| In Brooklyn there are 54 paupers,
consisting of 13 men, 21 women, 13 boys and 7 girls employed mostly in
picking oakum, to the amount of 31 cwt., sold for $139.50. There
were 254 yards of cloth made and used in the house. The whole
amount of the expenses yearly, is $1,785. Twenty-two paupers were
removed; there were two appeals; the taxes raised in 1817 were $1,617;
in 1818 and 1819, they were reduced to $1,600 each year; in 1821 they
were only $300, and in 1822 only $600. The town has an alms-house
under the management of two overseers and one keeper, having a separate
house for an hospital attended by a very respectable physician.
The present law for the settlement of the poor, passed April 8, 1813, is
very deficient in its provisions, as it does not give any authority to
the overseers, to make salutary rules for the good order of the house,
nor any discretion to coerce the obstinate or punish the refractory;
they having only one remedy in all cases to expel them the house, which
in the severity of winter would be little short of murder. If the
overseers could confine the impudent and refractory in solitary places,
and keep them on bread and water, it would have a good effect. To
prevent, however, any improper severity, it may be made the duty of the
justices and supervisor once a year at least, to inspect the whole
economy of the house. It is very proper to keep the poor employed
in something useful. I cannot think at present of any thing more
useful than the manufacture of flannel, after the manner it is made in
Wales. For this there will be a constant demand, as the most of
that now imported, is very slightly made. If this manufactory is
not too difficult and too expensive, I think it will be of great public
utility. It is indispensable that the children should be educated;
but in some alms-houses, (as it is in ours at present,) there may be
none able to teach the children; and on account of disorders, incident
to public places, it would be improper and ungenerous to send them to
the public district school; the children must remain uneducated, or some
provision must be made to hire a teacher. Would it not be right to
give the alms-house a particular demand on the school fund? [Letter from
E. Barkeloo, Esq.] |