CHAPTER IV. THE COUNTY H. ALMSHOUSE AND ITS 
POPULATION 
This almshouse is the dumping-gTOund for the feeble- 
minded, the insane, the crippled, the aged poor, and expectant 
mothers. It is located on a good farm 4 miles west of Stone- 
town in Township 7. The main building is a large three- 
story structure both sides of which are built exactly alike 
altho there are usually only 5 to 8 women and from 20 to 28 
men needing room. In addition to the main building there is 
a small concrete structure in the rear called the jail. Here 
unruly inmates are locked for punishment, and the insane or 
dangerous epileptics are detained. The windows are barred. 
Here John Daily spent a large part of the 27 years he was 
detained in the County House as a dangerous insane man. 
His bed is still to be seen in the jail, a mattress secured to 
the floor. On it have slept Roscoe Jones and Samuel Mills. 
Women have been kept in there for insubordination. This 
is not meant for criticism of those in control, but as a criti- 
cism of society for placing inmates there who should have 
been in those special institutions where they could have been 
properly cared for. The County Almshouse was never in- 
tended for a hospital or a place of detention for the mentally 
sick and the weak-minded. As long as they are put there, 
the superintendent must care for them the best way he can. 
The superintendent of the Poor Asylum is usually one of 
the most slandered persons holding office. As a usual thing, 
he has had no experience in managing people, and if he tries 
to rule with kindness alone, as almost always happens in the 
first part of his term, the inmates take advantage of him and 
he has no discipline. It does not take him long to discover 
that the only way to manage the institution is to keep stern 
discipline and to enforce his orders at any cost. In the first 
place, the inmates are of so many classes that even if they 
were models of conduct while there, he could not care for 
them properly without a corps of assistants. Then the Alms- 
house would be turned into something different from the pur- 
pose it is intended to serve. In the second place, the classes 
of people collected there are the least grateful of any on 
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