204 



CONNECTICUT. 



number forty-eight were State beneficiaries. 

 Their cost to the institution amounted to $260 

 each, the State having contributed $175 of 

 that sum. 



Concerning the blind, the State causes them 

 to be taken care of in the well-known Perkins 

 Institution at Boston, appropriating annually 

 $3,000 to assist in their education. This sum 

 is not all expended for that purpose; the 

 persons who now receive State aid in that 

 institution being only nine, as Connecticut 

 sends thither fewer pupils in proportion to its 

 population than any other New-England State. 

 These facts should be more generally known, 

 as it is probable that there are others who 

 would take advantage of the State aid, if they 

 understood it. 



The children of those who fought and died 

 in the late civil war are provided for in the 

 Connecticut Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Mans- 

 field, and in the Fitch's Soldiers' Orphans' 

 Home at Darien. Both establishments are 

 accomplishing the purpose intended; the ap- 

 propriations made for them from the State 

 money are very moderate, but have been faith- 

 fully and economically expended. 



As to the soldiers from the State who sur- 

 vived the war and to whom the Federal 

 Government owed money for bounties, or on 

 other accounts, a good work has been done by 

 the Bureau of Claims in the Adjutant-General's 

 office; since its organization it has collected 

 $711,698.46 for soldiers, at no cost whatever 

 to the claimants. 



The Connecticut Industrial School for Girls 

 is making good progress toward attaining the 

 end of its establishment, and is enjoying, in no 

 small measure, the sympathy and favor of the 

 benevolent people of the State. A valuable 

 farm had recently been donated to it, the active 

 operations of which were expected to com- 

 mence with the beginning of the year 1870. 



"With regard to the State Reform School, the 

 number of boys committed to it since its estab- 

 lishment, in 1854, is 1,390. Those discharged in 

 1868 were 144, there remaining yet in the 

 school 244 boys. Their earnings in the course 

 of that year amounted to $12,000, which was 

 sufficient for the current expenses of the estab- 

 lishment. The trustees, who had unsuccess- 

 fully applied to the two previous Legislatures 

 for an appropriation of $50,000, to be expended 

 in the erection of an additional building, made 

 the same application to the General Assembly 

 of 1869. 



The State Prison's management and disci- 

 pline, as well as its internal arrangements, are 

 highly commended. The number of convicts 

 in confinement in 1868 was 183, which is eight 

 less than in 1867. By their labor during last 

 year they earned $23,040.50, which sum had 

 covered all the expenses of the establishment 

 and left a net surplus on hand of above 

 $2,000. 



As to other criminals, the whole number of 

 commitments to the different jails of the State 



in 1868 was 1,821, being 128 more than the pre- 

 vious year. The number in confinement in all 

 the jails of Connecticut on April 1, 1869, was 

 244, being 17 more than one year previous. 



The Governor, in his message to the Legis- 

 lature, called their attention to the fact that 

 intemperance is widely spreading and setting 

 deep roots in Connecticut; he said: "In many 

 parts of our State existing laws are so far a 

 dead letter that, not only intoxicating liquors, 

 but adulterations thereof, containing the vilest 

 and most poisonous ingredients, are openly and 

 freely sold during the Avhole seven days of the 

 week." In order to check the growth of so 

 great an evil, which, if tolerated, cannot but 

 have the most lamentable results upon the 

 people's health and the domestic peace of 

 families, he avers that "further legislation is 

 needed." 



He recommended also a revision and modi- 

 fication of the State law concerning divorce, 

 pointing to the fact that " discontented people 

 come to Connecticut from other States to take 

 advantage of what is called her liberal legis- 

 lation, to obtain divorces which would be 

 denied them at home." He regarded the causes 

 of divorces set down in the existing laws to be 

 "too numerous and not sufficiently defined, 

 and too wide a discretion given to the courts." 

 He suggested, among other things, "that the 

 law provide that no decree of divorce shall 

 take effect till one year after it is granted." 

 The number of marriages contracted within 

 the State in 1868 was 4,734; and the number 

 of divorces granted, 476. The births in the 

 State during the year were 12,469, the deaths, 

 7,549. This excess of births over deaths was 

 the largest ever shown in Connecticut. 



The condition of married women, in refer- 

 ence to their property, held before or acquired 

 after marriage, has been considered to have 

 been so far not sufficiently provided for, and 

 the General Assembly was urged to such 

 further amendment of the State laws as would 

 secure to a married woman all her property, 

 with the full control of it during her married 

 life, and free from liability for any debts, ex- 

 cept those contracted by herself, or for which 

 she had voluntarily made herself responsible, 

 with the same right on the part of the husband 

 to an interest in her property, on his surviving 

 her, that she now had, or that it may be best 

 to give her, in his. 



In order to prevent a too great accumulation 

 of cases before the existing Courts, and the con- 

 sequent delay in their decisions, to the injury 

 of the parties concerned, and of the community 

 in general, it was considered to be necessary 

 to provide for the proper dispatch of judicial 

 business, and the appointment of two criminal 

 courts, " with a single judge in each, and 

 frequent sessions, for the counties of Hartford 

 and New Haven." 



A large portion of the people in Connecticut 

 being devoted to agricultural pursuits, it be- 

 came a vital interest of the State to take 



