452 



MARYLAND. 



terms. The law requires the month of August 

 to be held as vacation in all the schools of the 

 State, and another month of vacation is al- 

 lowed which is to be designated by the county 

 commissioners in such a way as best to sub- 

 serve the convenience and advantage of their 

 respective counties. Each Board of Com- 

 missioners is required to elect an examiner 

 for their respective counties, and no teacher 

 can be employed until he produces a certifi- 

 cate of qualification from the examiner of the 

 county in which he proposes to teach, or from 

 the principal of the State Normal School. Pro- 

 vision for establishing the normal school in 

 the city of Baltimore is made in the same act, 

 and the general charge of the institution is 

 given to three trustees, to be appointed by the 

 Governor. The trustees have power to pre- 

 scribe the course of study and appoint the 

 faculty, which is to consist of a principal and 

 two male, and two female assistants, the prin- 

 cipal to have a salary of two thousand five hun- 

 dred dollars a year. Students of both sexes are 

 admitted, and are selected, by appointment of 

 the trustees, from candidates nominated by the 

 county commissioners. Those from the coun- 

 ties of Maryland, and from the city of Balti- 

 more, are to enjoy all the advantages of the 

 school, including the use of text-books, free of 

 charge, but students from other States are ad- 

 mitted on payment of twenty-five dollars per 

 session. All the male students of the normal 

 school are to receive instruction in military 

 tactics. All applicants for admission are re- 

 quired to produce a written declaration that 

 their object is to qualify themselves as public 

 school-teachers, and that their intention is to 

 engage in that profession in the State of Mary- 

 land. The principal of the State Normal 

 School is to have general supervision of all the 

 public schools in the State, and make an an- 

 nual report of their condition, expenses, etc., 

 to the Governor. In the city of Baltimore the 

 authority to establish a system of free schools 

 is given to the mayor and city council, with 

 power to prescribe such ordinances, rules, and 

 regulations as they may see fit. In all the 

 schools of the State, text-books are to be fur- 

 nished at the public expense, and must contain 

 nothing of a partisan or sectarian character. 



Authority is given to the districts and coun- 

 ties to make provision for public instruction 

 additional to that afforded by the State, in the 

 following section of the law : 



SECTION 1. Every school-house district, or any two 

 or more school-house districts, or any county, shall, 

 jointly, severally, and respectively, have the power to 

 levy taxes upon their respective assessable property, 

 for the purchase of sites and the erection of school- 

 houses ; for the improvement of the schools within 

 their boundaries; for the increase of the teacher's 

 salary heyond the amount herein prescribed ; for the 

 purchase of superior school apparatus ; for the estab- 

 lishment of grammar and high schools, or for any 

 other purpose that may tend to the increase of edu- 

 cational facilities. If any grammar or high school 

 be established by one school-house district alone, 

 then the trustees of such district shall exercise the 



same control over such grammar or high school as 

 hereinbefore provided for primary schools ; but if 

 such advanced school be established and maintained 

 by more than one school-house district, then the sev- 

 eral Boards of Trustees of the respective districts 

 shall jointly constitute the Board of Trustees for 

 such advanced school, and shall in their joint ca- 

 pacity exercise a like control over such advanced 

 school as in their several capacities they exercise 

 over their respective primary schools ; and if the ad- 

 vanced school is established by a county, then the 

 Board of County School Commissioners shall exer- 

 cise control over such advanced school. 



With regard to the sources of the school fund 

 and its distribution and use, the following pro- 

 vision is made : 



A State tax of ten cents on each one hundred dol- 

 lars of taxable property throughout the State shall 

 be levied annually for the support of the free public 

 schools and the Maryland State Normal School, 

 which tax shall be collected at the same time and by 

 the same agents as the general State levy, and shall 

 be paid into the Treasury of the State, to be distrib- 

 uted by the Treasurer to the Boards of School Com- 

 missioners of the city of Baltimore, and the several 

 counties, in proportion to their respective population 

 between the ages of fiye and twenty years. The total 

 amount of taxes paid for school purposes by the col- 

 ored people of any county, or in the city of Baltimore, 

 together with any donations that may be made for the 

 purpose, shall be set aside for maintaining the schools 

 for colored children, which schools shall be conducted 

 under the direction of the Board of County School 

 Commissioners, or the Board of Commissioners of 

 Public Schools of Baltimore, and shall be subjected 

 to such rules and regulations as said respective Boards 

 shall prescribe. 



This law went into operation on the 1st of 

 April, and an organization of colored schools 

 in different parts of the State was begun soon 

 afterward. In Baltimore some opposition was 

 made to a proposition that such schools be 

 governed by the same rules and regulations as 

 were prescribed for schools for whites. An 

 ordinance allowing that privilege was finally 

 adopted; but the Board of School Commis- 

 sioners for the city decided that no colored 

 teachers should be employed in any of these 

 schools. The number of colored pupils regis- 

 tered in Baltimore was 2,800, and the names 

 of 5,800 were on the books in other parts of 

 the State. The cost of educating this part of 

 the population is about $60,000 annually, nearly 

 one-half of which is paid by themselves. 



The general legislation of the Assembly, 

 aside from the school law, for the most part 

 involved matters of no particular interest. A 

 modification of the stringent Sunday law of 

 1866 was proposed, but the committee to whom 

 the subject was referred made a report adverse 

 to any change. A new bill was offered by^ 

 Mr. Devecmon as a substitute for this .unfavor-* 

 able report. He believed, he said, that a large 

 majority of the people desired a repeal of the 

 " Draconic, Puritanical, and, in some respects, 

 unconstitutional features of the law of 1866." 

 The idea of having a law on the statute-books 

 to forbid people to give away or sell a cigar or 

 a little soda-water on Sunday was ridiculous and 

 ludicrous in the extreme. Among the changes 

 proposed was one relieving from the operation 



