King County's Relief Roll: 1,680 People and $4 Apiece
Behind the county's monthly $1,500 poor fund was a line of widows, abandoned wives and barefoot children—many turned away.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
There are 780 names on the eleemosynary docket in the county commissioners' office, representing about 1,680 indigent poor in King County. Each of these applicants for aid receives an average of $4, so that the monthly expenditures in relieving distress approach very near $1,520. This department is in the hands of Commissioner Gasch, chairman of the board, who says that the majority of the people to whom aid is granted are helpless women whose husbands are either dead or who have gone no one knows where.
The expenditures are confined almost exclusively to provisions for the starving and shoes for barefooted little girls and boys. Nearly every day there is a long train of applicants, many of whom are refused aid. Some appear to be able-bodied men, while others are broken down and have expressionless faces that tell a story of want and suffering more plainly than any words.
“Nearly every day there is a long train of applicants, many of whom are refused aid.”
In 1895 King County was already the last resort for widows, abandoned wives and children, and the commissioners measured relief in $4 portions. The debate over who deserves aid—and how much—is one Seattle still has, from cash assistance to encampment sweeps.
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