STATISTICS OF INSANE HOSPITALS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1860. There are also County Hospitals for the insane at Albany, Canandaigua, Troy, and asylums at Dorchester and Pepperell, Mass., Litchfield, Conn., Flushing, etc. Buffalo, NY, an Insane Hospital for Emigrants, just opened, on Ward's Island, N. Y., and private No report. † Just opened, or nearly ready for patients. type, assuming oftener the violent form; while in Europe, the pauper insane, who form the largest portion of those afflicted, have usually become so under the influence of insufficient food and depressing circumstances, and are melancholy and dejected, rather than violent. The preceding table, prepared with great care, exhibits the condition and success of nearly all the public insane hospitals of the United States, up to January, 1860, though a few of the returns of the remoter institutions are of the previous year. CHAPTER III. THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. In every large community there is, of necessity, a dependent class, to be in some way provided for; their poverty and helplessness may proceed from the loss of their protectors, the husband or parents, at a time when they were unable to provide for themselves; from sickness; from mental or physical incapacity for self-support; from lack of employment; or from intemperance and vicious indulgence. well as the authorities who take charge of it, vary in different sections of the country. In New England, where the town was an older political organization than the county, province, or state, the legal care of the poor has always devolved upon the first town officer, or selectman, as he is usually called. To him all applications for assistance are made, and after the necessary examination into their condition and necessities, relief is furnished, to a limited extent, from the town treasury. Those needing only temporary assistance receive small sums, and are encouraged to struggle on at their homes; those wholly dependent are provided for, in the smaller towns, by contract with some citizen, who for a stipulated sum agrees to provide them with food, clothing, and shelter, employing such of them as are able to perform some labor, in such work as their health or want of skill will permit. In the larger towns, this class are received into almshouses, to which often a farm is attached, much of the lighter labor of which is performed by the paupers. Paupers of foreign birth, who have never gained a residence in any town, as well as vagrants who have no fixed abiding place, are sent to a state almshouse, or placed in charge of a Whichever of these causes may have in-state contractor for the poor. duced this state of dependence, it is a recognized duty in all civilized communities to diminish, and so far as possible prevent, extreme suffering on the part of those thus helpless. The methods of accomplishing this result are of necessity various. All who need, at times, pecuniary aid, are not paupers; and to treat them as such would not only wound and distress them needlessly, but would in the end produce a demoralization and indisposition to exertion which would throw an intolerable burden on the tax-paying class, who would be compelled to support them. In the middle and western states, the assistance to the poor and the support of paupers are a county charge, and are under the control of supervisors elected by the voters of the county. Those entirely dependent are usually quartered in a county almshouse, and, where practicable, employed in light labor. In the Southern states, with a milder climate and a sparser population, there is less occa sion for definite preparation for the wants of a pauper class, especially as a very considerable portion of those who would elsewhere be dependent upon the public are, from the peculiar constitution of their institutions, cared for, when infirm, sick, or disabled, by their masters. Hence, except in the cities and large towns of the South, there has been no well-defined provision for paupers. It was the recognition of this truth which led very early to the organization of asylums, dispensaries, and relief societies for the orphan and the widow (especially those of certain classes), the aged and infirm, and the sick. At the close of the Revolution, there was It led also to the administration of private a vast amount of poverty and suffering, the charities, which, although sometimes inju- result of the prostration of commerce, the dicious, was prompted by the most humane ravages of war, the loss of the productive inmotives. It also led to the distinction be-dustry of so large a number of able-bodied men tween the out-door poor and the pauper, which is commonly established in our large towns. The methods of providing for the poor, as for several successive years, and the complete and ruinous depreciation of the continental currency. From this condition, however, under the stimulus of an activo and prosper ous trade and commerce, the country soon rallied, and though the war of 1812 brought much privation and loss of property, yet the constant westward emigration, and the enterprise of the people, kept the pauper population within narrow limits. The poor were mostly natives of the country, and the ties of kindred were strong enough to prevent the burden of their support from pressing heavily on the public treasury. tax, which was raised to three dollars, and they were required to establish hospitals, almshouses, etc., and to assume the entire responsibility for the pauperism of emigrants for five years after their arrival. with insufficient means, their manners, customs, and language diverse from ours, and the climate, under their privations, proving far more severe than that of their native country, sunk down into a hopeless and despondent pauperism almost immediately on their arrival. With the intent of obviating this influx of foreign pauperism, stringent laws were passed by the states having extensive commercial relations with Europe, proIn the larger towns, and especially in the hibiting the reception, by captains of emiseaports, where there was the largest influx grant ships, of pauper emigrants, and a tax of persons of foreign birth, and of families of two dollars per head required of all emireduced to poverty through the vicissitudes grants arriving at the principal ports, or a of a seafaring life, there were benevolent so- bond by the ship-owners to the state that cieties, some of them dating back almost to they should not become chargeable to the the revolutionary period, of the different na-state within three years. These laws were so tionalities, which bestowed aid on their own constantly evaded, and the pressure of foreign countrymen, and marine societies (that of pauperism in consequence became so severe New York founded as early as 1770) to pro- in New York, the great port of entry for emivide for the widows and orphans of seamen. grant ships, that a modification became necThere were also one or two dispensaries in essary, and a board of Commissioners of Emithe larger towns, for providing medical at-gration was appointed to receive the emigrant tendance and promoting vaccination among the poor. Between 1800 and 1830, relief societies, some of them connected with particular trades or professions, such as the tailors', house-builders', firemen's, etc., some composed of persons of particular nationalities, as the Germans, Irish, etc., and others of a more general character, like the Ma- Notwithstanding these efforts to restrain sonic,Odd Fellows', and Temperance Lodges, within due metes and bounds the influx of were organized, having for their object the foreign pauperism, and prevent its becoming care of the sick, and provision for the wid-chargeable upon our own citizens, its inows and orphans of their members. The crease in New York, Massachusetts, and New York Hospital opened in 1792, the Pennsylvania, has been such as to create no City Hospital at Bellevue, the New York small degree of alarm on the part of the taxEye and Ear Infirmary founded in 1820, the payers. The state of New York alone had, City Dispensary founded in 1791, the North- in 1865, 278,558 town and county paupers, ern Dispensary founded in 1827, and the Ly-beside 227,049 temporarily relieved. The ing-in Asylum founded in 1824, afforded the expense was $3,110,255. This is 7.4 per necessary medical treatment to those who were without means to pay for the attendance of a physician. Soon after 1830, how ever, the tide of European emigration began to set westward, and with each successive year, larger and still larger numbers of emigrants, at first mainly from Ireland, but subsequently in quite as large numbers from the German states, began to pour in upon us. Many of these possessed a small amount of money, and others, stout and able-bodied, found ready employment at remunerative wages, and provided well for themselves and families. No inconsiderable portion, however, had either been paupers at home, or coming here Measures nearly as stringent were adopted by Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. cent. of her population, or nearly one pauper for every 13 persons. This proportion is about eight times that of Ireland, and more than double that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and formidable as it is, it does not include any of those under the care of the Commissioners of Emigration. Of this number, more than 75 per cent. are either of foreign birth or the children of foreigners. In New York city the proportion of foreigners exceeds eighty per cent. These statistics, however, by no means tell the whole story in regard to the dependent poor of the great cities. Large numbers, who are unwilling to be enrolled on the city or county records as paupers, are still dependent for a considerable share of their support, especially during the winter months, on private charity, bestowed either through the churches with which they are connected or some of the societies or associations devoted to the relief of the poor. These organizations have greatly increased within the past twenty years, in all our large cities, and though varied in their specific purposes, they all have the general object of ameliorating the condition of the poor. For the sick poor, hospitals, dispensaries, and infirmaries have been greatly multiplied; for the aged and infirm and for very young children, homes and nurseries have been established; for widows and orphans, widows' societies, assistance societies, and orphan asylums; for the disabled, relief societies; for youthful offenders or the morally endangered, asylums, houses of reformation, houses of industry, children's aid societies, and "missions;" for the intemperate poor, inebriates' homes and Samaritan homes; and for the poor in general, associations for improving the condition of the poor, provident societies, soup houses, etc., etc. In addition to these, very large sums in the aggregate are bestowed by the benevolent in private charity to the poor and suffering, and sums almost as large in contributions to the importunate mendicant, by those who give from impulse and a naturally generous disposition. The great increase of mendicancy, and the annoying importunity of the beggars who preferred a living obtained in that way to one acquired by honest toil, led to the formation of a class of organizations now existing in most of the large cities in the country, but originating in the city of New York. In different cities different names for these organizations have been adopted, but their general purpose is the same. "The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor," was not only the first but has been the most efficient in its action. Its purposes, and those of its kindred associations, of which there are now thirteen in as many of our large cities, are, "to discountenance indiscriminate almsgiving and put an end to street begging and vagrancy; to visit the poor at their dwellings, and extend to them appropriate relief; and through the friendly intercourse of visitors to inculcate among them habits of frugality, temperance, industry, and self-dependence." Each city, where one of these associations exists, is divided into districts, which are again divided into sections (New York has almost four hundred of these sections), to each of which a visitor is appointed, who takes upon himself, without compensation, the entire oversight of the poor of his section, visiting them, ascertaining their situation, their resources, if any, their just claims upon any other organization for relief, and where necessary, rendering them such assistance as will enable them to subsist until they can obtain work or aid from quarters where they have a claim for it, or if they need assistance, bestowing it in such a way as not to destroy their desire for self-dependence or injure their self-respect. To check street begging, every member (and any person contributing to the funds of the association is a member) is furnished with printed cards and a directory showing the residence of the visitors and the section which they have in charge, and when a beg gar applies for charity, the member inquires his residence, and instead of giving him money, gives him a card with the address of the visitor upon it, and directs him to call upon that visitor, who will investigate his case, and if proper, render him aid. These associations have also been active in promoting sanitary reforms, encouraging the erection of well-arranged tenement houses, in preventing truancy, in aiding in the forma tion of temperance societies, in promoting the establishment of dispensaries and houses of reformation, and in diffusing, by means of tracts and handbills, information among the poor on the subject of cleanliness, ventilation, and household economy. Ignorance, intemperance, licentious indulgence, the congregation of such large numbers in filthy, ill-arranged, and ill ventilated tenement houses, and disregard of sanitary laws generally, are the causes of more than four fifths of the pauperism of our great cities, and it is only by removing these causes that an considerable diminution in the number of paupers can be expected. The small dependent class whose poverty is not traceable to either of these, can readily be provided for; but the terrible burden of taxation to maintain those who are paupers from their own fault or that of their parents, renders it certain that there must be, ere long, carefully considered, but stringent legislation to prevent the evils which inflict such a burden on the industry of our people. |