5. CARE OF FEEBLE-MINDED

The United States census of 1850 called attention to the problem of idiocy by reporting 287 idiots in Connecticut. On the basis of the more accurate statistics for Massachusetts, a joint select committee on idiocy stated in 1855 that there were certainly about 500 idiots in Connecticut, fourfifths of them, to a greater or less degree, objects of public charity. Upon their recommendation a commission was appointed, which reported in the following year, 1856.

Returns were secured from 105 out of 155 towns. The selectmen of one town reported 14 idiots, while a physician. declared there were none. On the basis of the population of 88 towns, which reported 514 idiots, there would have been a little more than 1,000 idiots in the state. The estimate based on the 16 towns which made complete returns would have been 1,428. The commission concluded that there were probably 1,100-1,200 in all. In 30 per cent. of the cases in which the age was given, it was less than 20.3 The commission found that the state was, as it were, manufacturing idiots.

In one instance, where a pauper female idiot lived in one town, the town authorities hired an idiot belonging to another town, and not then a pauper, to marry her, and the result has been that the town to which the male idiot belongs, has for many years had to support the pair, and three idiot children. This throws light upon the working of the laws of settlement. Two or three towns had families, all the members of which were idiots. There were two families with five idiots each."

The treatment of the idiots was also found to be far from satisfactory.

1 Rep, 1855.

2 P. A., 1855, p. 167.

• Ibid., p. 9.

Rep of Commissioners on Idiocy, 1856, pp. 6-8.

In one instance, where three children had been idiots, they had been kept by their unnatural mother, in a close room, in the most filthy condition possible, tied with a short rope around their necks, and never suffered to stand, or to take the fresh air. . . It is not surprising that under this treatment, two of the three had died. It was surprising that they lived to adult age.1

The cost of idiocy was found to be great. There were single towns of less than 2,000 population where the tax for idiot paupers alone was $750 a year. On the supposition that two-thirds of the idiots required the constant attendance of at least one person, the value of whose labor was estimated at not less than fifty cents a day, the total cost to the state was given as $250,000 a year, equal to an annual per capita tax of 67 cents.2

The commission recommended the establishment of a school for idiots to accommodate 100 pupils. They recommended that it be a private, state-aided institution, rather than one controlled by the state, as thus, they thought, it would not be affected by politics, would be run more economically, and be more frequently an object of charity. They also proposed that when $15,000 had been raised, the state contribute $20,000. Imperative as was the need, the project was defeated by the casting vote of the president of the senate after the house had voted the appropriation.*

The next step was taken by Dr. Henry M. Knight, a member of the commission, who in 1859 established in Lakeville a school for imbeciles with one pupil. The legislature of 1860° authorized the governor to expend

1 Report of Commissioners on Idiocy, 1856, p. 9. 2 Ibid., pp. 12, 13. 3 Ibid., p. 19 et seq. Vid. Rep. Board of Charities, 1892, p. 26. 6 P. A., p. 88.

5 Ibid.

not more than $1,500 for the support of indigent, idiotic children in Dr. Knight's school. In 18621 the appropriation of the two preceding years was made annual, and in 1864 the amount was increased to $3,000 a year, not more than $100 a year to be spent for a single pupil, save in exceptional cases. In 1873 the governor was authorized to expend $7,000, the regular amount for each pupil being raised to $125. Meantime, the state had not only, in 1868, exempted from taxation as much of the property of the school as yielded an annual income of $2,000, but had made grants aggregating $33,000. The number in the school increased as accommodations were provided, until the report of 1875 stated that 68 were in attendance at the close of the fiscal year 1874, 81 having been received during the year. Of these, 35 were beneficiaries of the state."

6. DEAF AND DUMB

In the last chapter it was seen that in 1837 the first step was taken towards the education by the state of the deaf and dumb. The state found no need of establishing a new institution, but all through the period used the asylum or school in Hartford. In 1843 the age limits for candidates were made 8 and 25, instead of 12 and 25. Those under 12 might be placed in the school for not more than eight years, the others for not more than six. The amount of the annual appropriation was increased from time to time, until in 1874 it was made $11,000. In 1871 the governor was authorized to contract with the Clark Insti

1 P. A., 1861-62, p. 134.

S. A., p. 190.

2 P. A., p. 85.

P. A., pp. 334, 335.

P. A., 1863, p. 122; 1866, p. 241; S. A., 1871, p. 263; 1872, p. 200.

• Rep., 1875.

■S. A., p. 336.

↑ P. A., pp. 26-29.

S. A., p. 73.

tute, Northampton, Mass., for the education of the mute children of four persons named in the act, and in 1874 to send deaf mutes, who had lived in the state for five years, to Groton to be educated at the Whipple Home School, on the same terms as at the Hartford school; that is, the annual expense for each pupil was not to exceed $175.

The exact facts regarding the deaf and dumb were always known, as selectmen continued to report to the governor, on or before January 15 of each year, the num ber of deaf and dumb persons within the towns, together with the age, sex, and pecuniary circumstances of each."

3

7. BLIND

A similar report regarding the blind, also, was still made each year, and two new provisions were added before 1875. In 1838,* the year after the governor was appointed commissioner for the education of the deaf and dumb, he was appointed commissioner likewise for the blind. He was to select blind persons belonging to Connecticut, under the age of 25, to be educated in the New England Institution for the Blind, in Boston, for not more than five years, provided their parents and friends could not contribute to their support. The expense was limited to $1,000 a year. Two years later, in 1840, the age limit was raised to 40, provided there were not enough suitable persons under 25. In 1845 the restriction as to age was removed entirely, because the appropriation was not all called for. They were bound to have it expended if possible. In 1848 the resolution of 1838, with its age limit, was passed for another five-year period. In 1850 the 2 1875, 25, § 3. 3 Ibid. 4 P. A., pp. 8, 9. P. A., p. 4. 6 P. A., p. 34. 7 P. A., pp. 29, 30.

1 S. A., pp. 260,

7

261.

6

8

8 P. A., p. 9.

limit was again raised to 35, as there were not enough beneficiaries to exhaust the appropriation, the number then being three.1

3

Special acts were also passed authorizing the governor to use the fund for educating designated individuals in other schools. By 1856 the demand for the fund had increased so that the amount was made $2,000. This was increased in 1863 and again in 1871,° making the appropriation in 1874 $6,000 a year.

A provision of another sort was made in 1867. Selectmen were then granted authority to exempt from taxation. the estate, to the amount of $3,000, of blind persons who were unable to support themselves and their families. If the property was located in more than one town, the total exemption was not to exceed the sum named. In 1873* this exemption was made mandatory. The revision of 1875 added a clause that exemptions granted in different towns were to be apportioned according to the value of the property in each."

8. PENSION LAWS

The state pension law, providing for those wounded or killed in the service of the state and their families, was not changed. It remained the duty of the general assembly to care for all such."

No new law regarding soldiers was passed until the period of the Civil War. The great mass of such legislation came after 1875 but a few measures demand attention here.

During the war several emergency appropriations were