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Q. Well, they ought to be discovered. Now, will you tell us all about that case?

A.

Q.

Well, I think that is about the whole of it.

How long was he kept in the hospital?

A. The boy was in my school. was subject to fits, I think.

He was below par and knew very little — He couldn't learn anything. Mr. Hickey made a complaint to me that there were such things going on in my school, said the boys told him so. I told him I thought it was his place to come to me instead of to the boys. I told him there was nothing of the kind going on in my school. He said he understood it was so and he should punish it. I told him he had no right to, the boy's case belonged to the doctor. I think it did. And was the boy so punished and sent to the hospital?

Q.

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Well, that was the understanding there.

How long did the boy remain in the hospital?

I don't know, sir. He was up there awhile.
Was he then sent back to you?

No, sir; he was discharged.

Did be leave or die?

I don't know, sir. I understood he was discharged on the doctor's recommend.

And later on you will find, if you will scan this testimony closely, that Officer Averill was sitting in one of the rooms of the House of Reformation one day, whether asleep or awake I cannot tell you, when ten or twelve boys entered and as they seemed noisy and disorderly he drew his revolver and fired two shots at them. Of course they scattered and fled and the bullets afterwards were found in the casement of the door. Fortunately he did not strike any of them.

I now come to the matter of clubbing and stringing men up, in the testimony of Mr. Greaton, on page 1956:

Q. Now, you don't know anything in regard to the punishments inflicted down there, do you?

A. I have seen some of the punishments; yes, sir.

2.

Well, any punishments out of the way, extreme or cruel?

A.

Q.

I recall one instance where I don't think it was just right.
What was it?

A.

Where a man was tied up in the bath-room at night, and when he would call for water the superintendent would tell him, "Well, I will take a drink for you myself."

Q.
A.

What?

"I will take a drink myself." In that case I don't think it was right. He would walk to the icewater and take a drink himself several times, when the man called for water.

Q.

A.

How long was the man tied up?

He was tied up and the superintendent remained there until 12 o'clock that night.

You will remember that case, where the man was handcuffed by the wrist and a rope placed over and thrown over the steam-pipe, where he was tied up there, the superintendent staying there for several hours, and when he would ask for a drink of water the superintendent would refuse to give it to him, but would say, 'I will take a drink myself," and where the superintendent remained with him until 12 o'clock, and he was then left in charge of another officer and kept in that position the whole night. If that testimony be false, nobody has denied it, and we take it to be true.

Then on page 1680, speaking in regard to stringing up prisoners, we have the following testimony:

Q. In regard to stringing up prisoners if you have any knowledge of that will you please tell us what you saw?

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

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I saw the prisoners strung up there, several of them. Q. And how long were they strung up?

A.

A.

Until they about fainted.

Some of them did faint.

Q. Well, was the punishment cruel, brutal? 4. Yes, sir.

Q.

Did anybody protest, except the prisoners? A. Not that I know of.

2. Now, in regard to the ventilation of the House of Industry, did you inspect that at all?

A. I was sent by the superintendent, in absence of the prison officer, into the prison at one time with instructions if I found anything wrong make it right, and I found no ventilation there whatever. The ventilators were completely clogged up with old rubbish. I think I took cut somewhere in the neighborhood of nine barrels of old rubbish, of boots, shirts, stockings, etc. Q. Nine barrels ?

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A. Yes, sir; I found them bed-buggy. On one set of slats that I took out that the prisoners slept on I counted, I think, nearly 200 bed-bugs.

Q. Taken from one?

A.

In a solitary cell. They were all more or less covered with bed-bugs, but not so many on either of the others.

And, on page 1959 the following:

2. Now, were the blankets in those cells ever washed?

A. The blankets, I found them in a bad condition. I couldn't judge when they had been washed.

Q. Were they clean or were they dirty?

A. They were dirty, quite dirty.

Again, upon page 1967, he says he cleaned out the ventilators again after having taken out nine barrels of dirt and rubbish:

Q. Now, in regard to the ventilators, you said you took out nine barrels of rubbish at one time. Did you examine them later on and take out seven barrels more.

A. I did, in the course of two months.

Then there is this testimony on page 1576. We are now dealing with some of the officers in the House of Reformation, where they keep the small boys:

Q. Have you seen those officers under the influence of liquor while on duty?

A. I have seen Mr. Cunningham under the influence of it while on duty. Q. And in the presence of the boys?

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The boys we send down there to be reformed!

Then on page 1627 we have this most significant testimony. Mr. Fulton is testifying, and you will remember that Mr. Fulton at that time, at the time of his testimony, was in charge of the Reform School. He is asked as to the effect of the treatment on the boys, and one of the Aldermen, Alderman Lomasney — put this question to him:

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Q. What other cases have there been down there, what other cases where women prisoners got rowing over the attentions of the officers?

A. Sir?

Q. What other cases have you heard down there where the women prisoners have got jealous of one another over the attention paid them by the officers?

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Don't remember any.

Q. Do you think, Mr. Fulton, that a boy sent to the House of Reformation at eer Island is reformed or is to any degree better and is taught better things at Deer Island then he would be if he were around the streets?

4. 1 told you before that in some instances I thought he was improved and in some the reverse.

2. Well, now, let us try and get as near as you can give it the percentage. About how many boys should you think, how many boys out of a hundred, do you think confinement at the House of Reformation benefits? A. I think it is all beneficial except the association. If a good boy goes there his association is very bad.

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And he becomes worse is that it?

Well, he may learn some bad he didn't know before education that he wouldn't get elsewhere.

gets some good Q. Well, outside the educational advantages, are his morals improved any? A. Not unless he is a very bad boy, I don't think.

Now, think of that, gentlemen! A boy is sent down to the House of Reformation, deprived of his liberty and sent down there in order to fit him for the duties of manhood, to protect him at a time when he cannot protect himself; and this officer in charge of that school, who had been there for many years, states under oath that a boy sent to that place is not improved unless he happens to be a bad boy. That is, a boy is not really a bad boy and happens to get in there he is destroye d. But if a boy is a bad boy, so bad that you cannot make him worse, then the master says he cannot be injured by having him sent there.

Such a state of affairs is something unknown to the ordinary citizens of this Commonwealth.

On page 1549 I desire to call your attention to the testimony of Bernard Scott, and although it will take a few minutes to read it, yet, gentlemen, it is well worth it, because it is the most significant testimony yet given in reference to the results produced by our institutions, the result produced upon a boy of tender years. Just follow the history of this little fellow, and then see whether our institutions reform or turn out young criminals :

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A. My father is, sir.

Q. He is alive?

4. Yes, sir

Q. Oh, yes

live at home?

I have got a stepmother, sir.

you have a stepmother, and your father is alive. Do you

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2. Now, were you sent to the Marcella-street Home at any time.

A. The first time I was sent to the Marcella-street Home was in, I think, the latter

Q. Well, I only want to establish the fact that you were sent there.

A. Yes, sir.

Q. How old were you at that time?

A.

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About eight years old, sir.

Was your mother alive then?
No, sir.

You had a stepmother at that time?
No, sir.

And how long did you remain at the Home about how long?

I remained two years, sir.

Two, was it?

A. Two, sir.

Q. Now, after getting out, what became of you?

A.

Q.

I went to live with this aunt of mine, sir?

And then how long did you remain before getting into some of our institutions?

A. I think about three months, sir.

Q. What became of you then?

A. I was sent to the Marcella-street Home again, sir.

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I was sent on to a farm down in Cape Cod, sir.

Q. Who sent you there oh, you were sent from the Home?

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And were you sent to any of the institutions after that?
Sent to Deer Island, sir.

For what?

Well, the charge was neglected child."

Q. You were sent to the House of Reformatlon, were you?

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Q. As a neglected child about what age were you then?

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How long did you remain in the House of Reformation?
A year, sir.

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A. Yes, sir, I was pardoned at the examination of schools.

2. When you were pardoned, where were you brought? Were you brought up to Boston?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Well, where ?

A.

Went up on the boat and got off and went to Charlestown then, sir. Q. When you got to the wharf, what did you do?

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Q. When you landed, you went about your business?
A. Yes, sir.

Now, mark this, because it is a serious matter. Here is a child of very tender years who was committed to that institution, and who in the eyes of the law was to be in charge of the Commissioners until he reached his majority. They had the power of pardoning him and they resorted to it, but it was their duty, as we contend, to see that he was properly placed and not to let him have his liberty in the way in which he obtained it. That is, he should have been met at the boat and should have been sent to some family, and should not have been allowed to leave the boat and wander about as he pleased. Then I asked him :

Q. Where did you go then?

A. I went over to Charlestown, sir.

Q. And what became of you next-did you get into the institutions. again?

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Q. Ob, you didn't go for the purpose of remaining but six days, did you? A. No, sir.

Q.

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And you left?

I left, sir.

And when you got back to Boston what became of you?

A. Knocked around the city for about three months again, and went

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2. Well, was it to the House of Reformation or the House of Industry? House of Reformation, sir.

A.

Q. And how old were you then, that last time, when you were sent down for larceny ?

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