates described above The very enumeration of them Is enough to show that most of them are incapable of working, certainly of any protracted task that will bring profit to the public. Those who are not incapacftated by dis ease are in nine cases out of ten incapacitated by old age. Let LIS not forget that the average age of ad- mission for the nine years preceding : 1909 Towering the period of inves- tigation) was 67. There was ne gro woman in our poor house then who was 114 years at the time of ! her admission a few years before; imagine her doing any profitable work.
 Statistics gathered all over the country show that only about 15 per cent of the inmates of poor houses are able-bodied enough to work To these might be added consumptivt whose cases are not far gone. Gar dening would probably be good for these. Drunkards would also prob ably be- improved by such work. Rerr haps some of the supe rannuated could attend to poullry-rasing. It would be cruel. however, to force them to do this in bad weather. Although an un~ sophisticated preacher, unfanilia' With the manly art of stGck-raising, I still make bold to question if tha adu,t rated type of men and women that fiji our allnshouses would engage in that line of work wit out losing more for the county than making foH it.
 We might just as we'll make up our minds to give up the idea of making any money from those broken shells of bumality Of course We should see to it that the institution is run according to the most economical lines We are capable of devising. Neve:, however, should economy be practic- ed at the cost of the well-being and comfort of t:e inmates. The county custodial institutions should not ',e run for profit but for service. We must make these Wretched by-prod- ucts of the mill t'f life as healthy and 1 happy as we can. If a few of them can be occup.1d d and amused b! work and at tho same time earn somethin, for the county, we'll and good. If not let us provide them and the others for whom these t,ings are good some make-believe work that will keep them from breeding and mischief. Let us furnish them with newspapers, ! photograph, a player piano, picture show and such uplift as religious ser
 
 There is much to be sa d also about the character of the buildings Ito be erected This is very important item. We have enough public inst;- tutionsl in our city that lack the very elemental requirements of decent housing to warn us not ito settle this ,oottor ih ,1o6uc no Tho acroo of human ingenuity could hardly devise a viler place than the city jail. Tbes county jail, though infinitely ahead of the kennel We call the city-prison, still falls woefully shcnt of the high CT standards of the day. But I must Tt take the space to dwell on those. must limit myself to few conclud ing words on the plan of the build ings. The old farmhouse almshouse will no longer do. NJ 'ther will one large, imposing looking institution oei several stories, not adapted to the strength, the sex and color and dis ease classification of the inmates do The best plan probably is the cottage system. One cottage for the super- intendent and his assistants, another for white women, another for white men, two others for colored men and women respectively, another for con- sumptives and another for those af- flicted with loathsome diseases, would be wise arrangement. This sounds expensive; 1t Is; all rationally order- ed and efficient institutions are. The expense may be reduced If two or three counties, will cooperate and establish such an instt at spot convenient to all the three. But then