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Q. Mrs. Lincoln was with the women then and brought them there?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Now, Mr. Galvin, you have had a good deal of experience and you are probably a good judge of food which is proper for those people. Some criticism has been made in regard to the food which they received. Will you tell us whether, during your administration, you have had proper food to give to these poor people?

A. I think, sir, that the inmates on both Rainsford and Long Islands were the most happy, most comfortable, and best satisfied people of any institutions in Massachusetts — I don't except any ; and although the soup was criticised, I live pretty well myself, and I have for the last fifty years, and I couldn't get as good soup at the Parker House any day or any time I go there as they do; and to let you know the truth of that the officers on many occasions called for the inmates' soup.

Q. Well, now, was that the invariable rule during your superintendency of these two islands?

A. That was my rule, sir, and I didn't trust to anybody. There never was a meal there, sir, while I was at home, on Long or Rainsford Islands but what I went around when they were serving their dinners and saw that every prisoner was treated alike. I made that a speciality to go around twice to the dinner tables. Q. Then you made it your rule to give personal superintendence. to those matters.

A. I did, sir. I didn't trust to anybody. If there were any mistakes they were corrected immediately. Didn't have to go further; didn't have to go to the Commissioners.

Q. Now, it has been said here that they don't get enough to eat; that you used to make paupers go out to work on an empty stomach or with insufficient food?

A. They never went to work until seven o'clock, and we had our breakfast at half-past six, and they never found fault with their meals either at the breakfast, dinner, or supper table. The men are not expected, nor it is not required, that they will work so hard as hired men. I always felt perfectly satisfied when I got four of those men to do a day's work. I felt perfectly satisfied with that.

Q. Well, did you ever have any trouble getting them to work? A. Never a particle, getting those men to work. They were willing and cheerful.

Q. You always got along well with the inmates?

A. Never had any trouble with them, sir; never had a particle of trouble.

Q. Did you ever cut down the quantity of the food?

A. No, sir; but I added to the quantity of food when extra people came in.

Q. You gave them enough always?

A. I always gave them enough. If they ate what was served once and wanted to have more they had it again.

Q. (By Ald. BARRY.) Right here - supposing a pauper came

to you after eating dinner or any meal through the day and stated to you that he was hungry. What would you do in that case?

A. There was never a case of that kind, sir. I don't know how I would act.

Q. And there never was any such case?

A. Never was.

Q. In other words, you gave them sufficient?

A. Sufficient for any reasonable man to live upon and do a reasonable share of work.

Q. (By Ald. LEE.) Well, you don't mean to say that you don't know how you would act? You know how you would act if a complaint of that kind were made to you?

A. If I thought the man was truthful I would act very well indeed, very well.

Q. That is, give him another ration?

A. Yes, sir. I made it a rule that no one should go hungry, even if it was a committee of the Board of Aldermen that was down there.

Ald. LEE. That is right; I agree with you.

Q. (By Mr. REED.) Now, what is the rule, Mr. Galvin, at Rainsford, you give them plenty to eat over at Rainsford now? A. Yes, sir; have all they can eat.

Q. Now, Mr. Galvin, I wish you would tell us whether you have made any changes in this respect from the time you were superintendent at both islands? Do you treat them any better now than then?

A. I treat them just the same, sir, exactly.

Q. Well, is the food the same?

A. Just the same, sir.

Q. You have the same quality of meat?

A. Yes, the quality of meat is good.

Q. Now, what is the method of getting these supplies? When you want any meat what do you do?

A. There is a contract made every season for our meats. Then the superintendent orders what he wants on certain days, to be continued until further orders.

Q. Then the contract is made at the beginning of the year for

the year?

it?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And the prices fixed?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And the quality specified and determined?

A. Yes, sir; that is done by the Commissioners.

Q. And when you want any meat you know where to send for

A. Yes, sir.

Q. You know what kind you are going to get and what is going to be paid for it?

4. Yes, sir.

Q. Now, if the meat comes and is not up to the specifications, what do you do?

A. I never received any of that kind. During the nearly nine

years I have been on both islands I never received a poor parcel

of meat never did.

Q. (By Ald. BARRY.) Right there

what do you mean by that? You say you never received any,— you mean that you sent it back because you wouldn't use it?

A. No, sir; I wouldn't use it. I never did.

Q.

(By Mr. REED.) Well, you know, Mr. Galvin, what kind of meat is specified, and you see that you get that kind?

A. Yes, sir; that is it, and see that I get the number of pounds. When it gets there I have the meat weighed there to see that it corresponds to a T.

Q. And so it is with all the food, is it?

A. I received a poor lot of fish once, and I didn't use it. I sent it to the pig-pen. That is the only poor lot of fish I ever

received.

Q. You sent that back, did you?

A. No, sir; I didn't know it in time, before the boat left, and it was at the season of the year when it wouldn't keep, and so I sent it to the pig-pen.

Q. Didn't use it?

A. No, sir; only for the pigs. I considered that using it to good advantage.

Q. Now, you buy your fish, meat, potatoes, and everything at specified places?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And of specified quality?

A. Well, I have got nothing to do with that; the superintendent has nothing to do with the potatoes or anything of the kind whatever. Those things and the medicine and everything else are supplied by the Commissioners.

Q. Excepting that you see that you get what is good?

A. That is it.

Q. Now, when you were at Long Island you had three rooms on the top story of the institution building, did you not; the big brick building?

A. Yes, sir; that is correct.

Q. Three rooms, and above those rooms was an attic?

A. A large attic.

Q. And the two wards in the front of the building had some method of ventilation, I presume?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did they not?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do you remember how that was?

A. There were two rooms that were ventilated in the attic, and what is now the nursery, I think, had three ventilators going through the roof, - two or three, I am not positive. There were two certain that went through the roof.

Q. That is, in what is now used as the nursery?

A. I think so, sir.

Q. Well, in your time that room was ventilated by at least two ventilators?

A. Yes, sir; that went out through the roof.

Q. Went through the ceiling and out through the roof to the open air?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Positive about that?

A. I am certain of it, sir; and then the attic was a very large one, with numerous windows, and I always had those windows open when the weather would permit.

Q. Then you say the two rooms on the front of the building also had ventilation through the ceiling?

A. Those rooms were ventilated; yes, sir. They had ventila

tion.

Q. Where did those ventilators go to?

A. Into the attic.

Q. And the attic had windows?

A. The attic had lots of windows, which were opened every day when the weather permitted, by my orders.

Q. So if you wanted those windows open it was possible to get ventilation to the outside air?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And you ordered them opened every day?

A. Yes, sir; when the weather was suitable.

Q. And they were opened?

A. Yes, sir; I was always up there to see that my orders were carried out; always went through the hospital once or twice a day.

Q. Was the hospital up there?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And you went up there at least once a day?

A. Once or twice a day. If any complaints were made by the inmates to me I would rectify it immediately.

Q. How long did you spend each day over on Long Island? A. I left Rainsford Island at half-past six in the morning, got there about seven, and then left Long Island about half-past three.

Q. In the afternoon?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And you had a deputy, I suppose, on Long Island?

A. Yes, sir; a deputy on Long Island, and a deputy on Rainsford Island.

Q. Well, Mr. Galvin, if anybody should tell you that there weren't any ventilators in those rooms when you were superintendent there, what would you say that you were mistaken or they?

1. I presume they talk as I do when they tell a lie. That is about as plain as I can put it. I don't tell a great many.

Q. It isn't possible, then, that you can be mistaken about that?

A. I am not mistaken about it, sir.

Q. In 1891, Mr. Galvin, I understand that certain charges were made against the management of your island there, of something which had been done either at Long or Rainsford

Do you have any recollec

Island, before the Commissioners.

tion of that?

A. What is that, sir?

Q. Do you have any recollection of any charges being made before the Commissioners against your institution down there in 1891, to which you made a reply?

A. I think there were some charges made by Mrs. Lincoln, if I don't make a mistake.

Q. Well, you made a reply to them at the time, did you not? A. Not on that day. Mrs. Lincoln would not allow me to be in the presence of the company there, settling these charges, so consequently I wasn't there and didn't answer the charges until a future day.

Q. Well, then you went up before the Commissioners, or you were there?

A. I was there; yes, sir.

Q. On the day Mrs. Lincoln made those charges?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. But upon her objection you were excluded?

A. I was, sir.

Q. And you were not allowed to listen to those charges at that time?

A. No, sir; I was not.

Q. But subsequently you made a reply to them, did you not? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Then you know what the complaints were and you investigated them?

A. I did, sir.

Q. And you arrived at certain conclusions?

Mr. Curtis has

A. I did, sir; and I guess the Commissioners it in his possession now, my answer, if I don't make a mistake. Q. You did not agree with the facts then as they stated them? 4. I couldn't agree with them, because they were all false. Q. They were all false and of course you wouldn't agree with them?

A. I didn't agree with them, of course; no,
no, sir.

Q. But in your reply you stated the facts as they were?
A. As well as I knew how; yes, sir.

Mr. REED. I won't ask you any more questions about that, Mr. Galvin, because the committee have those documents, and I believe that at a former hearing they decided that they would take the documents for their own information, but would not make them public; so that I don't feel at liberty to ask you any more questions about it. We, of course, are willing, Mr. Chairman, to put those documents in if the committee want them; but we do not wish to make any suggestion that is not perfectly right and proper.

Ald. LOMASNEY. Mr. Chairman, I move that they be put in. I move they be put in, if they want it.

(The committee consulted together, and, finding that at a former hearing they had voted not to make the documents public, it was decided not to do so for the present.)

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