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Boston's Pauper Institutions

Creator: William I. Cole (author)
Date: April 1898
Publication: The New England Magazine
Source: Available at selected libraries

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"Any person admitted to any almshouse of this city shall be so admitted only upon signing an agreement that he will remain in the house to which he will be sent until the last Saturday of the month next succeeding his admission, and, if he does not apply for his discharge at least five days prior to said last Saturday, that he will remain until the last Saturday of the month in which he shall so apply, unless sooner released by order of the Commissioner; and that he will comply with all the regulations of the house, and the directions of the officers thereof."

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While this rule regulates to some extent the going and coming, it does not prevent an exodus from the island from the first signs of spring to midsummer and a return procession after the early frosts. As has been pointed out, the number of male inmates outside the hospital is much more variable than that of the female, being in summer about half what it is in winter, while the number of the latter is quite uniform the year round. The men and women at Long Island occupy different buildings, and, of course, different wards in the hospital; but they attend chapel together, the men sitting on one side and the women on the other, and come into contact with one another in the common laundry and on the grounds. One of the rules of the Island forbids communication, either written or oral, between male and female inmates, except by permission of the superintendent. Another rule aims to prevent any unnecessary meeting of the two sexes on the grounds. It reads "Male inmates are positively forbidden, except on business, to walk or loiter on that portion of the island lying east of the male institution building; females, that portion of the island lying west of the female building."

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With the exception of this imperfect separation of the sexes, there is practically no classification aside from what is made by physical condition which may place inmates in the hospital or infirmary. Women with infants, however, have a dormitory of their own in the women's building. In the institution dining room also some attempt is made to have the older men sit on one side of a low screen running down the length of the room and the younger men on the other side. The reason for such division is not apparent.

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Those of the same sex intermingle with little or no restraint. The male paupers have a common meeting place in "loafers hall," where they play cards, read and smoke; the female paupers, in the central hall, or day room, of their building, in which they sew, read and doze, sitting in rows on high-backed settles. If the inmates of either building wish to be more by themselves, they can withdraw to their dormitories. In the summer time they sit out of doors when the weather is fine.

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In addition to being well housed, the inmates at Long Island are well clothed and fed. None are allowed to use during their stay any of the garments that they brought with them, but on arrival are comfortably fitted out with wearing apparel, while their own clothes are taken to be cleansed, repaired, and put away for them until such time as they depart.

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In the system of discipline moral persuasion of necessity very largely takes the place of punishment. But deprivation of privileges may be used as a means of punishment, and, in cases of flagrant disobedience, solitary confinement. The privilege that is most commonly and effectively cut off in the case of the men is the weekly ration of one-third of a pound of tobacco. The solitary cells were used but 6o times last year, 23 coming in the first two months.

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Those of the inmates who are able to work are given employment of some kind. Besides performing domestic duties of every sort, they work in the laundry and sewing rooms, and the men in the carpentry shop, about the grounds and on the farm. None of them are paid for their services, who are not required in or about the An idea of the work accomplished by them along certain lines will be conveyed by a few figures. In the sewing rooms, in 1897,the repairing for the entire institution was done and the following articles, among others, manufactured: Aprons, 1,412, bedticks, 105; dresses, 891; night 492; night caps, 362; petticoats, 993; pillow-slips, 850; shoulder shawls, 378; sheets, 1,227; towels, 729; and shrouds, 43.

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There were raised on the farm during the same year all the vegetables used by the almshouse, except potatoes, together with hundreds of plants for decorating the grounds, and large quantities of pork and milk.

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But all the able bodied are by no means fully occupied, especially in winter, on account of what may be called the institution's deficient industrial equipment. The sewing rooms, for instance, have fewer machines than could be used. "With more machines," a former superintendent says in his report for 1896, the men's outside clothing could be made, and the expense saved of having it made at Deer Island." There is, to be sure, the large farm; but unfortunately this cannot be cultivated during the season when the number of men is the greatest. With the exception of the sewing rooms with their limited capacity, and the farm, which can be worked only a part of the year, there are no means of utilizing the labor of those buildings or on the grounds. Many therefore have little to do, less perhaps than would be good for them. There is, of course, a very large number of those unable to work and hence condemned to pass their time in absolute idleness. But this number could be reduced undoubtedly by more varied means of employment, and many be made the happier for having something to do.

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