large proportion of the inmates are incurable. The Northern Hospital is not yet completed, but already contains nearly as many patients as it ought to accommodate when complete. By this crowded condition, and the presence of the incurable with the curable, the chances of many who ought to recover are either lost entirely or seriously injured. Our hospitals are in the main well managed, and are under the supervision of what is known as the Visiting Committee to Insane Hospitals. They strongly recommended in their last report that an appropriation should be made for the construction of an asylum for our chronic insane, and we were much in hopes that the Legislature might make such an appropriation; but no action was taken, and meanwhile our hospitals, as curative institutions, are, to a great extent, necessarily a failure. The Asylum for the Feeble-Minded Children has 160 inmates at present; although in operation but four years, it is doing excellently the work for which it was designed, and has fully demonstrated the necessity for its existence, and its usefulness.' It is much crowded, and needs both more land and larger buildings. Our College for the Blind, and Institution for the Deaf, are without anything of special interest to report, but are doing a good work. Our penitentiaries are conducted much in the same manner as in other States, and the convict labor is let out. The Girls' Reform School, which had, during the last biennial period, a temporary home at Mt. Pleasant, has, by action of the last Legislature, been removed to a permanent and much more commodious home at Mitchelville, near the capital of the State. It is still short of room, but much better provided for than at Mt. Pleasant, where sixty girls were obliged to sleep in one small dormitory; the effect was felt to be terribly demoralizing. It is the endeavor of those in charge to teach the girls under their care industrial pursuits, and to find for them homes or places to work before discharging them. The superintendent writes me, of recent date, that they receive most gratifying intelligence of those thus provided for, from time to time. Their support fund, but eight dollars per month, is felt to be entirely too small. The Boys' Reform School is also doing efficient work, with a large farm and abundance of room. The Home for Soldiers' Orphans and Indigent Children, located at Davenport, by action of the last Legislature, received an appropriation of $16,000 for eight new brick cottages; also, $4,000 for a new brick school house, and $1,300 for the maintenance of industrial pursuits. The cottages are now building; the Home numbers 130 inmates. An effort was made to secure the passage of a bill during the last session prohibiting the keeping of children over two years of age in the poorhouses, and that such children as were destitute of proper parental or other care should be placed in the Home. It was not successful; and while such children may be sent to the Home, the law does not compel it, and county supervisors fail to have it done, in many cases, because of the expense to the county. Such a course cannot be too severely censured.

We are still without a Board of State Charities, but are hopeful of better things in the future. The Governor, in his last message, recommended the appointment of a Board of Control, and the doing away with the local Boards of Trustees. A bill to that effect was introduced, but did not pass. It has not seemed possible for any agreement to be reached as to the best plan for a Supervisory Board; but that we need one is painfully evident. It is hoped that the growth of public opinion during the next biennial period will be such as to culminate in unanimity of opinion and action in regard to a State Board of Charities.

NEBRASKA. BY BISHOP CLARKSON.

I was surprised in listening to the Annual Address of the President that so full reports were given from many of the States, and sorry that our annual reports had not been forwarded. I am afraid that anything I can say to supplement that address will only be in a general way, because I am not in possession of all the information that should be laid before this Conference. We have an institution for the blind at Nebraska City, now established about five years, and in which there are about 40 inmates; an institution for the deaf at Omaha, established about eight years ago, in which there are about 50 pupils; also, a reformatory for boys, now building at Kearney City, in the interior of Nebraska, to be opened next September. There is no school for girls. We have an insane hospital at Lincoln, the capital city, where we have accommodations for 285; I am sorry to say it is entirely too much crowded. On a recent visit there I was told that an appropriation would be asked to enlarge it.

So far as I know, these institutions are very well managed, and I hear no complaint about them more than what we usually hear, and, so far as my information goes, they are about like your institutions here. The penitentiary and hospital are very large buildings, but I don't think Nebraska has gone to the same expense as some of the older States, and we now are feeling the need of practising economy.

I must say I was somewhat startled, though deeply interested, at the strong assertions I heard with reference to the letting out of the prison labor by contract; and those assertions were accumulated and pressed with so much force, that I felt as though our young and beautiful State was about relapsing into barbarism. But I was very much relieved when I found that this State is also letting out the labor of its convicts by contract. Now, of course, there is something to be said upon both sides. I have not given the matter personal attention, and therefore cannot say much about it. In my visits to the prison I have found everything in good order. I have made inquiries about the economy of the management, and I have heard nothing but such complaints as would be made any how. We have regular, well-sustained, faithful and laborious moral and

religious training there. I don't believe we have anywhere better arrangements for a thing of that kind than in Nebraska; and it has been my business, when in the city, to preach to these convicts. The meetings are really as interesting to me as any I have to attend in any part of my diocese.

But I was very much struck by what the President said about caring for the young, and for persons not far gone in vice, and not confining them with the old, hardened criminal. My heart sinks within me when I see them so, young persons, without a single trace of any crime on their countenances, forced every day to be with those steeped in crime, and whose countenances bear the marks of a most debased and degraded life.

We have no Board of Charities in Nebraska yet, but we mean to have. Our public institutions are managed by the Board of Institutions, consisting of the Governor and State officers; but these all have so much to do, that they cannot give the subject the attention that a Board of Charities would.

MASSACHUSETTS.

MESSRS. SANBORN, SPALDING AND TUFTS.

The PRESIDENT: The State of Massachusetts is represented here by several delegates, and I think the time allowed Massachusetts may be divided something in this way: As our Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity is not represented, I will briefly state in behalf of that Board what seems proper; and will next call upon Mr. Spalding for a statement with regard to the Prison Commission, of which he is Secretary, and then call upon another delegate, Colonel Tufts.

In regard to the central supervision of our charities, nothing of importance has taken place in the way of legislation since we met. Some slight amendment in legislation has taken place, and one or two very important changes have been made in the administration, which were touched upon by Dr. Wheelwright. The most interesting of these, at the present time, is the saving of the lives of infant children. The new Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity has settled at last the question of proper care for foundlings and motherless infants. The number of deaths among infants of this class in Massachusetts, as in other States, was enormous, and did not diminish much when they were made the special care of one of our establishments, the State Almshouse. It seemed almost impossible to keep them alive there, although we have for several years had an excellent example in our Infant Asylum of what may be done by sufficient pains and skill. Encouraged by the success there, the Board caused a change of system, and now, instead of sending these infants to the State Almshouse, where in former years there was a mortality of more than seventy-five per cent. among them, they are boarded out in families, and we have reduced the mortality about one-half. Taking the whole class of infants cared for by the State, there is now a mortality of less than

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40, and, perhaps, less than 30, per cent. That we consider an important result, because it has not been secured in any other part of the world so far as we know, - certainly not in the United States, and perhaps not in any foreign country. You will hear this matter set forth more fully when Dr. Wheelwright's paper is read; while the papers of Mrs. Richardson and Colonel Tufts will speak at some length of our system in other respects that concern children.

Mr. W. F. SPALDING, Secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Commission, said there had been important penal legislation in his State this year, some features of which he should mention in his paper, this evening. There were also changes of some importance relating to the details of administration in the county prisons, which will work great improvements in course of time.

We also had some hope of establishing a reformatory upon the Elmira plan this year in Massachusetts; a bill was drawn and passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House by a small majority. It was proposed to establish it in the old State Prison, which was perhaps one of the reasons for its failure. A strong sentiment in favor of having such a reformatory for men was created, however; and there is good prospect that we shall obtain, next year, an appropriation to establish such an institution. Another attempt was made this year to effect a radical change in our county prison system, so as to adopt the new English method, putting all the county prisons under the control of a central Board, with the principal officers appointed by the Government, and the subordinates appointed by the chief prison officers; the State controlling the administration of all the prisons. This also failed, though reported unanimously by the Committee on Prisons. The people were not ready for so radical a change. We hope to gain that legislation in a few years, which will enable us to establish a broad, comprehensive. and uniform system, for the whole State.

Col. TUFTS: As Massachusetts is down in the programme for several papers, and will occupy considerable time, I will not attempt to speak now, further than to say that I have been in charge of the State Primary School, at Monson, for only six months, and that whatever is good there cannot be ascribed to me. The reforms there were instituted by others, to whom the credit is due. This School was formerly an almshouse, and although a few paupers still live there, it is intended to make it practically a school.

I hardly think I have very much to say about Maryland; but since I have charge of one of the State institutions there, as you know, I will have a word or two to say about that. The State of Maryland has built an institution for the insane which agrees more with the Eastern than with the Western institutions, and it is very fully and efficiently equipped and furnished. It was the intention last year to separate, in their treatment, the idiotic from the

insane; and we hope that, after a while, Maryland will follow other States in that direction, and establish a school for the feebleminded. At present no such school exists, and cannot with the present laws of Maryland. The State institutions are all doing very good work, and the public charities are growing up slowly. I have visited the State Penitentiary, in which there is good discipline; and, with very few exceptions, the convicts are kept at work. I believe the labor is let to a shoemaking company, and it is said this plan works well. There have been few changes in the administration of these institutions.

RHODE ISLAND. BY MR. PENDLETON.

I do not think Rhode Island is entitled to ten minutes, when the larger States have no more time. Therefore, I shall not detain you ten minutes, unless I forget myself. We have a State Workhouse and State Almshouse for the poor, a State Asylum for the incurable insane, and a State Prison, all located on the State farm, in the town of Cranston, seven miles from Providence. These institutions have been under the management and control of the State Board of Charities since 1869, except the State Prison, which came under our supervision two years ago. We feel pretty well satisfied with the way our institutions are managed. For the chronic insane we have four one-story pavilions, and one cottage for the more excited patients, where all but the latter have perfect freedom to go in and out of the pavilions, as they please, during the day. The lot enclosing them contains no more than four or five acres, so that we have no difficulty in finding them at any time. The system works very well; indeed, we think it is a model way of caring for the incurable insane. We have about 240 in this asylum, about 200 in the Workhouse, and about 160 in the Almshouse about 600 paupers, all told—and about 200 in the State Prison and Providence County Jail, which form one building.

To show the confidence of the State in the Board of Charities, I will say, that the Reform School, formerly managed by the city of Providence, comes under our management tomorrow - the first of July. The General Assembly, in April last, appointed the State Board of Charities a committee to prepare plans and submit them at the next session, in May, for the government of the Reform School. Accordingly we submitted plans, and recommended (if the State Board of Charities were to control the school) that it should be located on the State farm. Otherwise we would not care to have it under our charge. We also recommended the cottage, or open plan, for building. There was at first some objection made by several members of the Legislature, to locating the school on the farm. They thought these children ought not to come in contact with the inmates of the other institutions located there. But when they learned that the school for boys would be placed in the northeast corner of the farm, and the girls in the southeast