Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/529

PENNSYLVANIA 503 species, and musk-rats abound ; but the beaver, which has given name to so many mountains, rivers, creeks, and swamps all over the State, no longer exists. The wild turkey is practically exter minated, but is occasionally shot on the mountains. Owls, wood- doves, thrushes, and other birds are abundant. Harmless snakes of various species are innumerable, especially a constrictor, the black snake, which grows to a length of 5 or 6 feet. Two venomous snakes are still numerous, the copper-head in the half-cultivated districts and the rattlesnake in the mountains. The latter, in spite of all efforts to exterminate it, breeds with incredible rapidity. In summer it descends into the valleys. But, while the more dreaded copper-head is active and malicious and bites without warning, the rattlesnake is always sluggish and timid, and takes so much time to get into coil, and is so noisy about it, that it is an object more of contempt than of apprehension. The black snake is its worst enemy and is always victorious ; the deer also bounds around it, leaps upon it, and scatters it in pieces ; the hog feeds upon it ; and yet half the State is infested with it. Poisonous insects are almost unknown ; but infinite swarms of gnats torment cattle and men in the forest counties. During a short season in summer mosquitoes abound along the tidal rivers, when the south wind blows. Fleas have only recently been im ported ; but ticks are common in the lowland woods, and the native bed-bug, which breeds under the bark of the hemlock, has become domiciled throughout the State, and is the curse_not only of the traveller but of a large part of the resident population. Government. The constitution of 1874 gives the right to vote to every male citizen over twenty-one years of age who has been a citizen of the United States one month, resident in Pennsylvania one year, and in his election district two months ; but, if over twenty-two years old, he must have paid a tax at least two months before the day of election. The legislative power is vested in a general assembly of two houses, fifty senators elected by the people for four years and two hundred representatives for two years. There are strong constitutional guards against special legislation. The executive department consists of a governor, lieutenant-gover nor, and secretary of internal affairs, elected each for four years, an auditor for three, and a treasurer for two, together with a secretary of state, an attorney-general, and a superintendent of public in struction, each appointed for four years by the governor with con sent of the senate. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of seven judges elected for twenty-one years ; forty-three district courts of common pleas each with one or more judges elected for ten years, and exercising probate jurisdiction except in cities where there are orphans courts ; and local magistrates of minor jurisdiction. The State sends twenty-seven representatives to the national Congress ; and federal courts for the eastern districts are held at Philadelphia, and for the western district at Pittsburgh, Williamsport, and Erie. Population. The population was estimated in 1755 at 200,000. The results of subsequent censuses are shown in the following table Census. 17<K) 1800 1S10 18^0 1830 1840 1S50 I860 1870 1880 Males. Females. Total. Density per square mile. 0-6 13-4 18-0 23-3 30-0 38-3 51-4 64-6 78-2 95-2 Of the last total 85,535 were coloured ; 587,829 were of foreign birth, including 80,102 English, 236,505 Irish, 20,735 Scotch, 29,447 Welsh, and 168,426 Germans. Education. In 1880 but 4 6 per cent, of the population over ten years old were unable to read, and 7 1 per cent, unable to write. The State is divided into 2215 districts, which hold school property valued at 28,341,560, and maintain 19,183 schools, of which 7812 are graded. Directing boards elected by the people appoint county superintendents. The State superintendent has two deputies. The teachers number 21,289, of whom 12,778 are women, the average monthly wages for men being 35 12, and for women $28 89. There are fourteen normal schools, ten being under State patronage. The total school expenditure for 1882 was 8,262,244, including bl,000, 000 of State aid, given every year. The schools are free to all persons from six to twenty-one years of age ; and this " school population" in 1880 numbered 1,422,377. In 1883 there were 945,345 on the registers; the average attendance was 611,317. There are twenty-eight colleges giving four-year courses, but only five confine themselves strictly to college work, viz., university of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, Lehigh university at South Bethle hem, Lafayette college at Easton, Haverford college at Haverford, and Dickinson college at Carlisle. The grounds, buildings, and apparatus of twenty institutions are valued at $3,186,000, and they hold 3,951,000 in productive funds. Swarthmore college and eight others admit both sexes to equal privileges. The pecu liar industries of tho State have led to extensive provisions for technical and scientific instruction. There are seventeen theological schools, a law department in the university of Pennsylvania, five medical colleges, all in Philadelphia, an academy of fine arts, and about two hundred academies of various grades. Prisons, <kc. There are two penitentiaries, the Eastern, at Phil adelphia, on the separate-cell system, with about 1000 convicts, and the Western, at Allegheny, on the congregate system, with about 650 convicts. The reform school at Morganza (cottage system) and the house of refuge at Philadelphia receive youthful offender. -, who in both institutions average over 1000. An industrial reforma tory at Huntingdon, with room for 500 youthful criminals sentenced for first offences, is near completion (1884). There are 69 county jails, costing annually 750,000; the commitments for the year ending 30th September 1883 were 2323, and the inmates 1127. Pauperism, Insanity, etc. On 30th September 1883 there were 38 county almshouses, containing 8313 inmates, costing for the year 1,296,945, to which add 203,830 for township poor and 226,000 for outdoor relief. A law of 1883 forbids the retention of children over two and under sixteen in almshouses with adult paupers for more than sixty days. Charitable institutions and societies are numerous. Since 1879 a society for organizing charity has been operating in Philadelphia to prevent indiscriminate and duplicate giving, and mendicancy. There are five State hospitals for insane, at Harrisburg, Danville, Warren, Dixmont, and Norristown. These with three other prominent establishments had 3575 inmates on 1st October 1882, of whom 2220 were indigent. In one year 5107 cases were treated, 1552 newly admitted, 968 persons dis charged, 368 died. In 1880 there were 3884 blind persons in the State ; in January 1884 there were 373 in institutions assisted by the State. Of those discharged about two-thirds have a fair pro spect of self-support. In institutions for deaf and dumb there were 321. Of 404 children in the institute for feeble-minded at Media only 100 were deemed incapable of improvement. Agriculture. By the census of 1880 there were 301,112 persons engaged in agriculture, and 1,154,955 in all other occupations. The number of farms was 213,542, averaging 93 acres each. There were under improvement 13,423,007 acres, an increase of 1,907,042 since 1870 ; the value of products was 129,760,476. The principal crops are wheat, maize, hay, and tobacco, the cultivation of the last having greatly increased of late, so that Pennsylvania ranks third among the tobacco-raising States of the Union, its product in 1880 being 36,943,272 It). It is most largely grown in Lancaster county. There is a large yield of honey and maple sugar, and the butter product of 1880 was 79,336,012 lb. Manufactures. The manufacturing industry has more than trebled since 1860. In 1880 the capital invested in 31,232 estab lishments was 474,510,993, the cost of material used in a year 465,020,563, the total sum paid in wages 134,055,904, the number of persons employed being 387,072, and the value of pro duct 744,818,445, or nearly one-seventh of the total product of manufactures in the United States (5,369,579,191). Iron and steel take the lead ; textile fabrics, including carpets, cottons, woollens, silks, yarns, hosiery, and hats make a large item ; 333 tanneries yield in leather 23,735,814 ; flour and grist mills do a large business ; the lumber interest centres at Williamsport and glass-making at Pittsburgh, and there are salt-wells at Allegheny. Communications. Connexions between the navigable rivers were effected in former years at a cost of over 50,000,000, by a system of canals now chiefly used for the carriage of coal, subordinate to the mining and railway corporations, which are closely related. There are about 5500 miles of railroad in the State belonging to numerous companies, but the Pennsylvania Railroad system and the Phil adelphia and Reading system are by far the most important. The Pennsylvania has not only consolidated under its management many lines within the State but has gained control by purchase or lease of trunk lines and branches leading through other States, east, west, north, and south, including in all over 6000 miles of road. Of these 2555 belong to the Pennsylvania division, of which the gross earnings in 1883 were 32,017,818, and the net earnings $13,696,399. The Philadelphia and Reading owns or controls 1583 miles of road, and along with a heavy passenger business (18,195,264 carried in 1883) is largely occupied with transporta tion of coal from the mines to Philadelphia and New York. Its gross earnings in 1883 were 29,797,927, its net earnings 14,464,070, exclusive of rentals of leased lines and interest. In conjunction with the Reading Coal and Iron Company, a separate corporation, it controls seventy-four collieries, covering 163,317 acres of anthra cite coal lands. The gross earnings of the Coal and Iron Company for 1883 were 17,038,858, and the net earnings 921,771. Other companies control lines leading from the coal and iron regions to New York city. The railroad interest gives employment to over 76,000 men, besides the 3000 employed by the Baldwin Locomo tive Works in Philadelphia. Finance. For the year ending 30th November 1882 the State re venue, exclusive of a loan of 9,360,120, was 7,068,529, of which over 4,000,000 came from taxes on corporations, and nearly all the