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FEEDING THE POOR. How they Live at the County Asylum— Views on Matters and Things by Pur veyor General McGinnis. A reporter for The News met County Com missioner McGinnis, yesterday afternoon, and addressed him with easy familiarity: ‘Well, ohay general to Marion county’s poor, once the honors of office bear upon you?” The general (p. g ) took off his hat, drew a deep sigh, one of those very expressive aspi rations, and said: “I've just been out buying truck for the asylum, and I tell you its a big business.”’ “Rather expensive, isn’t it?” “Well, I should say go. I don’t know what we are going to do. The asylum is a frightful draft upon the treasury. Down in Vanderburg county, one of the commis tioners was telling me, they farm out their paupers at twenty cents a day. ‘What on earth does the man feed em?’ I asked. ‘They get meat once a day, together with a pretty good dinner. For breakfast, bread and molasses and coffee; for supper, bread and molasses and tea. Nothing else.’ And out there,” resumed the general (e. g.) “we buy apples and peaches and butter, and the Lord only knows what all. Just think, have to buy butter! There wasn’t a cow on the place till here a few weeks back, they be gan stocking up a little with two or three. “I sometimes think that the county would be better off with only 25 acres instead of 220, and put that all into garden. Another trouble is one that grows out of this same matter, a belief that mebody but a farmer can ram the institution. Because there is a farm to manage, @ farmer must be made superin tendent. Now,a@ man may know all wihout the version of crops and signs of the weath er and will pet be the best man to feed 250 people. There is that number on the average to look afer. I could put a man there who don’t know a pruning-hook from a Pea handle, practically, but who will, I firmly believe, save the county at least $8,000 the first year. But the other members of the board pay a farmer must go in, and in hhe goes. But even with that the com missioners might be able to get along better, if the men who complain about the cost of the institution, or their complaints into a practical shape. hose who talk the most have never seen the asylum. Why don’t they go out there and see what is needed to effect the desired reforms and them make the suggestions to us. We are just as green, Allen and I, as anybody about running the place, and would be glad to learn from anyone. “The other day am agent of this manufac tured coffee, which is to be mixed with the genuine berry and used, came to me for an order. He said he sold it to the best hotels in the country and showed me a order from a prominent hotel man in Cleveland who formerly lived here. After consulting the other members of the board, I told the fellow to send us some. Do you believe it? Every last man in the institution, the lame, halt and blind, was t his ear, one a sla rase, at very first cup. _ Brow nero fair coffee, but is superin tendent denounced it as vile stuff, unfit for use. I told him we wouldn't expect the of ficers to drink it, but if by its use coffee such as is furmished to the guests of prominent hotels could be had for 11 cents a pound, where the cheapest now costs 17 or 18, it is a matter worth saving. But I don’t know how it will go. The grocers of course will pry it down ; it's to their interest to sell coffee, pure and simple. ‘That big farm which is of so little use, and a standing menace against ever putting any man but a farmer is a superintendant, gals me. Just think we have to buy eggs the poor farm! They ought to raise eggs and chickens enough, and to spare. There are a hundred inmates who do nothing else that would be delighted to engage in such light work as that. This morning I bought three barrels of beans. The idea of it! They have taken seven barrels of beans, the entire and They ought to have raised 100 barrels.” . Here the general (pg) broke off, overcome by this disgust, and readers of The News will have to wait until the dropping day for further views (official) on the poor farm.
Newspaper Details
Indianapolis News
Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Wed, Feb 04, 1880
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 26 May 2026
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