Page images
PDF
EPUB

many ineffectual efforts to find a house that would answer the object without involving costly alterations. Some of us had scruples as to continuing an asylum of this nature without warrant of law, and considering it virtually a branch of the House of Industry, and legitimately belonging to the keeping of the Directors, would have had this effected at once by ordinance. It was also suggested that it should be made an almshouse under the 22d Chapter of the Statutes, and as such remain under the charge of the Overseers. All agreed that the expenses of late had been disproportionate to the benefit received, and should be retrenched.

If abandoned, foundlings must go to the Island, and lose all chance of being adopted; persons found homeless in the streets, males and females, be sent indiscriminately to the stations; and mendicants at our doors craving food, supplicate in vain, or else receive money to be expended in intoxicating drinks, the last resort of the wretched. We cannot recommend this unless some substitute can be devised such as the City Hospital and the Workhouse, which has been so often subject of consideration, may in some degree supply.

In the Hospital will, in all probability, be found accommodation for all suitable cases of childbed. No branch of public charity makes a stronger appeal than this, or assumes a more amiable form. Its dangers involve the lives of both the mother and the child, and to tranquillize the anxieties that disturb the approaching period of maternity by the assurance of scientific care and kind treatment, gives that courage and confidence which are often of themselves safety. If the trustees of the fund, already accumulated for this object, be satisfied that they cannot better promote the purposes of their trust than by supporting beds under its roof, in a ward arranged as their familiarity with this branch of hospital practice suggests, the temporary Home will be so far relieved. Its narrow rooms, noisy neighborhood, and the confusion which must necessarily reign where so many heterogeneous classes of distress are collected, render it wholly unfit for the reception of these delicate cases.

And we are of opinion that here also might in time be removed the nursery of foundlings, and that persons wishing children to adopt, or requiring wet nurses, would quite as readily seek for them in a well ordered public charity, as in the present Home. The institution embracing so many objects, and offering such extensive accommodation, a large amount of capability now seeking in vain for employment, and resting a dead weight upon society, could be realized and turned to

account.

If a workhouse, of which the necessity has long been felt, but for which no one as yet has been able to devise any practical arrangement, should be established for the temporary employment of persons able to work in some humble way for a moderate recompense, there would be sent many whose vices or infirmities or the condition of the times leave no alternative but destitution or public dependence. The object in furnishing work is not the value of the product, but to instil a sense of the relation between labor and bread, discourage indolence, and instruct in handicraft, and in times of prosperity to inspire a wise thrift, a wholesome dread of ever being reduced to picking oakum or breaking stones. Had we such an establishment, the Home which has hitherto economically met the requirements of public and private charity in temporary relief might be dispensed with. But we should hesitate to deprive the community of benefits so thoroughly tested and approved, without first creating some system or institution adequately to supply its place.

Should the Temporary Home be continued, and transferred to the care of the Directors of the Public Institutions, there is reason to fear that it may develop into a larger and more costly institution, for numbers of our poor people who now go to the Island would beg hard to remain under its roof, and the Directors find it difficult in many cases to refuse, even where public policy demanded that they should. Besides, the Board derives its existence from the Statute of 1857, and its powers from that act and numberless others, by which they were granted

by the legislature to the various Boards, to which they have succeeded. The triennial tenure of nine of their number makes the Board very independent of the City Council who, though they pass the annual appropriation, have little control over its distribution or amount. It is a favorite theory of many that all municipal bodies should be directly subordinate and responsible to the central government, and that many of the abuses, which have been said to exist in some of our larger sister cities, would have been avoided had not the creation by the legislatures of independent departments delegated power where there is no oath, supervision, or accountability. What an ordinance creates a subsequent ordinance can abridge or modify, and as so large a number are in favor of the experiment, we append an ordinance drawn by the City Solicitor for the purpose:

CITY OF BOSTON.

IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE.

AN ORDINANCE to establish a Branch of the House of Industry.

Be it ordained by the Aldermen and Common Council of the City of Boston, in City Council assembled, as follows :

SECTION 1. The building on Portland Street in the city of Boston, which is numbered fifty-four in the numbering of said streets, together with the yards and appurtenances of said building, is hereby annexed to and made a part of the House of Industry.

SECT. 2. Said building, its yards and appurtenances, shall be under the care, management, and control of the Board of Directors for Public Institutions, subject to such rules, regulations, and directions as may from time to time be prescribed in relation thereto by the City Council; and the same shall be used and improved for the purpose of affording relief to such persons standing in need thereof; as it may not be expedient to send to Deer Island.

Should the City Council conclude to make such a change in the care and management of the house, we are given to understand by the Board of Overseers of the Poor, who now have it in charge, that they have no wishes of their own as to its future disposition. At their last regular monthly meeting, on the third instant, they passed the following vote:

Whereas the lease of the house in Portland Street, known as the Temporary Home, is about to expire, and it has become a question of expediency whether it is to be continued, as heretofore, under the control and management of this Board, or that it should be transferred to the Board of Directors of Public Institutions; therefore,

Resolved, That while we have carried on that establishment, at the request of the city government, we have endeavored to discharge that duty faithfully, and we feel willing, if desired, to continue the same, but if deemed expedient we should be equally pleased to surrender the control at any time.

Voted, That a copy of this resolve be transmitted to the City Council.

A true copy.

Attest: JAMES PHILLIPS, Secretary. BOSTON, July 3, 1861.

If continued under the charge of the Overseers in its present anomalous form, it is under the control of the City Council, and can be easily modified or its expenses curtailed by a simple order. Increase in wealth and population may furnish at a future day stronger arguments than those now existing for making it an almshouse or workhouse for persons requir ing temporary relief. We should regret any change that would deprive Mr. Hill of a position which has grown out of his own invaluable services and peculiar qualifications, and if reform be needed would seek it by successive steps, feeling our way, rather than venture rashly on any untried experiment. But if Mr. Hill should even cease to conduct the Home some such change in its organization would appear to be unavoidable.

As it may be of advantage to be always prepared for such changes of opinion in the City Council, as would place the establishment legally and permanently under the direction of the Overseers, we have procured the following ordinance, to be drafted by the Solicitor, for its organization as an almshouse under the statute:

CITY OF BOSTON.

IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE.

AN ORDINANCE to establish an Almshouse.

Be it ordained by the Aldermen and Common Council of the City of Boston, in City Council assembled, as follows:

SECTION 1. The building on Portland Street in the city of Boston, which is numbered fifty-four in the numbering of said streets, together with the yards and appurtenances of said building, is hereby made an Almshouse for the city of Boston.

SECT. 2. The said Almshouse shall be under the care, management, and control of the Overseers of the Poor, subject to such rules, regulations, and directions as may from time to time be prescribed in relation thereto by the City Council; and the same shall be used and improved for the purpose of affording relief to such persons standing in need thereof, as it may be expedient not to send to the House of Industry.

Whether continued as it is, or legalized by ordinance, and placed as a branch of the House of Industry, under the Board of Directors, or as an almshouse, under the Overseers, some retrenchments are advisable. It is thought by members of the Board, that the salaries or wages should be reduced, and that it is hardly necessary a horse should be kept at the cost of two hundred and fifty dollars a year. The proprietor of the house offers it now at an annual rent of five hundred dollars, by the month, instead of seven hundred and fifty, as heretofore. Many think it would be best to give up the present plan of finding food for males, while others are of opinion that this part of the management might be modified so as to be greatly economized..

It is of doubtful policy, in our judgment, to provide individuals sent there for food with a diet superior to that of our least affluent classes who earn their subsistence by honest labor. In ordinary times such extreme poverty is evidence of indolence, intemperance, or gross improvidence. If without effort they can be comfortably fed at the public expense, it is offering a direct discouragement to effort. Should a tin can of soup or bread be furnished to such persons as the directors, overseers, police, almoners of private charity, or citizens at large send

« PreviousContinue »