Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/687

MISSOURI ginning on the first Wednesday of January in odd years. Members of the legislature must be white males, and must have paid a state and county tax. The governor is elected for two years, and is not eligible to that office for more than four years in six. His salary is $5,000 per annum. A majority of each house of the legislature is sufficient to pass a bill over the executive veto. The other state officers, who are elected for the same term as the governor, are a lieutenant governor (who receives $7 a day during the session of the general assembly), secretary of state, auditor, treasurer (each of whom receives $3,000 a year), and attorney general. The constitution declares colored citi- zens ineligible to the above named state offices and also as members of the legislature. The supreme court, consisting of five judges elected by the people for six years, holds two annual sessions at St. Louis, at Jefferson City, and at St. Joseph. Besides having appellate jurisdiction, it issues remedial writs. There are 29 circuit courts, each having one judge elected for six years, except that for St. Louis, which has five judges. They generally hold two sessions a year. Besides these there are county courts of three justices in each county, and justices of the peace. Imprisonment for debt is prohib- ited by the constitution except for fines and penalties imposed for violation of law. Amend- ments to the constitution must be approved by a majority of the members elected to each house, and ratified by a vote of the people at the next general election. A homestead not exceeding $3,000 in value in cities of 40,000 inhabitants or more, and not exceeding $1,500 in smaller cities and in the country, is ex- empt from levy on execution. The real es- tate of a married woman is not liable for the debts of the husband. The grounds of di- vorce are impotence, desertion for a year, adul- tery, conviction of felony or infamous crime, habitual drunkenness for a year, cruelties or indignities that render life intolerable, the hus- band becoming a vagrant, and pregnancy by another than the husband without his knowl- edge at the time of the marriage. Missouri is represented in congress by two senators and 13 representatives, and has therefore 15 votes in the electoral college. The bonded debt of the state on Jan. 1, 1875, and the purposes for which the bonds were issued, were as follows : $3,000,000 3,735,000 2,340,000 1,455,000 2,853,000 504,000 892,000 2,727,000 439,000 200,000 201,000 1,589,000 104,000 400,000 900,000 Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad Missouri Pacific railroad St. Louis and Iron Mountain railroad 8. W. Branch Pacific railroad North Missouri " Platte County " Cairo and Fulton " Consols State debt proper Northwestern lunatic asylum University. . , S. W. branch Pacific railroad (guaranteed) Refunding state bank stock Funding state bonds Certificate to school fund Total $20,839,000 The total receipts into the treasury during the year ending Jan. 1, 1875, were $3,307,419, while the disbursements on warrants amounted to $3,434,782. The balance in the treasury was $566,215. The constitution provides that an annual tax of 15 per cent, shall be levied upon the gross receipts of the Pacific, North Missouri, and St. Louis and Iron Mountain rail- roads for the payment ef the principal and interest of the state bonds received by those companies ; also a tax of one quarter of one per cent, on all real and personal taxable prop- erty for the payment of the state debt. Accord- ing to the federal census of 1870, the assessed value of real estate was $418,527,535 ; person- al, $137,602,434. The total taxable wealth in 1874 (two counties not reported) was $589,- 174,215, on which there was levied a revenue tax Q- of 1 per cent.) of $1,178,496, interest tax (| of 1 per cent.) of $1,473,183, and county tax amounting to $5,179,241. The state asy- lum for the insane is in Fulton, and was opened in 1851. Of the total number (668) treated during the two years ending Dec. 1, 1874, 136 were discharged recovered, 47 improved, 65 stationary, and 82 died. In 1875 there were 338 in the asylum. The insane asylum in St. Louis is a county institution, but the state ap- propriated $30,000 toward its support during 1873 and 1874. An additional asylum for the insane was established at St. Joseph in 1874. Deaf and dumb persons between the ages of 7 and 30 years are received free of charge for board and tuition at the state asylum in Fulton. This was opened in 1851, and at the beginning of 1873 had 146 pupils and 8 instructors. The annual appropriation by the state for current expenses is $7,000, besides $2,500 to the indi- gent fund. St. Bridget's institute (Roman Cath- olic) in St. Louis, for the education of the deaf and dumb, was founded in 1860. The institu- tion for the blind in St. Louis, opened in 1851, receives from the state an annual appropria- tion of $15,000, besides the salaries of officers and teachers, amounting to about $6,000. There were 100 pupils in attendance in 1874. The state penitentiary at Jefferson City has a capacity for 1,200 convicts; the number in confinement in 1874 was 3,000, including 42 females. Punishment is by the dungeon, and in some cases the lash. The prisoners are em- ployed in the manufacture of shoes, furniture, saddletrees, and barrels, and in the foundery and machine shop; about 500 convicts were thus employed in 1874. The penitentiary is leased to a company, and is just becoming self- sustaining. The constitution requires the gen- eral assembly to maintain free schools open to all persons between the ages of 5 and 21 years. Separate schools may be established for colored children, but all funds provided for the sup- port of public schools must be appropriated in proportion to the number of children with- out regard to color. Certain lands and other sources of income are set apart for a perma- nent school fund, and in case the income of such fund be insufficient to sustain a free school