The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-01-11
Annual Report
County Probation
Officer Jan. 1919

To the Board of County Cimmis-
sioners:-
During the year 1918 dealt direct
ly with forty-one boys and eleven
girls, of which number two girls, one
white and one colored, and twenty
three boys, appeared before the eJu-
venile Court. The white girl was sent
to the State School for Girls, and
eight boys, four being negroes, were
sent to Mariana, while the colored
girl and seven white boys, with the
same number iof colored boys were
placed under probation. Two boys in
the latter class have moved out of the
county, and one has been with his
mother in another state since early in
the summer, but all the other boys who
were out on probation are doing well,
with one exception. Four troublesome
boys were handled without being
brought before the Juvenile Court but
in only one instance with any degree
of permanent improvement. These
are boys who could be saved to useful
manhood if we had that training
school to which they could be sent.
Some attention was given to five boys
Who were paroled from the State
School after being there more than
year,, and assistance was asked for
fifteen boys and girls, ranging in age
from infancy to sixteen years, who
were in need from neglect, homesick-
ness, infirmity and other causes. In
the interest of public welfare three
of the five Predetermined children
who are included in this list had to
be placed in public institutions, the
girl and one boy being sent to the
State Hospital for the Insane, and
another boy to the State School for
Boys. All of these children, together
with others in our county, should be
placed in a Home for the Feeble
Minded, but Florida has not yet made
any provision for these unfortunate
children. If the citizenship of our
state realized only in part what the
menance of feeble-mindednes means
to the future of Florida, the coming
session of the State Legislature
would not adjourn without making
provision for the establishment of a
homo for faahIa minded
Thirteen families, with from two
to ten children each, have required 4
friendly interest, and assistance of
various kinds, the need being caused
in at least three instances by mis-
management and neglect, in others
by sickness or misfortune. Time and
thought has been spent upon better
ing the condition of ten women, all af-
flicted and, with one exception, aged,
and also of eleven men, six of whom
have died.
The past year began with twenty
two names on our relief list,-tha
December list contained twenty-nine,
several of them requiring only tenn
porary relief, because of sickness or
misfortune. Seven deaths have oc-
Cured during the year among those
requiring continued county aid, and
seven names have been dropped
through removal or return to self
support.
Early in the year it became neces-
sary to provide shelter and care for
homeless colored men in St. Peters
burg, afflicted with tuberculosis. The
problem was solved by renting
house in a sparsely settled negro
neighborhood, providing the simple
furnishings necessary, and paying an
other homeless man to cook for them
and give them what care he uld.
This arrangement, inadequate though
it must appear to those accustomed to
better things, was solid comfort COM
pared to the surroundings from which
they were removed, and it was the
best that seemed possible at the
time. This Simple home was under
the supervision of a colored woman
for these men, ordered the food and
other supplies for which the county
paid, secured through the mayor the
consent of the city to assume the rent,
and at least found colored woman
with some training in nursing who
gave part time to the remaining tub
CIRCULAR cases. Dealing with these
cases strengthened the coviction that,
for the good of the public, defnit
work along health lines should be
done among the colored people of St.
Petersburg. AS the Woman's club
Of that city had already engaged in
work along tubercular lines, a visit
was made to it's President with the
proposition that the Club assume this
work, taking over the little house as
the beginning of Tubercular Home,
and engaging the nurse referred to