Curtis would know, and that next morning, about ten minutes before the boat left, he told me that I had better not go. Well, I told him that I was not very anxious to go, but that I didn't want to get into any trouble about it, and he said, “Well, if they need you I will send the police boat down after you."

Q.

A.

Q.

Now, have you told it all?

I don't remember.

I don't know.

Did he send the police boat for you that day? A. No, sir, he didn't.

Q. Cannot you remember anything else that he said to you that day in regard to coming up here?

A. Oh, yes; he talked about the law. He said that even a legislative body could not compel a man to appear when he was summoned, that no one had authority to do that but a judge in court, and even then I could make exthat is, could get a written excuse.

cuses

Q.

A.

Q.

A.

A written excuse?

Yes, sir.

Now, have you stated it all?

I may have.

I don't know. I may have said more or he may have said more; I don't know.

Q. What, if anything, did Dr. Cogswell say to you about the possibility of your testifying that day, if you came up?

A.

He said he didn't think that I would have to testify; that they would not want me at that time; and I think I spoke about that if I was going to testify I should like to be here and hear what was said, and he said that it was to be in print.

Q. Didn't he give you the book to read?

A.

He gave me the book night before last.

Q. Hasn't he supplied you with all the evidence as fast as it has been printed?

A. Yes, sir, he has. Well, I had the papers and the book, of course, night before last; and he told me considerable about it.

Q. Who gave it to you?

A.

Who gave me what?

2. The book.

Q. Now, Dr. Parker, as a matter of fact, wasn't the only reason that D Cogswell gave for requesting you to remain on the island that day was that your presence there was necessary, and that your presence here would not be necessary?

4. That was.

So the statement made by this young man that Dr. Cogswell instructed him not to come to the hearing, while it might be alleged to be correct, was given apparently with the notion that it might prejudice this case against Dr. Cogswell and against these Commissioners. But in crossexamination he was forced to admit that that was not the fact, and it was only in cross-examination that he made that statement.

Now, Dr. Parker testified with respect to fire ladders. He said that the fire ladders came just before he testified. In cross-examination he said two were there before and these came a month or six weeks before, but Dr. Cogswell said that they only bought two, and Chief Egan said he saw nine and that they only needed two, and those were the two that Dr. Cogswell ordered.

Dr. Parker said that the ventilation of the nursery and infirmary wards was only by windows. In cross-examination he said that the infirmary was only ventilated by windows. He didn't know that there were ventilators. There were holes in the ceiling, but he didn't think they extended to the roof that they did not extend to the roof. The evidence is that they did go to the roof, and Dr. Harris said they went to the roof to the extent that snow was coming down through them when he visited the place, and there isn't any claim that there had been any

change in that part of the institution during the pendency of this investigation.

Dr. Parker tried to deceive this committee concerning Herrick's death, for he said at page 452 that a bristle probang- and we have heard a great deal about the bristle probang; I think it is worthy a little of our attention that a bristle probang, if they had had it as a surgical instrument, would have saved Herrick's life by shoving it down his trachea, and that therefore the institution and hospital lacked suitable and proper surgical instrumeuts. He couldn't think of anything else, and so he said a "bristle probang," but Dr. Harris went on the stand, and with all his skill and experience, laughed at the idea of putting a bristle probang down into a man's trachea, and said it would be as fatal a thing as you could do to him. So Dr. Parker comes back on to the witness-stand and shifts the location of his bristle probang from the trachea into the œsophagus, next door, and said that he made a slip of the tongue. But in his direct examination, where he laid the foundation for the statement that Herrick died from the lack of a bristle probang, when he was telling about the shortness of instruments at Long Island, he said that a bristle probang was needed for cleaning out the trachea or wind-pipe. That is at page 447 in the testimony.

Now, Dr. Parker might make a slip of the tongue once. He could slip between the trachea and the oesophagus once, but Dr. Parker is too bright a man to make the same slip twice in the same direction.

So that statement was either the statement of ignorance and I give him credit for more brains than that or it was a statement inspired by gangrened prejudice; and it was not until Dr. Harris had showed us what was the fact, that he felt called upon to remedy a statement which he knew was false and deceptive. But he did not correct himself often enough.

Now, Dr. Parker has made another remarkable statement which I feel called upon to comment upon, and that is his statement with regard to my brother Reed. Dr. Parker does not like Brother Reed. He does not like him because Brother Reed cross-examined him, and he made Dr. Parker, as he thinks, appear more or less ridiculous. He touched that selflove which I do not think is a quality lacking in Dr. Parker's make-up. He was put on the witness-stand and in cross-examination by one of the members of your Board he stated that he had been to the office of Reed & Curtis, that he had talked with Mr. Reed, and he was testifying the day after he said that talk was had. He was asked what the conversation was. He said, “I don't remember," at p. 527, and he said it repeatedly, so that if his tongue did slip into the trachea it didn't make any mistake about the conversation. He reiterated that he did not remember what the talk was at Mr. Reed's. Now, he did or he didn't. If he did remember it he lied; if he didn't remember it his memory is faulty and defective and is not worthy of the slightest trust, for if he cannot remember what happened yesterday how can he testify here and charge people with doing things that are wrong that happened months and months ago? I do not care which horn of the dilemna he impalrs himself upon; whichever way he goes he is impaled just the same.

But after Mr. Reed had opened this case, after he had stated all the things wherein Dr. Parker was in error, either wilfully or otherwise, then of a sudden Dr. Parker sees a great light. Then he experiences a change of heart and an outburst of memory, and he comes forward and says that Mr. Reed told him that there was a majority of Republican Aldermen and that his side of the case had half the Democratic contingent as well. I believe one of the Aldermen referred to the fact that there was an odd number of Democrats, to show that Dr. Parker either was venomous or off on his fractions. But we will let that pass. Dr. Parker felt called upon to state to this committee, as he had done before, things which were not true; and when he made those state

ments about Brother Reed he made them inspired by dislike, and in the face of Mr. Reed's contradiction they fall to the ground.

Moreover, while attempting to make you gentlemen believe that Mr. Reed sent for Dr. Parker, it appears in evidence that Dr. Parker really went to Mr. Reed's office on his own business, to ask Mr. Reed a favor

that Mr. Reed would not bring out the fact that Dr. Parker had given to Mrs. Lincoln a towel, the property of the city of Boston, for the purpose of being used against the city's institutions, and Mr. Reed promised that he would not ask him, and he did not do so until the viper had turned.

That is Dr Parker. I think it was exceedingly fitting that Dr. Parker should testify as near to the time when McCaffrey testified as was possible, and I think it would have been fitting if they had both been allowed to testify simultaneously.

It has been a great opportunity for him. He has now resigned. He has dropped out of the institutions, and he will drop out of this case into that obscurity. I take it, from which he will never emerge.

But before I leave him let me say one thing. At his last appearance he was full of plots and counterplots. He said that Miss McNamara had a plot against him; he said that Mr. Reed had a plot against him; and he said that they had a plot to get him over to Deer Island and do something with him over there. Let me say before I dismiss him, that if Dr. Parker were an inmate of any of our institutions and regaled us in one evening with as many plots as he developed here the other evening, I think any competent physician would put him under observation.

Then we have Mr. Brown, the Health Inspector. He went down on a special occasion at the request of Mrs. Lincoln when the water-pipe had burst, and when things were in a condition at Long Island that, singularly enough, Dr. Fitz said might happen any time at that model institution, the Massachusetts General Hospital. We have not been charged with breaking the pipe, but when they started they charged us with about everything else. But Mr. Brown said that he inquired, and that arrangements had been made for the water-boat to deliver water there the next day; that the difficulty would be overcome until the water main was repaired, and that the rest would be a matter of care simply. So that that matter, which has been commented upon in extenso resolves itself into an accident, and, singularly enough, Mrs. Lincoln got Mr. Brown to go down there very soon after the accidentthat it was to be taken care of the next day, and after that it was simply a question of care.

Now, as I go along I come to the report of Chief Egan. Well, Chief Egan make a report. I suppose he is a sensible man. He said that they had nine ladders and needed two more that they didn't have extinguishers enough, and they were furnished. Chief Egan's recommendations I have very little to say against, but Chief Egan's testimony is exceedingly valuable for one purpose. I was surprised, — I confess that I was surprised, when I heard Chief Egan say that one of the Board of Visitors asked him to make his report as strong as he could. Now, I have noticed in my experience at the bar that if there is any man who can be relied on to tell a thing as it is it is a fireman. If there is any man who, from the nature of his occupation, is compelled to be quick and accurate of observation and hearing, it is a fireman; and particularly a fireman who by his merits has succeeded in pushing himself pretty nearly to the front, and when Chief Egan says that Mr. Ring asked him to make his report as strong as possible against the institution, Mr. Ring's statement that what he said was to make it as soon as possible, is a halting, lame, and impotent conclusion. There was, then- Chief Egan's statement stands - some little venom in this case, some little venom on the part of the Board of Visitors

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against somebody; and from what has been stated here by a number of witnesses I take it that it was directed sometimes at Dr. Cogswell.

Singularly enough Mr. Ring and Dr. Putnam deposited themselves in the same cavity, because Dr. Putnam, after having stated in the Visitors' Report, which he signed, that the hospital failed to cure, when he was faced with statistics which show that it outstrips the model one at Tewksbury, said that that did not properly express his notion that what he meant was that they failed properly to care exceedingly clever. lle and Mr. Ring are both clever in that sort of thing. They travel very close to the line. But he signed the paper saying that the hospital failed to cure, and we drew the inference from that that at the time he signed it he believed what he said. But subsequent events showed me that he had not made the investigation which he was bound to make.

Well, Mr. Brownell saw some bedbugs, so he said, but Mr. Galvin said that Mr. Brownell at that time was very much in love; that he was engaged, and that what he, Brownell, told Mr. Galvin was that he saw the tracks of a bedbug.

Well, do you know, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we have been amazed from the beginning to the end of this case by the amount of criticism that has been made of the fact that there were bedbugs in public institutions?

Mr. RILEY. — That is because you felt guilty.

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair will not permit any interruptions.

Mr. PROCTOR. Those people whom it is so necessary to uplift it must be necessary to uplift from some where. I take it that one of the things from which we all agree that it is a good thing to uplift them is bedbugs. I venture to say that if every bug were dispersed and scattered from the institution at Long Island and from the House of Correction now, it would be very much the same as a distribution of property. If the property of the world were distributed now I suppose before 2 o'clock some people would be richer than others; and I take it that it is very much the same with bedbugs. If you can get all the bedbugs out of the public institutions and do not let in any people who have got them I suppose you can keep the institutions clear; but so long as people carry them about with them I suppose they are going to carry them into the House of Correction and into the Almshouse; and the fact that Mr. Brownell told Mr. Galvin that what he saw was the track of a bedbug seems to dispose of the seriousness of that charge. I am against vermin, but it seems to me from all the evidence we have had in this case that bedbugs are not a serious element in the institutions. Everybody, every one of the officers, does what he can to remove them, and so far as the House of Correction is concerned, I take it that the only effectual way to remove the bedbugs is by applying the torch or dynamite But of that later.

Mr. Hale has testified. Mr. Hale has given us an opinion that he thought people could be employed under the law as it stood. But Mr. Hale is not certain of it, and, as I said before, I do not believe he would stake his professional legal reputation upon it if his clients were to be subjected to civil suits.

The only other people who have testified in regard to Long Island are Mr. Farmer, Mary Moran, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Higgins, and they have criticised the graveyard, I understand that there is no question now that the graveyard is all right at Long Island. They have criticised the records of death, and I understand that that criticism has practically fallen to the ground. The only lack, they say, is of funeral services, and I am sure if funeral services would do anything to alleviate the sorrow or sufferings of the inmates there, to help them in anyway, I should be first to advocate them. I see no reason why they should not have them.

Now, we close our case so far as Long Island and Rainsford Island

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are concerned by referring to the testimony of Doctors Fitz, Richardson, Spring and Harris, for the present management of that institution and its hospital; and it seems to me that you will not pay heed to the claim so often reiterated in cross-examinaton that that institution was specially prepared for the reception of those men. I do not believe that this committee thinks that Dr. Cogswell is capable of any such thing as that, and when they testify that the hospital as they saw it was a good one, with proper nurses and with the proper things to do the work, I say that McCaffrey and Parker are hoist with their own petard.” Moreover, if we go back to 1891, when Mr. John Galvin was superintendent, we find that Dr. McCollom made a report as to Long and Rainsford Islands, which is in evidence, and he says that he found things there all right. And I don't think that this committee will say that Dr. McCollom did not see accurately, or did not report with truth the things he saw. Dr. McCollom said that that was a well managed institution, that it was clean, and that they had the things there which were needed, and it seems to me that Dr. McCollom's reputation, his standing in this town, his eminence in his profession, is more than an answer for any of the attacks that have been made upon his veracity by anybody in this case.

It has been said in your presence that Dr. McCollom committed perjury, by a man who expects himself I don't know as he does expect it, however to be believed by you. But of that I wish to say something hereafter.

That is our case for Long Island. Dr. Cogswell has testified, and, as Mrs. Evans has said, has read a remarkably able paper. He has subjected himself to cross-examinati ›n. You have heard it, you have seen it, you know the man. You know that he is an able man he impresses everybody with that fact and it seems to me that you will believe him. I have known Dr. Cogswell for many years and I have been surprised at the attacks that were made upon him, knowing him as well as I did. The attacks that were made upon him, many of them, it seems to me, were inspired by dislike, inspired in McCaffrey's case, possibly by disappointed ambition, although I do not believe that McCaffrey in his palmiest days could tell the truth for more than ten minutes together.

Now, we come to Deer Island

The commitee, at 12.38 P.M., took a recess until two o'clock P.M., when the argument was resumed.

Mr. PROCTOR. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen. This committee entered upon an investigation of alleged abuses and crimes at the institutions on Deer Island, and to that I will now devote a little of my attention. No written charges were ever filed. We were even left more in the dark in respect to that than we were in respect to the Long Island institutions.

The spirit in which that investigation proceeded, it seems to me, may be well characterized by a little episode in the testimony of Mr. Cook, the butcher, at Deer Island. He was asked in respect to an alleged shortage of beef, and the word "shortage" was iterated and reiterated until it would seem as if there might have been some failure to deliver on one occasion some of the meat which was destined for the Deer Island institutions. But upon investigation and question, it turned out that this alleged shortage arose under the following circumstances: The daily amount of beef required for the Deer Island institutions at that time a year ago last fall- was 1,450 pounds. It was delivered daily on the Bradlee." On one occasion, by an error of those men who had charge of the delivery, or, to speak more in the vernacular, who had charge of putting off the beef at Deer Island, 300 pounds were not put off. One thousand one hundred and fifty pounds were delivered at Deer Island, and when the "Bradlee" arrived at Long Island,