Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/157

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 149 ington city asylum is supported by the District government and by the products of the farm attached, which is worked by the prisoners. It receives sick and destitute persons, and va- grants and petty criminals committed by the courts ; it has from 50 to 200 inmates. The reform school for boys had 79 inmates, consist- ing of juvenile delinquents committed by the courts, and of destitute boys admitted on the order of the governor of the District or the trustees of the schools. Congress has recently appropriated $100,000 for the purchase of a farm and the erection of bnfldings for this in- stitution, and in August, 1872, it was removed from the vicinity of Georgetown to Mount Lin- coln, 3 m. N. E. of the capitol, where 150 acres of ground have been purchased, upon which a building capable of accommodating 300 inmates has been erected. The national soldiers' and sailors' orphans' asylum, estab- lished in 1866, had 37 male and 31 female in- mates; it receives only the orphans of Union soldiers and sailors, and is supported by annual appropriations by congress, and by voluntary contributions. The freedman's hospital, estab- lished in 1865, is supported by congress, which in 1872 appropriated $74,000 for its mainte- nance; its inmates, who are admitted on the recommendation of the governor of the Dis- trict, numbered 115 males and 110 females, all but 10 colored. The national soldiers' home, about 2 m. N". of Washington, was estab- lished in 1851 with the unexpended balance of the contributions levied by Gen. Scott du- ring the Mexican war. It is supported mainly by a levy of 12 cents on the monthly pay of soldiers of the regular army. Its inmates, superannuated and disabled soldiers, numbered 250. Congress also makes an annual appre- ciation in aid of the Columbia hospital for romen and lying-in asylum, and of Provi- snce hospital (Roman Catholic). The gov- iment hospital for the insane, situated S. the Anacostia river, near Uniontown, was established in 1853 for the " curative treat- ment of the insane of the army and navy and of the District of Columbia." It con- tained 422 male and 139 female patients. The Columbia institution for the deaf and dumb founded by Amos Kendall, and chartered congress in 1857. It is supported by con- gressional appropriations, by the tuition fees of a few paying pupils, and by voluntary con- tributions. The amount appropriated by con- gress in 1872 was $48,000 for the support of the institution, and $70,000 for the purchase of additional grounds. It is designed especial- ly for residents of the District and the children of soldiers and sailors. A collegiate depart- ment, known as the national deaf-mute college (the only such college in the world), was organ- ized in 1864, and is designed to receive stu- ents from the deaf and dumb institutions of the various states. In 1873 it had 8 professors and 59 students, of whom 19 were semi-mutes. Including the above, the whole number of in- structors in the institution was 11, and the whole number of pupils 108, of whom 16 were females. Columbian college (Baptist) was or- ganized in 1822, and in 1872 had 27 professors and instructors, and 261 students. Howard university (Congregational), organized in 1866, is an outgrowth of the freedmen's bureau, de- signed especially for colored students, but is not restricted by its charter in respect of race or sex. (See HOWARD UNIVERSITY.) Gonzaga college (Roman Catholic), organized in 1858, had in 1872 9 professors and 107 students in the preparatory department. Wayland semi- nary (colored Baptist), organized in 1865, had 8 instructors and 85 students. The law school of the national university, organized in 1870 as a branch of a projected university, had 6 professors and 98 students. The national col- lege of pharmacy has been recently organized with 3 professors and 17 students. The insti- tutions mentioned above are in "Washington. In Georgetown is Georgetown college (Roman Catholic), organized in 1789, a notice of which will be found in the article GEORGETOWN. Be- sides Georgetown and Washington, there are four post offices in the District, viz. : Anacostia, Brightwood, Mount Pleasant, and Tenallytown. The public schools are under the charge of four boards of trustees. One board, of 20 mem- bers, has control of the white schools of Washington city; the second, of five members, has control of the white schools of George- town ; the third, of seven members, has charge of the schools both white and colored of the county of Washington. There is a superin- tendent for these schools, who, as well as the trustees, is appointed by the governor for two years. A board of three trustees, appointed by the secretary of the interior for three years, was constituted by act of congress in 1862. This board appointed a superintendent, and continued to have the management of the col- ored schools of Georgetown and Washington city until April 1, 1873, when the act of con- gress of March 3, 1873, went into effect, which created a board of nine trustees, appointed by the governor for three years (three of them retiring annually), for those schools, and pro- vided for the appointment of a superintendent, a secretary, and a treasurer by the same au- thority. The public schools are entitled to "all moneys accruing from fines, penalties, and forfeitures for violation of the laws of the United States within the District of Columbia." The colored schools of Washington and George- town receive a proportion of all moneys de- voted to school purposes in those cities, deter- mined by the ratio which the colored children bear to the whole number of children of school age. The act of congress of June 25, 1864, requires parents and guardians, under penalty of a fine of $20, to send their children between the ages of 6 and 14 years to some public school at least 12 weeks in each year, unless elsewhere educated. By the census of 1870 there were 31,671 children of school age (6 to