of. I cannot agree with him in regard to that. Possibly it may have been too much so in New York. I cannot say as to that, but I am very sure that the problem of almshouse management, in the last few years especially, has received a wonderful amount of attention in the rural counties of the State. I do not believe that there is a county but that is striving and has been for years to bring about better conditions. Some of them have their buildings and grounds and appliances in first-class order; others are getting them in order as fast as may be. I believe that the communities are more aroused than ever, much more than they were eighteen years ago when I came into office, to have these things improved and bettered; and as I said, so far as the rural counties are concerned, I am sure they are taking proper measures in this direction. Sometimes we are a little slow and the State Board of Charities gets impatient, or some of the charity workers from the cities, who think that we should obtain to a condition of idealism, think we are not taking proper measures or are not moving fast enough; but you can all understand that the counties have many things to improve; they have many ways to spend their money; they cannot rush the burdens of taxation too fast. It may be that there are other county buildings that have to be rebuilt or improved, and they are waiting possibly and trying to fix up their old buildings for the time being with the idea of improving them permanently as soon as may be. I think that is the idea all over the State.

Another point that he touches upon is of men and their wives. So far as he knows no movement in that direction has been attempted in this country. I will have to say to him that a few years since the insane were taken away from county care, and this left us with an annex to the building that we had no particular use for, and there was a chance to fit up some rooms for the use of men and their wives that might possibly be sent there. I did so fit them up, and for about nine or ten years now have had accommodations for three or four couples, old men and their wives,

to be by themselves entirely and have their meals by themselves and be a family by themselves the same as though they were alone. It is a very good idea, and I should presume in a city almshouse with such large numbers there would be quite a call for such accommodations. There has been very little with us, however. I don't think there has been more than 25 per cent of the time that we have had any occupants for those rooms, but we have had sometimes. The idea is a good one, at least.

There are those in the almshouse, as I said, who have the appearance, the instincts and the attributes of ladies and gentlemen, and they are the easiest class to get along with. They appreciate kindness; they appreciate the favors that are done them; favors that every keeper, every Superintendent, every attendant, can and ought to show to those who deserve it; they appreciate it and I verily believe their lives in many cases are made at least approximately happy by such consideration.

Let us employ none but kind-hearted, genial, good-natured attendants, that will do the best in their power to make the lives of these people contented and as happy as may be, and it is astonishing how much we can do in that direction. I believe this: that if the authorities in the counties will to the best of their ability put the right men in the right places, men who will make a good, honest, determined effort to improve the conditions of the almshouses and of the poor in their midst and show to the taxpayers of the county that they are trying to expend honestly the money raised for the care of the poor to better their conditions in an economical and conservative manner, that there will be no trouble in any of the rural counties, neither will there be in New York or any of the counties with large cities, in vastly improving the conditions of the almshouses with the entire satisfaction and approval of every taxpayer in the State.

DR. ROBERT W. HILL.-I think that Commissioner Keller has presented one of the principal problems in almshouse administra

tion when he has shown to us the necessity for a further classifi-. cation. Not only does such a necessity exist in the great almshouses under the control of the city of New York, but in all the almshouses of the State conditions will be bettered if a system of classification is adopted which will separate what he has so properly designated as the clean from the unclean, the physically clean from the physically unclean, the morally clean from the morally unclean, and bring together those who by habits and by character will prove most congenial in the peculiar atmosphere of a public institution. The great difficulty is to draw the dividing line. Of course, if you permit the inmates of such an institution to decide for themselves, the doctrine of "holier than thou" may result in very serious disagreements between them, and involve the keeper of the almshouse in such difficulty as may cause him to lose his sleep, but there does seem to be a possibility in every institution of drawing a line by which we can recognize to some extent the former life and associations of an inmate and place him under conditions which will permit him a measure of happiness.

It is not necessary to do this by formulating a system of rewards and punishments; it is not necessary to do it by adopting hard and fast rules. The exercise of common sense on the part of the officers of the institution will make it possible to distinguish between the character of those who are committed, so that the wrong of compelling old people whose lives have been passed in decency and sobriety to associate constantly with others who have lived in degradation and drunkenness will cease.

You come across many saddened lives in the almshouse and meet persons who once occupied high station, and were looked upon as refined and cultured. I have seen there lawyers and doctors and ministers, and even the sister-in-law of a former Governor of the State. I have seen in an almshouse the mother of a judge, a woman of such character that it would seem her place should be to grace a home of refinement and luxury; yet, owing to circumstances which had deprived her of reliance upon friends

or family aid, in her declining years she was reduced to the necessity of going into the almshouse, and there found herself with women who had been taken from drunkenness and riot, and who were foul of mouth as well as depraved of heart. It was wrong to her; it was a reflection upon the discretion of the keeper of such an institution that some plan had not been devised by which women of this character could have been kept separate; it was a reflection on society itself.

I do not propose to say how far or by what means classification shall be accomplished, but certainly some system can be devised and introduced into every almshouse by which a division and a distinction shall be made between the deserving and the ill-deserving.

One other thought has been suggested in the paper- that perhaps the problem of finding homes for aged couples in the public almshouse may well be tried. Sometimes it has been tried, although not often in this State. I remember one instance where an aged man taking care of his helpless wife bitterly complained that after having lived with her for forty years he was compelled to act as her nurse in the almshouse at last; but I recall also another instance where an aged man and his wife, occupying a room separated by a considerable distance from the common dormitories, maintained some little of their former family life and seemed to be happy and contented, although they regretted they did not have the complete liberty which they once possessed.

It is possible for a wise and discreet administration to introduce a classification which will recognize the old couples, and combining the largest sympathy with pure business, conserve not only the interests of the public by economy in management, but also the interest of the respectable poor, helpless and stricken in years, whose lot is to pass their last days as recipients of public charity.

It must not be forgotten that all classification should promote

the welfare of the inmates. It is well to consider convenience in administration, but far above and beyond that are the health and comfort of the inmates. This much the public requires, this much humanity demands. In considering the problems of the almshouse, we must seek first, last and all the time, ways which will humanely and properly carry out in spirit the provisions of our laws.

Mrs. MARGUERITE MOORE. It seems to me that one of the first things to be done in improving the condition of the poor and allowing the unfortunate some little comfort at the end of their days, even though provided by public charity, would be to eliminate the word "alms " altogether. It is true that alms is a Latin word, a Latin-Saxon word, which comes down from the times when real charity existed, when help to the poor was given for the pure love of God, whose children they were, in a special manner, conceded to be; but in these days of scientific charity, if we may call it so, when charity is given more from the intellect than from the heart, when charity is given more as a duty to the public than as a duty to God, it seems to me that the word "alms" might be left out.

We have this other suggestion of one of the problems in the paper the separating of the aged poor. That has always appealed to me and to many others who take an interest in philanthropic subjects as one of the most dreadful things in connection with almshouses or workhouses. Efforts have been made to substitute some sort of a family life and to keep the old couple together to the end of their lives. It is a strange thing that it is among those for whom the struggle for existence has been the hardest and who have been most unfortunate that real affection is most likely to exist. The couple who have struggled for years and have reared a family in virtue and honor and probity, only through death of children or misfortune in business to be left stranded in the end of their lives, surely deserve something better of the Commonwealth than to be separated at the moment