ing, the other at the south. The north gate, which is now in use, is protected by an interior wooden trap and gate, of the height of the wall, made of eight-inch wooden timber. The south gate is kept closed and securely fastened. The gates are made of wood lined with boiler-iron. Provision is made for a third gateway, in case a railroad should be built to the prison, so that a train of cars can run into the yard. The entire length of the yard-wall, running from the south-west corner of the prison building, and returning to the north-east corner, is 1,539 feet. In front of the central building is the keeper's house, three stories in height, and arranged in two tenements, the south for the warden's family, the north for the deputy warden's family and the day-officers. The main house is 52 feet by 47 feet. The ell is 46 feet by 24 feet. The warden's tenement contains fifteen rooms, with closets and bath-rooms. The deputy warden's tenement contains ten rooms, with closets and bath-rooms. second story in the ell-reached by a flight of iron stairs from the driveway between the house and the prison - contains on the south side the warden's private office, on the north side the prison office. The The four boilers in the boiler-house furnish steam for the cooking-apparatus and for heating all the premises. Pipes are carried into all parts of the buildings required to be warmed, and into the keeper's house. All the buildings, with the exception of the workshop, are lighted with gas, together with the interior yard, and the grounds and a portion of the highway in front. An unlimited supply of water is furnished by the force-main from the reservoir on the State Farm, supplemented by a line of pipe from the Pettaconsett pumping-station of the Providence Water Works. The buildings and grounds are drained by pipes laid in the yard and extending 1,000 feet outside of the prison yard wall. In doing the work, 19,285 cubic yards of stone and granite and 3,265,000 bricks have been laid, requiring 2,787 casks Portland cement, 3,251 casks Newark cement, 2,573 casks of lime, and 5,350 cubic yards of sand. About 300 casks of Portland cement were used on the cell and corridor floors of the main building and the cellar floors of the mess-room and kitchen. The entire cost of construction, and of furnishing both the prison-premises and the warden's house, together with grading and means of lighting the grounds, drainage, water-supply, &c., was $458,373.56. DEBATE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS. At the close of Gen. Brinkerhoff's paper, and again at the close of the paper of Mr. Woodbury, some discussion took place. Mr. L. P. ALDEN (of Michigan) desired to know what could be done for improving the administration of public institutions when they were controlled exclusively by politics. In Ohio, not only superintendents, but servants, farmers, and even laundresses, were discharged if they did not belong to the political party in power. He thought the Conference ought to make some sort of protest against this thing. Mr. EARLY (of Indiana) regretted that Gen. Brinkerhoff's paper did not mention the subject of ventilation. In ninety-nine out of a hundred public institutions, the odors would inform the visitor of the nature of the building, the moment he stepped inside. Mr. G. P. RANDALL (of Chicago) described at some length the sub-earth system of ventilation invented by Mr. Wilkinson of Baltimore. Bishop GILLESPIE pointed out some very serious defects in the construction of jails and almshouses. Dr. Horr said that during the existence of the Conference few papers had been read that seemed to him so important as those of Messrs. Letchworth and Brinkerhoff. Gen. TAYLOR (of Kansas) gave from his own experience some reasons why the criminal insane should be segregated. Mr. WINES announced that Gen. Francis A. Walker was present, having come here to confer with the Conference in regard to the collection of statistics when the census was taken in 1880, and would address the Conference in the morning. During the Afternoon Session of June 11, the Business Committee reported a list of Standing Committees, which, as subsequently amended and adopted, was as follows: LIST OF STANDING COMMITTEES FOR THE YEAR 1879-80. 1. INSANITY. - Dr. J. P. Bancroft, Concord, N.H.; Dr. E. H. Van Deusen, Kalamazoo, Mich.; F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass.; Dr. John II. Chapin, Willard, N.Y.; Dr. Richard Gundry, Baltimore, Md.; Thomas T. Taylor, Hutchinson, Kan.; Miss M. A. Cleaves, M.D., Davenport, Ia.; Rev. Fred. H. Wines, Springfield, Ill.; and Dr. Nathan Allen, Lowell, Mass. 2. PUBLIC BUILDINGS FOR THE DEPENDENT CLASSES. — R. Brinkerhoff, Mansfield, O.; George S. Robinson, Sycamore, Ill.; M. H. Dickinson, Philadelphia, Penn.; J. H. Van Antwerp, Albany, N.Y.; Dr. W. W. Reed, Jefferson, Wis.; Rt. Rev. George D. Gillespie, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Dr. 4. PENAL AND PRISON DISCIPLINE. - Henry W. Lord, Detroit, Mich.; Rev. John L. Milligan, Allegheny, Penn.; Theodore B. Bronson, New York; Dr. Elisha Harris, New York; M. D. Follett, Marietta, O.; Albert Clark, St. Albans, Vt.; William A. Grimshaw, Pittsfield, Ill.; Charles F. Coffin, Richmond, Ind.; C. E. Felton, Chicago, Ill.; and W. F. Spaulding, Boston, Mass. 5. STATISTICS.-Gen. Francis A. Walker, New Haven; and the Secretaries of all existing State Boards of Public Charity. 6. MEDICAL CHARITIES. - Dr. J. C. Corbus, Mendota, Ill.; Dr. Harvey Jewett, Canandaigua, N. Y.; Dr. Charles P. Putnam, Boston, Mass.; Dr. H. C. Rutter, Cincinnati, O.; Dr. P. S. Conner, Cincinnati, O.; Dr. Charles E. Cadwallader, Philadelphia; Dr. John H. Vivian, Mineral Point, Wis.; C. D. Randall, Coldwater, Mich.; Dr. R. C. Thomas, Bowling Green, Ky.; Dr. C. A. Hayes, Leavenworth, Kan.; and Dr. Robert T. Davis, Fall River, Mass. 7. ON THE CAUSES AND THE PREVENTION OF PAUPERISM. Martin B. Anderson, Rochester, N. Y.; James Roosevelt, New York, N.Y.; George E. McGonegal, Rochester, N.Y.; Moses Kimball, Boston, Mass.; George S. Hale, Boston, Mass.; H. B. Wheelwright, Newburyport, Mass.; George I. Chace, Providence, R.I.; Dr. Job Kenyon, Providence, R.I.; Thomas Coggshall, Newport, R.I.; Dr. Diller Luther, Reading, Penn.; James A. Biddle, Philadelphia, Penn.; R. D. McGonnigle, Allegheny, Penn.; Douglas Putnam, Marietta, O.; C. S. Watkins, Davenport, Io.; Mrs. S. L. Fuller, Grand Rapids, Mich.; P. J. Boonebrake, Topeka, Kan.; Rev. A. B. Hendrickson, Janesville, Wis.; Mrs. J. Tapley, Racine, Wis.; Mrs. W. P. Lynde, Milwaukee, Wis.; and Dr. John H. Callender, Nashville, Tenn. 8. COMMITTEE ON CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION IN CITIES.-Joseph Perkins, Cleveland, O.; Seth Low, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. O. C. McCullough, Indianapolis, Ind.; Rev. S. H. Gurteen, Buffalo, N.Y.; Rev. G. C. Truesdell, Chicago, Ill.; and Dr. O. W. Wight, Milwaukee, Wis. 9. COMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. - Theodore W. Dwight, D.D., New York; C. I. Walker, Detroit, Mich.; John W. Andrews, Columbus, O.; F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass.; and Prof. Francis Wayland, New Haven, Conn. AFTERNOON SESSION. THE first paper read in the afternoon was the following: JUNE 11. THE CHARITIES OF CHICAGO. BY E. B. M'CAGG OF CHICAGO. The necessity and the methods to be adopted for the relief of want and misery resulting from many unforeseen causes (such as accident, sickness, strikes of workmen, sudden death), without at the same time encouraging idleness and vice, are questions which engage the attention of all densely populated communities. In places less thickly settled, the necessary carefulness and judgment are comparatively easily exercised, and the proper measure of relief reached; but in cities of great size, such as Chicago, where idleness as frequently as misfortune demands charity, such relief cannot safely be left to the discrimination of individuals, nor, because of the great amount and constant presence of suffering, can it be left to unorganized and spontaneous aid, nor to the mercy of the corporate authorities. We must have Hospitals, Dispensaries, Asylums. We need Reformatories, Newsboys' Rooms, and kindred institutions; and it is of the several agencies to these ends, that have been established and are now in active operation in this city, that I was a short time since requested to prepare a synopsis, some general account of its local charities. The largest measure of relief by any one agency, is that afforded by the county (and I mention it because the city and county are substantially one) through the county Insane Asylum and Poorhouse, by the distribution of provisions, clothing, and fuel, and by providing medical attendance. The public charity assumes very large proportions each year; for, besides the great number of supposed paupers who receive out-door relief from the county agent, the insane number annually some two hundred, and the inmates of the Poorhouse during the year are over eighteen hundred. The county buries the dead poor on proper application, but in the cheapest possible way. In its practical results, the system adopted, as worked out, is mischievous and hurtful. In a report to the county commissioners, a late county agent writes, "After an experience of three years in this department of public charities, I am of the opinion that our present system of out-door relief is in some respects very defective ;" and then, after a remark about its expensiveness, continues: "The real evil of our system of out-door relief consists in its pernicious effects upon certain members of the community; and this evil is so much the greater by not being apparent to the general public. By close attention and long familiarity with the business, I have become convinced that one of the worst afflictions that could befall a family, would be to have the name of the head of that family appear on the relief-roll of the county. Little do the sympathetic citizens who interest themselves in behalf of their poor neighbors, and proffer their services to help them to obtain relief from the county, suspect in so doing that they are assisting to lower them into a gutter from which their chances of rising are but as one to one hundred." The county agent who thus writes gives to my mind no sufficient reason for these, to him, plainly evident results, ascribing them largely to the humiliation caused by the inquiries of a "Visitor" sent to examine into the condition of the applicants. Plainly, the reason given is insufficient; and the truth is, that relief is carelessly extended, and the class is enormous and only too easily increased that would rather beg than work. Pauperism arises from many causes that are but aggravated by any aid extended to it, and it is not a duty to give without question. Above all things, the motive to exertion must not be taken away. The last detailed report of the county work which I can find, being for the year 1877, shows that 18,413 families, averaging four in a family, had been aided during the year, and that the total amount of relief given, if reduced to a basis of one month's relief to each family, would be equivalent to carrying on the rolls of the county 3,039 families, or 12,156 persons for one year, at an expense to the county of $1.40 a month for each, amounting in the aggregate to $204,220.80. During the same year, the county agent issued 1,955 medical orders, and buried 483 bodies; he sent 835 persons to the Poorhouse, and disbursed in all $215,880.50. The expenditure at the county Insane Asylum was $90,855.69, the average number of employés and inmates being 511, and the per capita cost $0.488 per diem; and at the county Poorhouse, $73,912.56,- the average number of employés and inmates for the year being 950, and the per capita cost 0.21-37 cts. per diem. Next in order is the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, a chartered institution, organized to provide a permanent, efficient, and prac |