APPENDIX. There having been an unexpected delay in the publication of my report, I have used the time thus afforded me in extending my investigations into the three adjoining states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Although this examination has been very limited and but little importance is attached to it, yet it may be gratifying to the friends of temperance to see whether the use of ardent spirits is producing the same effects in our sister states as in our own-whether pauperism, and crime, and taxation are its invariable concomitants. The few facts thus gathered are here presented. From them it will be seen that alcohol acts with just about the same efficiency-prepares just about the same proportion of the inmates of jails and poor-houss for these receptacles of crime and poverty as with us-is just as reckless in its attacks upon domestic happiness-transfers just about as many fathers from their families to the prison, and as many wives and children to the poor-house, and imposes as heavy a tax upon the industry of the sober citizen. The difference in the system of taxation and expenditure between these states and that of New-York, does not enable me to show, as in this state, the proportion of the tax paid by the people which is absorbed by the two great items of expenditure, the support of the poor and the administration of criminal justice. However this may be, they are evidently a heavy burthen which is not counterbalanced by a single benefit. My first visit was to the town of Litchfield, Connecticut.— Here, as in the other places which I visited, every facility was promptly afforded me for effecting the object of my visit. The following is the certificate of the jailer : Whole number imprisoned within one year on criminal char- .. 31 0 3 28 Of the three classed as doubtful two made use of spirits-one of them very freely. The other was a transient person, and I cannot state with certainty as to his habits but presume he was intemperate. Of the 28, one has been in jail repeatedly-the last time for assault and battery on a tavern-keeper. Two others were lads, and their misconduct was the direct result of their intemperance. One man was convicted of an attempt to commit a rape on his own daughter; he was one of the lowest class of drunkards. Another was a boy, who was convicted and sent to state prison for breaking into a school-house and stealing a few books; a man was also convicted of a similar offence in another part of the county. A man, once very respectable, was imprisoned for a violent assault on his son, because the son had notified the retailers of ardent spirits not to sell him liquor. Two for abuse to their families. One other was a young man convicted of shearing horses tails; he was a great enemy to cold-water societies, and took this way to evince his hostility to them. Litchfield, May 9, 1834. A. SEDGWICK, Jailer. I understand that in one or two towns in this county, a large business has been carried on in this way. The tails of horses belonging to ministers who were active in the temperance cause, and temperance agents, were often thus trimmed. However provoking this might have been, there was a kind of fitness about it-opposing temperance and shearing horses tails should be the acts of the same persons. The towns in this state each support their own poor; there are a few state paupers, for the support of which, the towns draw on the state treasury. Most of these, however, are sent to an establishment for the purpose. near New London. As the person who now has charge of the poor of the town of Litchfield has had them but a short time, I called on Doct. Buel, who having been in the practice of medicine there a great many years, was well acquinted with the history and character of the paupers. He says-I certify, that there are now twenty-five persons supported by this town as paupers, whom, from my own knowledge and information obtained from others, I class as follows: Not from Intemperance, Doubtful 5 3 From their own Intemperance or that of their relatives, 17 $2,239 02 WM. BUEL. Amount of the town tax for the town of Litchfield for the year ending the 1st of April, 1834. is,. The expenses for the paupers of the town for the same period were. 900 00 A committee appointed by the town in October last for the purpose of investigating the subject and recommending some plan for the future maintenance of the poor, reported, that the average expense for their support for the seventeen preceeding years, had been seventeen hundred dollars. The last four years they have been provided for by contract with an individual, which has reduced the expense to the sum above stated the last year. ELIHU HARRISON, Town Clerk. Litchfield, May 8, 1834. Amount of costs on criminal prosecutions within the county of Litchfield, in the state of Connecticut, taxed by the Superior Court of said state and paid from the state treasury, within the year previous to the first of May, 1834, viz: .... Amount of costs taxed by the County Court within said county on state prosecutions within the period above mentioned and paid from the state treasury, viz :.... $713 20 1.678 29 $2,391 49 Certified by FREDERICK WOLCOTT, Clerk of said Superior aud County Court within the county of Litchfield. Costs taxed as within by the Superior Courts the year previous to the 1st of May, 1832,... Costs taxed as above by the County Court within the same period,... Certified by $1, 671 49 2,364 75 $4,036 24 F. WOLCOTT, Clerk. Litchfield, May 8, 1834. MASSACHUSETTS. BERKSHIRE COUNTY, Jail. I certify that forty-three persons have been committed to this jail within one year preceeding the first of April last, on criminal charges, whom I class as follows: Temperate,. Doubtful, Intemperate, 4 2 37 One of the doubtful was a stranger, but appeared to be intemperate. 66 Of the intemperate, eleven were committed as common drunkards," five of them from the same town, at the same time. One was convicted on three charges of assault and battery; one for assault and battery on a woman; four for profane swearing; one was acquitted on plea of insanity which was induced by a course of intemperance; one other also was insane probably from the same cause; four were committed for beating their wives. JOSEPH PALMER, Jailer. Lenox, May 10, 1834. Poor of the town of Sheffield. There have been eleven persons supported the whole or part of the time for the past year, by this town, only three of whom were reduced to poverty by intemperance, these are the children of an intemperate father; two others are the wife and child of a man who is hardly compos mentis-drinks spirits when he can get it; one other is a man eighty years old; two are women of about eighty years; another is an idiot; another is a single woman near fifty years old and is now supporting herself; the eleventh is a female who is sick, and her poverty cannot be attributed to intemperance. AMOS SHEARS, One of the Selectmen and Acting Overseers of Poor. Sheffield, May 10, 1834. N. B. There are five taverns in this town and none of them sell ardent spirit; and there was not one application to the board of excise for a license, either from a merchant or tavern keeper. Expense of poor of the town of Sheffield. I certify, that the whole amount of taxes assessed upon our town is, and has been, for several years past, three thousand dollars-fifteen hundred of which is payable in labor, for repairs of roads and bridges, seven hundred and fifty dollars for support of schools, (in addition to which we have a small school fund,) and seven hundred and fifty dollars for ordinary town charges, including support of poor. The expense incurred for the support of poor, for the two past years, has been five hundred and fifteen dollars per year. All the poor are supported in one family. EDWARD F. ENSIGN, Town Clerk. Sheffield, May 10, 1834. The expense of supporting the poor was much reduced, some years since, by adopting the present mode of supporting all who are able to be taken to the poor-house, in one family. The expense under the old mode, (of furnishing assistance to the poor, to be expended by themselves, and of supporting them in different families about town,) was, the last year we supported them in that manner, about two thousand dollars-now we support them by contract for four hundred and fifty dollars, with the exception of one unable to be taken to the poor-house, at sixty-five dollars. That sum includes the expense for support of the state paupers we drew last year from state treasury one hundred and thirty-four dollars. E. F. ENSIGN, Town Clerk, Poor of the town of Pittsfield. In the two years preceding the 1st of April last, there were about fifty-five persons assisted as paupers by the town of Pittsfield, whom I class as follows :— Not reduced to poverty by intemperance, 13 18 From their own intemperance or that of their relatives, 24 Of the doubtful are a number who were in the poor-house but a short time, and I had no means of knowing as to their habits; four were children whose parents, I did not know, and five others were transient foreigners. The expense of the poor for the first year was about $800 and the last year about $540. F DANIEL H. FRANCIS. The poor tax formerly paid by this town was generally more than $1,200. Mr. Francis has had charge of the poor a number of years. Poor of Williamstown. We certify that there were twenty-nine persons who were assisted as paupers the last year by this town, and after a careful examination, we give it as our decided opinion, that eighteen of them were brought to poverty through their own intemperance, or that of those on whom they were dependent for support.-One was not reduced to poverty by intemperance, and ten we class as doubtful. Of the doubtful is a family of eight persons, the parents of which make free use of spirits. One of those reduced to poverty by intemperance is a woman whose husband is in state prison for beating her while he was intoxicated. We find but two who are themselves intemperate, the rest are paupers by the intemperance of others, The husband of one of the above paupers was frozen to death while intoxicated. Expense for the support of the above paupers, the last year, was five hundred dollars. HENRY RAYMOND, One of the Overseers of the Poor. Board of Selectmen, and late one of the Overseers of the Poor. Berkshire, ss. I certify that the whole amount of costs taxed in criminal prosecutions, at the several terms of the Court of Common Pleas, in said county of Berkshire, for one year previous to May 1, 1834, is $1,567 32, and I further certify that no costs in criminal prosecutions, within said year have been taxed in the Sup. Jud. Court in said county; the criminal jurisdiction of the Sup. Jud. Court having been transferred to the Common Pleas except in capital cases. Lenox, May 12, 1834. CHARLES SEDGWICK, Clerk. VERMONT. BENNINGTON COUNTY. Jail. I certify that five persons have been committed to this jail, on criminal charges, in one year, preceding the first of December last, four of whom were intemperate, and one I was not sufficiently acquainted with to decide. Bennington, May 13, 1834. JESSE LOOMIS, Jr., Jailer. |