BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.

Evening Star, Issue 18057, 26 August 1922, Page 4

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.

The correspondents who have commented with varying degrees of indignation on the treatment of aged and infirm dependents on tho community at tho-Benevo-lent Institution, moved thereto the record of our reporter s investigations, have mostly missed, or preferred to differ fiom, a main point of his conclusions. “The impression that remains,” ho wrote, “is that of an institution in which tilings generally aro managed as well as they can be . . . tho limiting influence is that it is institutional.” Our correspondents tend to be wholly condemnatory and censorious where he did his best to discriminate and strike a just balance. The fairest impression that could bo formed of tho place from his description of it would ccmo very close to that whicn was expressed by the old inmate in the words . “ I’m as comfortable as can be expected; but it isn’t homo.” Perhaps that inmate was of a specially grateful disposition; there were others obviously who were less contented; and it was a wistful resignation, rather than contentment, which was implied by his words. But content is hard to feel when old ago brings its own asperities, and it is only comparative comfort that can ever be afforded in institutions whore a hundred and fifty inmates are horded together with nothing but their ills to talk or think -about, and oifi cial ministrations have to take the place of kinsmen’s more tender attentions and regard. Wo would not ‘blame the Hospital Board, still less the manager and his wife, unduly for shortcomings that have been shown at the Benevolent Institution. Probably it is .ns well managed as nine out of ten institutions of tho kind. Some defects have, however, been revealed, which should he fairly easily capable of amendment, and the cheerful satisfaction with conditions that has been expressed by the chairman of tho committee seems to ns as out of place as the extreme strictures made by those who advance no claim to have based them upon their own tions. It should not Ire necessary for these aged inmates to have to forage so pathetically, buying such things as saveloys and sausages from their scanty means, to cko out the dreary monotony of their fare. There should bo hot joints, as well as cold meats and hashes.

A plain leg of mutton, my Lucy, I prithee get ready at three; Have it smoking and tender and juicy, And what better meat can there be? Gusto is rebuked ■ when the viands—admittedly ample—are cither cooked a second time or served cold, and it does seem iniquitous that their first fragrance should Ibo always confined to the staff—.as appears to be the system of this establishment—when the staff makes such a petty pwpcrtiou (about one in fourteen) of the mouths to be fed. The difficulty in regard to vegetables apparently is that those grown by the inmates —who do not eat them, except in soup, unless it bo in seasons when they are most plentiful—• are required for the hospital and tho nurses’ home as well as for the institution where they are grown. It is a sad task, however, providing delicacies for others. It savors of the system under Norman slavery, when the Norman ate the beef, the pork, tho mutton, and the ox, the swine, and sheop were his underlings’ care. Vegetables are not vegetables when they arc served in soup; tho supply of those comestibles should be augmented. It is tho “ordinary, necessary comforts,” as a correspondent points out to-day, that are wanting at the Benevolent Horae, and it is those which make all the difference between reasonable living and existence. Tho dull and tasteless life of such official institutions is not worse, perhaps, than all of us woifid bo called on to endure under some systems of Communism whicn zealots would impose on us if they had their way, but the best should be made of community establishments where those are required to deal with special needs. “ Subdue ‘ your appetites, boys, and you will have conquered human natur’,” was the maxim of Mr Squeers. The old folic of our benevolent homes should be free from such harsh discipline. The ideal should be to see them “ripen at their ease, .growing on the sunny side.” That ideal may be unattainable except to a very limited extent, but the Hospital Board cannot afford to leave the system of its Benevolent Institution where it was loft by tho discussion at Thursday’s meeting.-