RHODODENDRON. 



373 



mercantile establishment, or by any telegraph or tele- 

 phone company " while the public schools are in ses- 

 sion, and forbids that any child between 10 and 15 years 

 of age shall be "so employed," except during the va- 

 cations of the schools, or under certain conditions 

 which are minutely specified. Truant officers are also 

 authorized to visit establishments where children are 

 employed, and all owners, superintendents, or over- 

 seers of such establishments shall keep on file certifi- 

 cates duly authenticated and minutely specifying that 

 said children have complied with the educational law. 

 In spite, however, of these and all other provisions for 

 the enforcement of the law. alien parents with children 

 born before coming to the State are constantly violating 

 it, through false statements respecting their children's 

 ages. Illiteracy (meaning thereby inability to read and 

 write) in the State, in 1880, was in the ratio of 1 1.2 to 

 100 of the whole population ; in 1885 the percentage 

 was 10.7. Under the operation of the compulsory law 

 it is hoped and believed it will soon be still further re- 

 duced. 



Cities. The State now contains four incorporated 

 cities Woonsocket, with a population of between 

 16,000 and 17,000, having in 1888 been added to Prov- 

 idence, Newport, and PawtuckeL 



Amendments to the Constitution. Several of these 

 have been made since 1885. According to a provision 

 of the constitution itself, no amendment to it can be 

 made which has not first been approved by a majority 

 of the whole General Assembly (consisting of a House 

 of Representatives and a Senate), and being submitted 

 to a popular vote shall have been accepted by three- 

 fifths of all the voters of the State. The first of the 

 amendments referraltovyasmadein 1886, prohibitingthe 

 manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors to be used 

 as a beverage. In the May session of the same year 

 the General Assembly (which holds two sessions a year, 

 the first in May, at Newport ; the second beginning iu 

 January, at Providence), passed a long series of enact- 

 ments for the enforcement of prohibition. Some of 

 the enactments, and especially some of the officials ap- 

 pointed to carry the enactments into execution, gave 

 great offence to large numbers of citizens of both 

 political parties. The enactments and appointments 

 known as the " May deal " resulted at the next State 

 election in a complete overthrow of the Republican 

 party, under whose administration the "deal" took 

 place. The practical result was, that the'prohibitory 

 law became a dead letter, and intoxicating liquors were 

 for sale openly and anywhere. During the present 

 year, 1889, the Republicans are again in power, and 

 the office of attorney-general is filled by an officer who 

 is prosecuting offenders against the law with a vigor 

 and determination that bids fair to secure for it some 



Show of rr-l'i-.-t. 



At the May session of the Legislature in 1888 an 

 amendment was submitted to the people extending the 

 suffrage to all soldiers and sailors of foreign birth from 

 Rhode Island who served in the army or navy of the 

 United States during the late civil war, and, receiving 

 the requisite three-fifths of all the votes cast, it became 

 a part of the Constitution. 



A proposed amendment in 1887, extending the suf- 

 frage to women, was submitted to the electors, but 

 failed to receive the required three-fifths of the votes 

 polled. 



At the January, 1888, session of the General Assem- 

 bly an amendment was approved and submitted to the 

 electors, extending the suffrage to every male citizen 

 of the United States who had for two years been a resi- 

 dent of the State and for six months a resident in the 

 town or city in which he may offer to vote, and who 

 has been duly registered ; provided, however, that he 

 hall not be allowed to vote in the election of the city 

 council of any city, or for the imposition of any tax. 

 or for the expenditure of any money, unless he shall 

 during the immediately preceding year have paid a tax 

 on property assessed at a valuation of not less than 



$134. The assessors of each town or city shall impose 

 on each registered voter a tax of one dollar, "or such 

 sum as with his other taxes shall amount to one dol- 

 lar," and said tax shall be paid into the public treasury 

 for the support of public schools, the General Assembly, 

 however, retaining _ to itself the right to prescribe by 

 law for the remission of this tax under given condi- 

 tions. This amendment received the required three- 

 fifths vote at the general State elections in April, 

 1888. 



Industrial Progress. No satisfactory information on 

 this point is at present obtainable. The discrepancies 

 between the State census of 1880 and that of 1885 are 

 so great and of such kind as to show that neither one 

 of them can be relied on for exact information. For 

 example, in 1880 the capital invested in cotton manu- 

 facture was said to be $29,260,734, and in 1885 it was 

 $21,154,255, whereas it is well known that there has 

 been a large increase in the capital so invested. In 

 woollen manufactures the capital invested was re- 

 ported in 1880 as $13,016,116, and in 1885 as $8,568, - 

 450, whereas there are good reasons for bejieving that 

 there could have been only a fractional difference, if 

 any, in the two periods. In 1880 the total value of 

 the products of the State was put at $108,714,671, and 

 in 1885 at $104,269,773 ; the product to each person 

 being in the first $393.14, and in the second $342.67. 

 And so on throughout the two censuses. The only 

 explanation given of these differences is, that in 1880 

 the estimates of value were made by the census-takers, 

 and in 1885 the estimates given were_those of the 

 manufacturers themselves. It is the estimate of good 

 judges that the annual increase in the value of the 

 products for the past few years has not been less than 

 five per cent, and probably has been more. (E. a. R.) 



RHODODENDRON, a genus of shrubs or small 

 v TTTT * re ? 8 f 'he Brieaem, or heath family, 



5"6 ( 541 w h' c h, including the Azaleas, comprises 

 Am ~Rep ) *he handsomest and most showy flow- 

 ering shrubs of both hemispheres. The 

 species of the genus are widely distributed, America 

 possessing several, the blossoms of some of which are 

 unsurpassed for beauty among our wild flowers. These 

 are locally known as Rosebay trees, but more generally 

 by their scientific title of Rhododendron (Greek, rho- 

 doii, rose ; dendron, tree ; from the rose-colored flowers 

 of many plants of the genus). R. maximum, the 

 common American species, is an arborescent plant, 

 bearing pale-red, funnel-shaped, wide-mouthed flowers 

 in umbellate corymbs, studded with green, yellow, or 

 purple protuberances, the leaves of elongated oval 



Rhododendron, 



form, smooth, and of thick coriaceous texture, their 

 length being 5 or 6 ins. The plant varies from 

 about 10 ft. to 20 or 25 ft. in extreme height, and 4 or 

 5 ins. diameter. It is an evergreen, renewing its 

 leaves every 3 or 4 years, and flowering from June to 



