THE STATE WORKHOUSE.

THE STATE WORKHOUSE AT BRIDGEWATER.

NAHUM LEONARD, JR., Superintendent.

This workhouse (opened in 1866 in the old almshouse buildings) was designed to stand intermediate between an almshouse and a prison; and such a place it still holds. But the law of 1866, creating special courts for the sentence of inmates to Bridgewater, was finally repealed in 1879; so that it is no longer feasible to transfer from Tewksbury to Bridgewater, under a sentence, the vicious poor who are first received in the State Almshouse, and with whom the State Workhouse was filled from 1867 to 1878. Under the modified settlement laws, many persons of this class are no longer sent to the State Almshouse, but provided for by the cities and towns. The local courts send some of the vicious poor to Bridgewater; and such commitments, and those under the Tramp Law of 1880, now supply the State Workhouse with its small number of prisoners. Occasional transfers of paupers from Tewksbury are made; such persons being sent as almshouse inmates, and not under sentence. The Tramp Act has not had the effect of increasing materially the number at the workhouse, as was expected; and it has been found expedient, for two years past, to send to Bridgewater a large number of the men, partially able-bodied, who apply for aid in Boston at this winter season. The experiment was made, in the spring of 1882, of sending to Bridgewater the women with infant children, or soon to be confined, who had previously been sent to Tewksbury; but the appearance in the Bridgewater establishment of a dangerous disease (puerperal fever), caused this practice to be discontinued, and the greater number of such women, with their infants, have been received at Tewksbury.

We have elsewhere suggested as an alternative the use of the buildings at Bridgewater for the chronic and harmless insane of the cities and towns, in order to relieve the crowded hospitals at Taunton and Danvers. It may be thought, however, inexpedient to give up Bridgewater as a resource, in the crowded condition of the State Almshouse, or to dis

THE STATE WORKHOUSE.

continue the use of the State Workhouse for the imprisonment of the vicious poor.

If the legislature will adopt some other measure for giving the chronic insane an asylum, or if the cities of large population would themselves provide for their chronic insane, as we have already suggested, then the buildings at Bridgewater might continue to be used as they have been for a few years past. But in that case, the number of inmates should be kept up beyond the practice of the last year, unless the annual appropriation for the Bridgewater establishment is to be considerably diminished.

THE DIVISION OF THE STATE POOR.

III. THE OUT-DOOR POOR OF THE STATE.

The origin of the State almshouses, and of the compromise between the larger and the smaller towns, which led to their establishment, has been already explained. Among these almshouses was the so-called hospital at Rainsford Island, to which, from 1854 to 1866, many of the sick State poor were sent for treatment. During those years, though the State almshouses were kept full, and carried on at an aggregate cost of $150,000 a year, the cities and towns after a time still relieved at home a majority of the State paupers found therein. To reduce this burden, overseers of the poor would send to Rainsford or to the State almshouses persons dangerously sick, or even dying. This practice, together with the risk of spreading infectious disease thereby, caused the legislature of 1865 to enact the sick-poor law of that year, which is a continuation of the old compromise. The State agreed to give back to the towns, for the care of its sick poor, just what it had cost on the average for similar cases in its own hospital at Rainsford. Before this Act of 1865, the towns received nothing for the State poor aided at home; now they receive, in most cases where the sick are relieved without going to a State almshouse, nearly the whole cost of such relief. The average expense at Rainsford, during its whole continuance as a hospital, was about three dollars a week; but in the most costly year the expense rose to six dollars a week in cases of recovery, and ten dollars in fatal cases; which sums have therefore been adopted for seventeen years as the maximum rates allowed to the cities and towns for the support of State paupers under the sick-poor law. Most cases are supported at much lower rates; and hundreds of the State poor, not too sick to be carried to the remaining State almshouse at Tewksbury, are sent in every year from the cities and towns. The other State almshouses have

THE SICK STATE POOR.

been changed by law into the State Workhouse at Bridgewater, and the State Primary School at Monson, while the hospital at Rainsford was closed sixteen years ago. A few State paupers are still maintained at Bridgewater and Monson; and during the winter the number of State paupers temporarily supported in the almshouse department of the State Workhouse sometimes rises to several hundred. But the number of the State poor who, previous to 1865, would have gone to one of the State almshouses, and who are now supported or temporarily aided under the sick-poor law and the temporary aid act of 1877, is greater than the whole number of annual admissions at Tewksbury and Bridgewater. Some account of the disposal of these numerous cases of out-door relief has already been given.

The number of families applying for relief under the sickpoor law, for the year ending September 30, 1882, was 2,664, covering 8,211 individuals, of whom 2,960 were sick. They were resident in 176 cities and towns, representing every county in the State except Nantucket. Besides these, there were 1,320 notices from the Boston City Hospital, representing 1,320 sick persons; thus making in all 3,984 notices, covering 9,531 individuals and 4,280 sick persons, who received 7,824 visits from the officers of the department. The history and condition of each family have been closely investigated, and the results put on permanent record. For the support of this class the legislature appropriated $27,000 for the period covered by this report, being an average grant of $10.14 for each family applying, and $9.12 for each sick claimant outside of the City Hospital. The number of bills thus far presented for 3,984 cases is 1,547, with a claim of $30,181.56, of which 514 have been audited. The claim on these 514 was $9,153.04, or an average of $17.81 each; while the allowance was $6,136.27, or $11.23 each, the average allowance thus exceeding the average grant by $1.11. The deduction of $3,018.77 is due to settlements found for 21 families, covering 47 persons, and to illegal action or excessive outlay by the local authorities.

One thousand and sixty-five bills, amounting to $23,603.66,

OUT-DOOR RELIEF BY THE STATE.

awaited audit, and 2,405 bills had not been presented on the 1st of October, 1882; but many of these have since been audited. As most of the claims are not forwarded during the year in which they accrued, the labor of auditing is confined mainly to the accounts of previous years.

The total audit for the sick State poor from October 1, 1881, to September 30, 1882, was as follows:

The portion of the cost of the Out-door Department properly assignable to the sick poor was $9,000, out of an appropriation of $17,000 for the whole department. Some delay in auditing the bills for the sick State poor is unavoidable, for two reasons: (1) This Board is authorized to reimburse the towns for State paupers only; if there is any doubt, it must first be removed; (2) Because every resident of Massachusetts has the right to gain a "settlement;" the poor cannot pay for legal advice, and the official power of the overseers may be used to prevent a "settlement."

It is better, then, that a bill should wait a long time than that a poor man or a helpless widow should be deprived of a settlement to which they are entitled.

TEMPORARY AID UNDER THE LAW OF 1877.

The same remarks apply to cases arising under the Act of 1877, but these are less numerous, and for some years have been diminishing; so that the appropriation under this law has been several times drawn upon for the support of foundlings and other purposes for which existing appropriations were not sufficient. At first some question arose as to the amount of relief needed in ordinary cases; but an inspection of the bills under this law, for the last three years, proves clearly that the average judgment of the overseers of the poor throughout the State has determined that from $6 to $8 for four weeks is the sum necessary, in ordinary circum