that still are to be found in many of the inmates and are moral rather than physical. To the average inmate of the almshouse the preferred place for lodging is that which is nearest to the dining-room. As other qualities decrease in man selfishness increases, and as the moral sense becomes blunted and dies away the merely animal instincts dominate the individual. Therefore it is not infrequently the case that we find in the almshouse a creature bearing the semblance of a human being who is merely a pushing, grunting swine. But the majority of the inmates are not such. In varied degrees they retain those finer and gentler qualities that distinguish man from the brute, and some of them even in all their adversity retain the impulses and the bearing of ladies and gentlemen. It may seem odd to speak of ladies and gentlemen in the almshouse, but I assure you that I know some that are there whose respect for themselves and consideration for others entitle them to be designated as ladies and gentlemen. It is for these and such as approximate their moral condition that there should be further segregation in the almshouse.

In the approaching consolidation of the public charities of all the boroughs under one Commissioner will be found an opportunity such as has never existed before to further this scheme of segregation. With the Blackwell's Island Almshouse and all its buildings, the Flatbush Almshouse and its various accommodations and the Richmond County Poor Farm there can be such segregation that all the major moral horrors of the almshouse system can be eliminated. The most of the people who are in the almshouse are there for the rest of their lives. They are looking for the comfort not only of surroundings but of companionship. Why should this be denied them? Why should not all the inmates of the almshouse who are not segregated according to their physical condition be segregated according to their moral condition? Why should a person of clean mind be compelled to live the whole remainder of his or her life with a person of

unclean mind? The clean in mind should have as much consideration as the clean in body. Here as elsewhere the clean should be kept from the unclean, and the varying degrees of moral cleanliness should be the basis of segregation. Not only would such an arrangement result in the comfort of the clean, but the influence on the unclean would be to make them less unclean.

Too little attention has been given to this subject heretofore. Too little attention is given to it now. The old people who have to live out their days in the almshouse are entitled to as much consideration as any other class of public dependents. Indeed they are more pitiable. They deserve better treatment than they obtain. They have been too long regarded as unworthy of further consideration than the bare provision of food and lodging and clothing. They are not merely broken down cattle turned out to feed upon the highway of public charity until they die. They are still human beings with dear memories of better days long gone and with sweet hope of better days hereafter. They are entitled to something more than a bath when they come into. the almshouse, a suit of pauper clothes, a bed and a place in the herd at a common table.

For most of the inmates the almshouse is the last stopping place between this world and the next. There is no reason why it should not be made not only as comfortable as possible, but of a character that by elevating and not degrading would make its inmates more fit to take the last step. To-day the chief event in the life of an almshouse inmate is his dinner; the next to that is his breakfast, and next to that is his supper. After that in importance is his pipe of tobacco, and so one day goes on like another day, varied only by the visit of some official of the Department, some agent of private charity or some curiosity seeker.

And yet out of all the low grade of life that is to be encountered in the almshouse there are men and women who are higher and better and who keep themselves higher and better in spite of the debasing influences that surround them. When good and

bad are put together in a limited sphere and there is no outside influence exerted, the bad overcomes the good, in part at least if not altogether. Selfishness is developed until it dominates not only the person that has it but demoralizes other persons brought into contact with it, unless they have some means of getting away from it. In the arrangement of our almshouses to-day there is no escape from selfishness and the immorality that it produces. We give the inmates of the almshouse work according to the extent of their abilities and they perform it cheerfully, but this does not produce the result desired. We must have in the management of our almshouses a system that will protect the good from the bad, that will conserve morality against immorality, that will save the self-respecting from those that have lost self-respect, that will secure something akin to contentment in the deserving and awaken by the contrast of conditions something of pride in the undeserving. We should remember that the people of the alms-. house have souls as well as stomachs, and that there sometimes comes to them a hunger which mere animal food cannot satisfy.

DISCUSSION ON PROBLEMS OF THE ALMSHOUSE.

The discussion was opened by Mr. J. R. Washburn, of Watertown, Superintendent of the Poor of Jefferson county.

Mr. WASHBURN. At the National Conference of Charities and Correction held in this city a few years ago I was asked to tell what I had learned as Superintendent of the Poor in fifteen years' experience, and was given fifteen minutes to tell it in. Well, I had ample time. Now, I am given five minutes to discuss the "Problems of the Almshouse," and I am quite sure that as before the time will be ample for all that I have to say.

I will commence by saying, of course I am expected to discuss the paper of the Hon. Mr. Keller. I presume that the question of segregation and classification appeals much more strongly to the people of New York, or of any large city, than it does to a

rural district. In regard to the strictly rural almshouse, it possibly has little significance. It has been the practice in our county, I presume it is a good deal so in others, to keep respectable people who have led good, pure, decent lives out of the almshouse, if possible. This is usually accomplished, although there are those who have always led decent lives that finally have to come to the almshouse to end their days. But the numbers that go for any other reason except for their mental or physical defects or their unfortunate habits and ways of life are comparatively very few. Common humanity and Christianity demand that we shall take kind care of all of them, regardless of what their past lives have been.

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We have been able in our almshouse and it is a question that struck me very forcibly upon my first experience and work in this line - that the better class, those who had led respectable, decent, cleanly lives and liked to be cleanly in thought and person, should be as far as possible allowed to keep themselves aloof from the worst class. I think this is quite possible in the average almshouse without any special arrangement in regard to the buildings. Upon the reconstruction of our almshouse, soon after I was elected Superintendent, I did have a view to that end. It is the women who feel most keenly in this matter of association; the men don't mind so much with whom they associate, but the women will classify themselves if they are allowed to, and they are allowed to and encouraged in it. The best women in our almshouse, however, do not say to those who have led impure lives and have come to that condition that they have to be sent to the almshouse, "We are more holy than thou; we won't associate with you.” They will do so the same as we do in private life. There is none of us, not one in the sound of my voice, but that daily associates more or less with people that we know have not led pure lives. We mingle with them; we associate with them in business affairs, in social affairs and in other ways. Of course,

we do not associate personally in a social way with the thoroughly depraved, as we call them, but we cannot quite segregate ourselves entirely from those who have not led perhaps as good lives as we have. Neither do I think that this will be very radically practicable in almshouse management, although diplomacy and good sense can accomplish much in this, as in other directions.

We can do the best in our power to make the lives of the best of our inmates, the lives of all of them, for that matter, as pleasant as may be; and we can proceed upon the assurance to them that good behavior will be a passport to special favors, and by kind words and encouragement to those who most need it and will appreciate it, we can do much to make their lives endurable and even pleasant. I know this by experience, and further than this, I think every keeper in an almshouse that may be present will bear me out in saying that it is the best class of the inmates who find the least fault with their surroundings and usage, and apparently are the best satisfied with what they get. I know that the associations of an almshouse must be most unpleasant for people of intelligence who have led good, pure lives and have done their best to be self-supporting and self-respecting.

In regard to the sick. We have in Watertown two hospitals. I don't know that they are regarded as denominational, either of them. One is a Catholic institution and the other is a Protestant, but the Protestant institution admits Catholics and vice versa. I think they are two as well-equipped and as wellmanaged hospitals as there are in this or any other State, and the acutely sick who are poor we send to those hospitals. Of course, there are cases of acute sickness in almshouses that have to be treated, but if a person is acutely sick, no matter what his condition is, even though he may be a tramp, he is sent to one of those hospitals instead of the alınshouse.

My friend Mr. Keller has said that in the general study and practice of charity the interest of the almshouse has been lost sight