Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/43

MAINE 35 contracted before marriage, nor for those after- ward contracted in her own name ; but she is liable in both cases, and may be sued. Mar- riages, births, and deaths must be registered in every town, and reported to the secretary of state. Intention of marriage must be recorded in the office of the town clerk at least five days before the certificate is granted, and the mar- riage must be solemnized by a minister or jus- tice of the peace. White persons are prohib- ited from marrying negroes, Indians, or mulat- toes. Treason, murder in the first degree, and arson of an occupied dwelling in the night, are punishable with death ; so also is killing in a duel, and the seconds are liable to the same punishment as the principals. Rape, arson of a dwelling in the day time, and burglary at night by a person armed with a weapon, or making an assault, are punishable with imprisonment for life. Adultery is punished with imprison- ment for not less than one nor more than five years. The receipts into the state treasury during the year ending Jan. 1, 1875, amounted to $1,423,473, and the expenditures to $1,524,- 497. Of the receipts, $142,258 was from the tax on savings banks, and $67,996 on public lands, while nearly all of the remainder, about $1,170,000, was from direct taxation. Of the expenditures, $432,200 was on account of interest, and $238,276 on account of sinking fund and principal of public debt ; about $82,- 000 for special and exceptional appropriations ; $407,477 to towns for common schools ; and about $320,000 for general state purposes. On Jan. 1, 1875, the entire amount of the pub- lic- debt was $7,088,400, of which $2,'223,000 was in registered and $4,865,400 in coupon bonds. Deducting the sinking fund ($1,514,- 022) held for the payment of the debt, the liability of the state amounted to $5,574,378. While in many other states a large portion of the public revenues is raised by indirect taxa- tion, in Maine nearly the entire amount is de- rived from direct taxes. The rate on the val- uation of 1874 was five mills on the dollar. The total value of real and personal property in 1874, estimated on a true cash basis, was stated at $254,000,000. The assessed value of real estate, as returned by the census of 1870, was $134,580,157, and of personal property $69,673,623; the true valuation of real and personal estate was $348,155,671. The total amount of taxation not national was $5,348,- 645, of which $1,350,305 was state, $315,199 county, and $3,683,141 town, city, &c. The institutions supported wholly or in part by the state are the insane hospital, reform school, state prison, soldiers' orphans' home, and two normal schools. The insane hospital in A- gusta was opened in 1840, since which time 4,404 patients have been received, of whom 4,011 have been discharged, 1,770 recovered, 767 improved, 675 unimproved, and 799 have died. The daily average under treatment in 1874 was 406. Of the 393 in the hospital at the close of the year, 43 were supported by the state, 291 were receiving state aid of $1 50 per week, and 59 were supported by their friends at the rate of $4 or $7 per week, according to accommodations. The capacity of this in- stitution is inadequate to the needs of the state, and provision has been made for the erection of another. The total expenditures on account of the hospital in 1874 were $103,917, of which the state paid about $34,000 for the support of indigent insane, and towns and individuals about $56,000. Maine has no state institutions for the care of the deaf and dumb or the blind ; but $14,179 was paid from the treasury in 1873 for the education in other institutions of 55 deaf and dumb and 11 blind beneficiaries. The state prison at Thomaston at the beginning of 1874 contained 129 convicts, of whom 55 were under sentence for larceny, 20 for burglary, and 12 for murder. The average annual num- ber of commitments during the ten years end- ing with 1873 was about 51. With the ex- ception of a period of about eight years, the state has always employed the labor of the con- victs in manufacturing operations on its own account, producing carriages, harness, and boots and shoes. In 1873 the labor of the convicts defrayed all the expenses of the institution, and yielded to the state a net profit of $6,645. * During the 20 years ending with 1873 the sales of the product of convict labor amounted to $614,028. A beginning has been made of in- troducing this system of industry into the va- rious county jails. The average number of convicts in the 13 jails of the state in 1873 was 76, making with the average number in the state prison (146) a total of 222. The reform school, opened in 1852, is about 4 m. from Portland, where a farm of 160 acres is devoted to the purposes of the institution. Boys be- tween the ages of 8 and 16 years are received, and besides attending school four hours a day are occupied in farming, making bricks, shoes, and chairs, and in general housework. The average number of boys in 1874 was 137, and the appropriation by the state amounted to $20,000. An industrial school for girls was opened in Hallowell in 1875. The military and naval orphans' asylum at Bath affords a home for the children of the soldiers who died in the civil war. The number of inmates at the close of 1874 was 55 ; state appropriation, $10,000. There is also a general orphan asylum in Ban- go r, which receives state aid. The Maine gen- eral hospital in Portland is aided by the state. The educational interests of the state are un- der the supervision of a state superintendent, appointed by the governor and council, and there are city superintendents. Every city, town, and plantation is required to raise and expend annually for the support of schools therein not less than $1 for each inhabitant, under penalty of not receiving any share of the state school fund. The permanent school fund, derived chiefly from the sales of wild lands belonging to the state, amounts to Besides the income of this fund, the