world, so far as I know. The original law providing for the establishment of the Hudson Home of Refuge for Women, passed in 1861, was the direct outcome of the report of Dr. Hoyt, secretary of the State Board of Charities.

"It seemed a very natural thing to propose that the state should provide some place where vagrant girls could be protected from degradation, prevented from degrading others, and above all prevented from bringing forth children. Three years of persistent labor was needed, however, to secure the passage of a law appropriating $100,000 for the establishment of the first house of refuge for women.

"At present the sole purpose of these institutions is to reform the inmates and to return them to the world as normal, decent women. Everyone of these young women. needs training and education, physical, mental, industrial, moral, spiritual. A reformatory should retain its inmates long enough to really cure them and form habits of good living.

"The possibilities' of any state institution must of necessity be limited, and there is no question that it will be a great misfortune if these reformatories come to be used as convenient receptacles for any and every girl who is troublesome in her neighborhood, or hard to manage in her family. We need in this country small private homes for girls who have become disgusted with a life of sin, and who seek a refuge from it. And for those who cannot be saved by any of these means we need places of permanent detention.

"But after all it is not by means of such institutions, as I have spoken of, that we may diminish the number of unhappy women who need 'reformation.' The life of the wage earner must be made less hard."

THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY.

A large audience filled the assembly hall, in the United Charities Building, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Charity Organization Society, Friday evening, November 16.

Addresses were made by Mr. John W. Keller, Commissioner of Charities, Controller Bird S. Coler, and Dr. John H. Pryor, of Buffalo. The topics discussed were "TenementHouse Reform" and "Co-operation with the City."

President Robert W. De Forest presided, and after speaking briefly of the work of the society, introduced Mr. Edward T. Devine, General Secretary, who read the substance of the eighteenth annual report of the Central Council.

Mr. Keller spoke in favor of the measures instituted by the Charity Organization Society for tenementhouse reform. He thought that this reform was aimed at causes rather than effects and was designed to result in correcting a great evil.

He spoke in high approval, also, of the agitation for a Children's Court and declared that there was no possible objection to the plan. He would favor the appointment of special magistrates for this Court in case it should be necessary.

Referring to the hospitals in the Department of Public Charities, he stated that they are now in better public favor than they have been for years past, and are accomplishing more for those who need hospital treatment. At Bellevue, 1,700 more patients were cared for during the last year than during the previous year, although there were less people in the hospital. He explained this seeming paradox by stating that patients when cured were now immediately dismissed; that the hospitals were no longer

homes for those willing to be supported by the public.

Mr. Keller spoke at length upon the need for a new Harlem hospital to be built on Lenox avenue, between 136th and 137th streets. He stated that he has prepared an application to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for funds with which to carry out the plans.

Concluding his address, Mr. Keller referred to the change contemplated by the Charter Revision Commission, whereby Bellevue was to be taken from the Department of Public Charities and placed under a separate commission consisting of seven members. He characterized the plan as absurd and appealed to the public to help defeat this object, saying: "I believe in a single-headed commission-appointing a man to do a thing and holding him strictly accountable for everything that happens in his department."

Dr. Pryor's address dealt with the question of tenement-house reform. He said: "The fight for tenementhouse reform should be made upon the broad principle of good citizenship. No city where a vast population lives in crowded tenements where the air is insufficient, foul or tainted with disease and where the sun never shines can be truly great, have a decent government or add strength to a nation."

He arraigned the present tenement-house conditions as the cause of thousands of deaths annually in New York city from tuberculosis alone.

"If 6,000 deaths occur annually from this disease, one may estimate the worth of the individual to the state, or the loss of his earning capacity, then add necessary expenses for illness met by the individual and the municipality, the cost paid to the dependents, and the loss. by infection and degeneracy of off

spring. This preventable loss is a matter of millions, and any expenditure would pay if this disgraceful condition could be removed. We can't have good government without good people, and we can't have good people without good homes."

Hon. Bird S. Coler referred to the system of giving appropriations to various charitable institutions which has recently been modified. He stated that it had at once became apparent to him that some uniform system of appropriating funds to these institutions must be adopted which would make their compensation dependent upon the amount of service rendered. Such a system was drafted and made possible by the active co-operation of Commissioner Keller, and officers of private charitable institutions of the city. The system already has resulted in a saving to the city of some $71,000, but will probably show a greater saving when unexpended balances are taken into account.

testified that consumption in this city is most prevalent in the tenement-house districts, and that its prevalence is the result of overcrowding and bad sanitary conditions.

Dr. Pryor testified that in his judgment there are at least 20,000 consumptives among the tenement dwellers of the city.

There is at least one case of consumption in almost every tenement house in the city, the reason being that the tenants are crowded together, without sufficient air or sunlight. The expectorations from consumptive people dry up and are disseminated in the air.

While consumption is both preventable and curable in its early stages, the deaths from this disease are very numerous; 6,000 people in the city die of consumption every year. We have no proper accommodations for consumptives. They are the only class of invalids. who do not get proper care.

As remedies for the present condition of affairs Dr. Pryor said that at least six hundred feet of cubic air should be allowed for each adult in a tenement, and that no rooms without sunlight should be occupied. "Many houses are infected with the germs," he said, "and every one who lives in them courts death. would be possible to thoroughly disinfect all these houses, although some of them could not be made sanitary unless they were torn

down.'

It

Dr. Herrman M. Biggs stated that the Board of Health first began to study the question of tuberculosis in tenement houses in 1888. Inspectors visited patients, instructed them how to prevent infection, and, when necessary, ordered renovation. of the premises. In 1895, 6,000 cases were reported; in 1897, 8,000; in 1898, 9,000, and in 1899, 10,000.

The corps of inspectors is too small. There should be at least forty inspectors for tuberculosis cases alone in Greater New York.

In 1896 maps were prepared for Dr. Biggs, showing every block in the city, and on these maps were plotted every case and death from tuberculosis which came to the attention of the Board of Health. One block on Cherry street, extending from Pearl to Roosevelt street, was inspected January 1, 1895, and contained 1,000 tenants. One hundred and four cases of tuberculosis have occurred in four years and nine months in that block, and this probably does not include all of the cases which actually occurred, because not more than one-half the cases of persons persons suffering from this disease are reported. The cases which are reported to the Board of Health may always be regarded as ultimately fatal cases, since early cases are not usually reported. Probably two-thirds of all advanced cases come to the attention of the Board of Health.

In a block on Pell and Mott Streets containing a population of two thousand, 318 cases occurred in four and one-half years. The extreme prevalence of the disease is due to five causes: the general unsanitary conditions of the neighborhood; bad conditions of the houses themselves as regards sanitation; overcrowding; poverty; and infection. Almost all of the houses in the worst districts are very old. In the new houses, however, tuberculosis is also prevalent.

There has been a constant decrease in the death rate from tuberculosis in New York city since. 1886. In that year the death rate was 4.4 per thousand; in 1889, 2.9 per thousand. The decrease is due, in large measure to better street cleaning and to preven

tive measures adopted by the Board of Health, The Board of Health requires the renovation of the premises whenever a death occurs or a patient is moved. This renovation consists of painting, white washing, papering and scrubbing. Such renovation is not ordered in all cases. Any specific infection can be removed by such measures. In some tenement houses the general sanitary conditions are so bad that complete destruction is the only remedy.

The great question in the eradication of tuberculosis is how to provide cheap abodes with adequate air and light. The question of overcrowding is one of administration.

Dr. Biggs did not favor imposing conditions of fireproof construction. He stated that the building may well be seven or eight stories high without fireproof construction if it has plenty of air and light. The danger from fire is infinitely less than from tuberculosis. He recommends doing away with the twentyfive foot lot for tenement purposes. Dr. Lee K. Frankel, manager of the United Hebrew Charities, said that the great majority of consumptive foreigners who had applied to him for help had contracted the disease in this country.

Dr. Annie S. Daniel, house physician of the New York Infirmary for Women, said that sweatshop work in the tenement houses was responsible in a great measure for the spread of tuberculosis.

"Frequently a woman is sewing clothes up to the day of her death,' she said.

Dr. S. A. Knopf, of 11 West Ninety-fifth street, suggested that the roofs of tenement houses should be converted into breathing places, and that the sills of the windows should be raised to a good distance above the floor, so that the windows could be open without a risk of children falling out.

THE WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 17.

At the joint application bureau of the Charity Organization Society and the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor there were 309 applications for aid. Thirty-six homeless persons were recorded.

The agents of the investigation department of the Charity Organization Society made 642 calls to obtain information concerning those who asked for assistance. One hundred and fifty-two new names were entered upon the books of the registration bureau.

In the district offices thirty-nine new families were taken in charge. One hundred and eighty-three tickets were presented at the woodyard. Each of these tickets entitles the holder to do a prescribed amount of work for which he is paid fifty cents in cash. Of the number issued 174 were given to men with homes in the city.

At the laundry eighteen women were given a total of eighty-two days' work and forty-three days' work was given at the workrooms.

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On Monday, November 19, there the United Hebrew Charities. were 185 applications for relief at

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At the Department of Public Charities 103 persons were sent to the almshouse and sixteen to Flat

bush. Sixteen children under two years of age were sent to Randall's Island and 227 hospital cases were sent out for investigation.

At the office of the examining physician for outdoor poor in the Department of Charities 269 persons were examined in the week ending November 17. Of this number 135 were sent to the City Hos

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During the week ending November 17, 165 cases were referred to the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor; all being applications for relief. Sixty came through the joint application bureau. The disbursement for food supplies was $213.85; for rent, $38, and for other relief, $145.67, making a total disbursement of $397.52 for relief. One hundred and fifty-one garments, old and new, were given away from the storeroom. Twenty wood yard tickets were issued to men, and twenty-five workroom tickets to women. The week closed with 775 cases actively in charge. The visiting staff made 871 calls.

Office of

GENERAL EMPLOYMENT AND INFORMATION

246 Fifth Avenue

Miss Wild will supply the best of servants only; giving her personal attention to the investigation of ref erences: housekeepers, governesses; shoppers and chaperons also supplied; houses opened and closed autumn and spring.

JAPANESE ART OBJECTS, NOVELTIES IN SILKS FOR Ladies' Use, SILK CREPES AND GRASS LINENS, PILLOW COVERS, ETC.,

38 WEST 22D STREET.