The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-11
MORE OBJECTION
TO PISGAH HOME
Powderly Man Thinks Such lnstitu-
tion Should Be Located in
Heart of the City

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
In your editorial of last Wednesday un-
der the caption "Pisgah Home Fenced
In," you seem to have adopted the view
point of that institution exclusively but
am sure that you are broad enough
and liberal enough to give space to a
presentation of the side of the question
entertained by those citizens who are af-
fected by the proximity of the home.
Incidentally, we are not fighting the
institution nor opposing its object, though
with the Associated Charities and the
Rescue Home in our midst we fail to see
the pressing need for Pisgah with its
many features that are unquestionably
Objectionable
I must take issue with you In the i'm
piled idea that Germania park is adapted
to the purposes of such an institution.
The community adjoining the park is
entirely residential one. There is not
factory nor an industry in the whole
locality. Practically all of the male res
idents are away from their homes dur
ing the day and their wives and chill
dren are left alone in close proximity
lO hu lflSlttutiou tHtl lldI the VICIOUS,
the depraVed and the dissolute and not a
policeman within one and a half miles
OF the place.
Many young women of this locality are
engaged as employees in the city during
the day and at night they will be COM
PEELED to traverse dark streets and lonely
ways exposed to the peril of meeting the
a abandoned inmates of the Pisgah Home
I submit that the proper place for an
institution of such character is in the
very heart of the city, where the in
mates are under the direct surveillance
of the police, ready to act at a moment $
call or located like the pesthouse or poor
house.
Another salient feature of the situation
and one which you seem to have over
looked, is tho sanitary provisions of the
Pisgah Home.
You state that 1t is lot of six acres
fenced in and isolated The managers
of the institution announce that they cam
house $50 individuals Think of that
number of persons hudded on six acres
without sanitary sewer or any provi-
sion whatever for the sanitation of the
place.
Such conditions will convert the in
stitution into an establishment worse than
a pesthouse of the foulest character,
poluting, affecting and menacing the en-
tire community with evils that are un-
bearable and unspeakabe.
These tramps and vagabonds must be
brought to the home upon our electric
cars and filthy in person, as they are,
and often under the influence of liquor
we have pretty predicament to which
our families and selves are exposed in
passing from the city to our homes and
vice versa.
Such conditions would not be permitted
to obtain at Mountain Terrace or Glen
Iris; they We're effectually combated at
Graymont and distinctions should not be
made in the residential sections of our
city.
This is why we protest specifically for
we are decent, respectable citizens, and
we might protest generally because the
Rescue Home fully provides for aban-
doned women and the Associated Chari-
ties looks after the unfortunate men, be
they crippled or whole. Thus there is
little need for Pisgah, especially when
it seeks to force itself into localities to
which 1t is Objectionable, a cancerous spot
and menace.
Thanking you for your space am
most respectfully, A. Y. EEDS.
birmingham. April 10. ls1s.