Before leaving these institutions I must call attention to another characteristic form of waste. I refer to the delicacies furnished to the officials and inmates. “It has not seemed exactly right,” says Mr. Roberts, setting forth the scandal in very moderate terms, “that the taxpayers of the State should be required to pay for Blue Points, lobster, terrapin, frogs’ legs, partridge, quail, venison, and most of the delicacies of the season to supply the tables of officials already well paid and well housed by the State.” But solicitude about table economies was never known to be a trait of bureaucratic parasites. They never trouble themselves to prolong their vision to the meager tables of the poor and suffering robbed of the necessaries of life to load theirs with luxuries. The same limited vision is exhibited on holidays in their generosity at other people’s expense. “Is it fair,” says Mr. Roberts, protesting against this touching display of human goodness, “that the average workingman should wear poor clothes and live on plain fare in order that he may bring up his family decently and honestly, while the inmates of State institutions are indulged with turkey at eighteen cents a pound, footballs at $4.83 each, oranges, candy, nuts, ice cream, and expensive luxuries?... It must not be forgotten,” he adds, mentioning a truth commonly forgotten even by people that have reached a higher civilization than that of the average State official, “that the money spent for these inmates is not voluntary contribution, but is the product of enforced taxation.”[C]