FEEBLE MINDED ASYLUM.
Mr. BUNDY, from the Joint Special Committee to investigate the condition and management of the Asylum for Feeble Minded Children and the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, reported that the Trustees have drawn salaries of $200 a year as Trustees of the Asylum, according to law, and also $120 a year as Trustees of the Home, givin as a reason for this that they had been advised by counsel that they had a right so to do. The books of the Institution are in a bad condition. The funds for the Asylum and the Home have been drawn upon and used indiscriminately. It is difficult to obtain from the books any accurate idea of the receipts and expenditures. The Trustees did not always examine the bills. Purchases have been made for which the Committee could see no reason, such as "extract of rose geranium," "razor straps," "rose-bud toilet soaps." The books show an expenditure of $17,404.40 on account of building and improvement, $16,927.72 of this amount being taken from the appropriation of $30,000 for the benefit of the Soldiers' 0rphans' Home, and expended mainly in the erection of an addition to the building for the inmates of the Feeble Minded Asylum. The Trustees say this was done under the advice of the late Governor Williams. The Treasurer of the Board drew during the months of April and May, 1879, the sum of $2,000, being the entire appropriation for the year. Only $400 of this was expended until December 1 of that year. The Treasurer states the money remained in bank during the interval. The dormitories in the orphans' department are poorly ventilated and exceedingly dirty. The beds are of straw and the bedding filthy. The boilers in the cellar of the building are unsafe, yet in a "division room" just above them, forty children from two page: 271[View Page 271] to six years of age, are kept during the day and evening in charge of an attendant. There is not sufficient room for the health of the children cared for. There is evidence of want of harmony between the Superintendent and subordina e teachers, and their efficiency is thereby impaired. The Home school under Miss Bonfay is well conducted. The Feeble Minded Asylum is in much better condition than the Home, and there is much to be commended in the management. The Committee thinks the Home and the Asylum ought not to have been located in the same building, and can not thrive in that condition. The Superintendent has been unnecessarily partial to the feeble-minded department. The food for the children in the orphans' department is not sufficient and the purchase of more cows to supply milk for them is advised. The officers should eat in the same room with the children. Tea cups should be substituted for tin cups. It is wrong that the offices of Stewart and Superintendent should be held by the same person. The Committee believes the interests of the Institution require a change in the Superintendency.
One hundred and fifty copies of the report were ordered printed.
