TABLE 122.—SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF SINGLE AND WIDOWED INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP, WHO DID NOT APPLY FOR REHABILITATION BY SEX
| Subsequent history | INMATES WHOSE HISTORY WAS AS SPECIFIED | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Wo- men | Total | |
| Died within one year of admission to Ingleside | 31 | 16 | 47 |
| Died within three years of admission to Ingleside | 33 | 11 | 44 |
| Went to work or to friends or relatives | 83 | 25 | 108 |
| Now in charitable institutions | 124 | 70 | 194 |
| No information available | 154 | 38 | 192 |
| Total | 425 | 160 | 585 |
It is highly suggestive that a very large proportion of those who went to work or to friends or relatives left in January, 1908, when Ingleside was about to be closed and all the inmates removed to the Relief Home. When the final alternative was presented to go permanently to an institution or to find some other home, they were able to make the latter choice. Most of them belonged to the wandering labor classes which find no hardship so great as the monotonous, comfortable life of an orderly institution where thorough discipline is maintained. The Relief Home was, fortunately, located beyond the city a mile from any car line. It was far removed from the bustle and the sensational diversions which were so pleasantly accessible to the lazy and the semi-vicious at Ingleside. The mere limitation of the right to go in and out freely was so irksome that many chose to take their chance in the world again rather than go where they must ask for a pass.
(c) Applicants Who Had Never Been at Ingleside
Mention has already been made, [page 325], of the fact that between 100 and 200 persons left the almshouse shortly after the fire, most of them presumably going to the camps and posing as refugees. Besides these there were 27 applicants for relief who, although not in the almshouse at the time of the fire, had been there one or more times, one of them 16 times, in the eight years previous. In most instances the Rehabilitation Committee had no means of knowing that these people were former almshouse inmates, and the grants were made merely on the ground of old age. The more important details concerning this group of 27, none of whom were at Ingleside, are as follows:
To 13 persons relief was granted in sums ranging from $15 to $125, and six of these were believed to be non-dependent in 1909, while seven were in the Relief Home. Grants were refused to nine applicants; eight of these required such care and supervision as that provided in the Relief Home, and the ninth, who was an opium taker, was aided by a sister. Checks were canceled in three cases: one, because other relief was given; another, because the applicant was found to be a drunkard; and the third, because the money had been paid to the wrong person. In the two remaining cases of the 27 no action was taken.
It is surprising to find that the 13 cases in which relief was granted average ten years younger than the Ingleside cases. They were either persons who had gone in former years to the almshouse to convalesce after illness, as was customary with those discharged from the City and County hospital, or persons who had some physical or mental disability that made it difficult to keep employment. Most of the others who were not in the Relief Home in April, 1909, if they live will probably come back there. Of the 14 applicants who did not receive aid, nine were in the Relief Home three years after the disaster or had died there.
One last group of the aged and handicapped remains to be mentioned,—35 applicants who had been neither in the almshouse nor at Ingleside, but who arrived at the Relief Home between April, 1908, and April, 1909. These had been able to hold out until then against the ravages of age, disease, incapacity, and misfortune. A few, a very few, were again independent of relief three years after the grant was made, but of the remainder, 21 were still in the Relief Home or other charitable institutions, and nine had either left the city or had died.