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Page 144 THE POOR DISTRICT
litigation for which he did not have to pay, could be very
troublesome to his poor district. The usual wage paid an Overseer
was $2.50 per day, and of course his traveling expenses. In this
part of the country the usual wage was $1.50 per day and the man who
could make $2.50 was the exception, and as a rule this was the class
of men who were elected Overseers of the Poor. It is recalled that
in one instance an Overseer from DuBois felt called upon to visit
each insane asylum where inmates dependent upon the Borough were
kept, as well as the various reformatories throughout the State
where delinquent children were sent, ostensibly to see that these
institutions were run lawfully, and that his people were being
properly treated. This Overseer would buy as many as two mileage
books a year saying that it cost only 2 cents a mile in this way.
Why the auditors of the Borough never surcharged him for this
traveling is an enigma. In one instance this Overseer of the Poor
decided to have a surgical operation performed on a tramp who came
into the Borough and fell exhausted on the street. This man had no
known residence in the State, neither had he relatives, and under
the law at that time the County was supposed to pay for the care of
this class of pauper. At this operation there were present three
physicians beside the one employed by the Borough. The one operating
charged $100.00 and each of the others charged $25.00 for witnessing
the operation. It cost the Borough $25.00 for his support for the
week he lived in the Poor House and burial at which the County did
not demur, but they raised the question of paying for the operation.
A law suit resulted by the physicians sueing the Borough for their
services and the scandal was exposed. These instances are given for
the purpose of showing how indifferent tax payers are to the class
of public servants they elect to fill important offices.
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