9

2

off Nine barrels of flour per diem were consumed last winter, but now the inmates are not allowed wheat, but are furnished with corn-bread of a very inferior quality. We were much pained in our passage through the Lunatic department, especially that appropriated to females. Sqveral of these poor unfortunates were confined to chairs, such a procedure being rendered necessary in order to prevent them from, doing personal injury to themselves or others. One we particularly recollect, for she very strongly attracted our attention, and we were much interested in the statement made by the keeper relative to her condition. She was apparently about twenty-five years of age, and must have been once possessed of superior personal charms, which had not entirely faded under the operation of her melancholy and fearful disorder. To this female the keeper threw a piece of stale corn-bread, with just such an air as one would cast a bone to a dog. This subject is too painful to dwell upon, and we gladly leave it." tud gee of busting tourss sw ¿dw

pro build ban boys 9dr 201stnos gmblind grading sit to vtimeriza The following are also extracts from another Philadelphia newspaper, the writer of which takes a favourable view of the brand of our under which it was erected; but who, in my opinion, makes some correct observations in the following words at ni bo. Rondo grund zuh

66

"THE PHILADELPHIA ALMSHOUSE.

bas borbaud & trods 9920002004 200 2200 3d abqrory ofT" A few days since, availing ourselves of the politeness of Colonel, Woolf, the President of the Board of Guardians of the Poor, we paid a visit to the Philadelphia Almshouse, in Blockley, and passed several hours in inspecting the arrangement of that new and vast establishment which, we believe, is generally admitted, by those best qualified to, judge, to be unequalled on either side of the Atlantic, both as to extent and as to the excellence of the plan upon which it is constructed. deildago It is said that the accommodations are sufficient for 3000 personso olda The main buildings of the Almshouse, which is situated on a heaútiful and salubrious spot on the west bank of the Schuylkill, commandings a panoramic view of the most varied and striking character, are four in number, forming the square, occupying and enclosing an area of about ten acres. The front building, which faces the Schuylkill, is a majestic piece of architecture,, and is devoted to the use of the male paupers, with accommodations for the officers of the institution. The upper stories are occupied as dormitories, and the scrupulous nicety withi which the establishment is kept is nowhere more remarkable than in these apartments.we ms Idol wooong of boqquils on "aroquinq" adt vitano eidt and zogueq delgull of burgos hiw voit snq zidi lo On the ground-floor are the offices. An extensive kitchen, with all its apparatus, in the most perfect order, the tins glittering like silver, theh

(

*

tables and wooden utensils scoured until they look aso if painter White, and everything in the most unexceptionable condition," the sumserbéingt the case in the large eating rooms adjoining Wilsup toitstai yrov s Is The Building on the south is used as a hospital, and, though evil dences of human misery and suffering meet the spectator at every turn, he is at the same time satisfied, from all that comes under his notice, that Hothing is neglected to alleviate the afflictions of the inmates. The rooms are large, lofty, and well ventilated; the apothecary's office well supplied; and baths of every kind are to be had at a moment's notice." The medical library is situated in this building, and is one of the largest and most valuable in the country.do famoso roiroque to bo-sezog eidt oT *19brozib ★ukost bu* vlodonal*n rod to*uoiteroqo⋆ oft roban

The building on the west is occupied by the female paupers, who, it seems, are neither so easily kept in order, nor so tidy as the men, is why, we cannot pretend to say, but such is found to be the case One extremity of the northern building contains the aged and blind women, and the incurables of the same sex. In the centre of this division a the flouring-mills, carding-machines, carpenters and joiners' shops, a the cotton and woollen factories, in which the paupers work the pro ducts being chiefly used in the institution."

are

andi

*

aa

"The grounds belonging tonging to the Almshouse are about a hundred and eighty acres in extent, under excellent cultivation, and producing all the vegetables, &c., required by the establishment; and the handsome appearance of the gardens speaks much for the attention paid to that départments 80 1967 bus red tedt to tabungastus odi quitogeni nieod

Such are the impressions left by our hasty visit, and, although it would require many more hours than we could devote to examine the establishment thoroughly, yet we saw enough fully to warrant the favour able opinion as to its management expressed above." 18d bias a 11,

From these two accounts you will learn that there must be povert and wretchedness greater in America than in any other part of the world, or it would not be necessary to have the largest workliouses in the world. "It is generally admitted," says this last American writer," by those best qualified to judge, that, for extent, this poor-house is unequalled on either side of the Atlantic." Enough has been said on this house, but there is one thing more that I cannot forbear to notice, such a last-" ing impression did it make upon me when I first heard it. It is the inhuman and disgusting manner in which the dead bodies of the Republican "paupers" are chopped to pieces. Much, I am aware, has been said of this practice with regard to English paupers; but, in this country, the body of a pauper cannot be dissected if objected to by a relative of the deceased person, nor does the dissection take idee in the workboguSEN

and provisions are moreover made for decent interment of the corpse after dissection. Things, however, are managed very differently by the " selfgoverned American Republicans--the sovereigns," as they foolishly call themselves. 69.1 9871_1857 Jdt i dont 1 to gu On visiting the Philadelphia Almshouse, which means, being translated, a prison for the poor, in company with a friend, we came to the doors of certain rooms into which we were told by our guide, an aged pauper, that there was no admittance. I asked why we were not to be admitted?" These," said he, " are the dissecting-rooms, which you cannot see without an order from the authorities." 16 What," said I, do the inmates think of the bodies of their companions being thus cut to pieces on the premises?""Ah! Sir," said he, "it is that that hurts my feelings more than all the rest that I have to witness and suffer. I have seen that place hung round with human limbs, which were sold a limb at a time as the butchers sell their meat." The poor fellow seemed overcome by his own remark, and no more was said on the subject. The fact is, the dead carcases of the "free Republican" paupers are sold, either whole or in joints, whether the relations like it or it or not, to the medical students resident in those parts of the Union where meat of this description is not so easily procurable as in Philadelphia."

·

The Americans, however, in general, care nothing about what becomes of their dead. In cities, it is true, they have grave-yards; but, if they are wanted for any of the wild schemes that a band of specu lators" may take in their heads, they are without ceremony taken; the bodies routed up, and thrown into the first convenient hole. They have none of that feeling, so peculiarly regarded by Englishmen, of respect to the ashes of the dead; and, in country places, they have frequently no burial-place in particular. Each man buries his own family under his own tree in the field or the wood; and the fresh-raised bank of the stranger's grave you will see here and there by the wayside, or on the bank of a river, as you pass along.

I remember, one Sunday morning, overtaking on the road a plain and honest-looking Englishman, from whom I learnt that he had been but a short time in America, and that he thought he should soon return; the principal reason that he assigned for which was, because there were no village bells, nor lawfully appointed resting-places for the dead. "Do you think," said he, "I can like a country where they bury their dead in the roads?" These expressions, simple as they were, I am not ashamed to confess, had a powerful effect on me. They seemed to set me, at once, on the hill-top of my native place, and the neighbouring bell sounded as fresh in my ears as if it had been a reality.

In cities the foreigners are numerous, and they retain their feelings of respect for the bodies of their friends, which, of course, they are

obliged to inter in the grave-yards that are subject to the avarice of the most despicable of all creatures-the American speculator. The following article, which relates to an instance, similar to what I am complaining of, I took in the year 1836 from a Philadelphia paper called The Democratic Herald:

66 THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD VIOLATED.

"The grave-yard at the corner of Sixth and Arch streets, Schuylkill, has, for the last week, been the centre of attraction to public curiosity, and a scene of the most heart-rending woe to the afflicted survivors and relation of the violated dead. It is known that the church to which the yard belongs obtained an act of the legislature, authorising them to sell it, which they have done accordingly; and they are now engaged in disinterring the dead! By this measure, not only are the best and most sacred sympathies of our nature violated, but a most unjust infraction of the right of property is committed; and, in our opinion, the act of the legislature is a violation of the constitution: for the church have no right to sell the ground twice, and the proprietors of the graves are the prior claimants, and, in our opinion, could recover heavy damages for this monstrous breach of the laws of God and man. It would be a parallel case if our worthy fellow-citizen, James Ronaldson, were to obtain from the legislature an act to authorise him to sell his burial-ground for building-lots, and he were to proceed to disinter the dead, and sell his lot to Bonsall and Co., or any speculators in grave-yards! Who, in this case, would presume to say that the law was constitutional and binding?

"Fathers are now seen in that vicinity with the coffins of their infants in their arms, brushing the dirt with their handkerchiefs from the lids. Mothers are collecting the skeletons of their children, widows of their husbands, and daughters of their mothers, as the rude spade of the inhuman violator throws up with brutal indifference the precious remains of mortality!-But we draw a veil over this harrowing picture,

"We believe it was Doctor Burden who presented the petition of the church for this nefarious law, and log-rolled it through the legislature. For how much human misery, degradation, and evil are the public indebted to this vile traitor of every trust, sacred, moral, political, and religious! Humanity shudders at the spectacle !"

These are the proceedings, with respect to the dead, in Philadelphia; and in the same year I took from The N. Y. Evening Star the following article on the same subject, in which the editor justly remarks that "the business and pleasures of life seem too urgent to allow of a moment's pause for respect to the dead."

The people of almost every country show so much respect for the

0:G,

vlinutos.0990 atgarte quo sestui of erconed to redmug ad; end end solemnities of death as to behave with decorum in the streets and pubboldon videdory balunob lic places when a funeral procession is passing. The thoughtless wayThe gulped, for the moment, their farers mirth or fous conversation, vliegro Jabal the' and the ears of mourning relatives are not pained with the sounds of untimely merriment as they follow as the corpse to dig at Jamb

Smit & is opsig mout en. 9911 of enw Juamirouza. Won THO 38 89 90

the

MONDO, TH0,03 9548700mg, ORBIS101P1.320i 3910098 goed of 28 2001

time, to avoid an interruption of the obsequies, and either

wholly or drive with a decent slowness till the retinue has passed. This big wil-1009 911 to Sai Pro end to gritsl is the case, we say, in other places, but not in New York. Less deferdomek odys jos 18 zenu of ence is here paid to funeral processions than in almost any other place in the World. The business and pleasures of pleasures of life seem too urgent in their demands to allow of a moment's pause furde vodi apa s respect to the dead, mis ou man licht Carriages and carts drive furiously by the very hearse, and not unfreKIT BAYERN HE quently the line is broken by vehicles that cross it, and oblige one portion of the funeral to pause while half is pursuing its

911

a bow out to suipe 76 jouṛdns This practice, so contrary to good feeling and good manners, is highly discreditable to our city. It arises out of the same causes which render us so careless of the he grave, that without scruple we open streets and thoroughfares through the crowded church-yards, and mix the bones of kindred with the stones collected for pavements. The pursuit of money and of pleasure, in thicals bezoge ever-bustling and ever-changing metropolis,

absorbs the whole mind of the shifting Te food 16.4 128ing population, and prevents a settled public opinion from acting on many subjects which are not cognizable

bus pldi

sig, bis emmelagyl nard of Daueritsq yadt baA law." by any other and even anghen two butter ad Javier wal-1009 forg Well, now, we will go on on farther to see how the living are treated how those who govern themselves treat themselves. At a large meeting, held in Philadelphia on the 26th of February, 1838, Mathew Carey president, the mayor of the city being one of the vice-presidents, wof one Wood- 1 to this to b among other things it was Resolved, That the prohibition in the poor-law against out door relief to the poor, especially to females, whose wages, when partially employed, are inadequate for their support, has had a most deleterious effect on heir comfort and and, no extrem morals and manners. This will appear evident from the fact that, When they used to receive 40, 50, or 60 cents per week from the overseers, in har ghastard. Y money or provisions, the pittance, in addition to their slender earning, in winter rarely more than from a 50 to 75 cents per week (that is, of an average, about 2s. 7d. a-week in our money), enabled them, with eung bas blog to rigid economy, to support existence in their humble dwellings. But, deprived of the public aid, they have been driven to mendicity, and thus, we repeat, have their morals and manners been deteriorated, and they have been inured to habits of idleness and laziness. And it is unfortuben znotergoo nately too true, that generally once a beggar, always a beggát.91 JAña ́Aha

happiness bidean equal one on their

any