PENNSYLVANIA. 



565 



school districts in the State, in which there are 

 13,936 schools, employing 17,142 teachers. 

 The whole number of children of school-age 

 in the State is 975,753, of whom 815,753 attend 

 the public schools; 85,000 attend private 

 schools, and 75,000 do not attend any school. 

 The average attendance of the public schools 

 is 548,075, and the average cost of tuition for 

 each pupil is 97 cents per month. The average 

 salaries of male teachers per month is $39.00, 

 and of female teachers, $30.52. The increase 

 in the most important items concerning the 

 public schools during the past year, as com- 

 pared with the same statistics of the previous 

 year, is shown in the following statement : 



ID number of districts 53 



In number of schools 270 



In number of graded schools 63 



In number of school directors 202 



In number of teachers 371 



In number of pupils 15,238 



In the average number of pupils 37,971 



In the cost of tuition $227,434 83 



In total cost, including expenditures of 



all kinds $785,61096 



The whole number of students who have at- 

 tended the four State normal schools has been 

 10,237, of whom 321 have graduated. These 

 institutions were attended during the past 

 year by 4,178 students, who were instructed by 

 76 teachers. A State normal school for the sixth 

 district has recently been established at Blooms- 

 burg, in Columbia County, and opened under 

 the most favorable auspices. Its buildings are 

 the finest of the kind in the State, and were 

 erected at a cost of upward of $100,000. A 

 normal school will probably be established at 

 California, in Washington County, during 1870, 

 and efforts have been made to secure the es- 

 tablishment of another at West Chester, for 

 which the sum of $65,000 has already been 

 subscribed. 



There are upward of 30 incorporated col- 

 leges in Pennsylvania, of which only about 15 

 are in a flourishing condition. The aggregate 

 endowment of these is reported to be $287,000 ; 

 their libraries contain 97,938 volumes, and 

 their apparatus is valued at $82,450. During 

 the past year the number of students in at- 

 tendance was 2,901, of whom 198 have gradu- 

 ated ; the number of professors was 149. 



Great credit is due to Pennsylvania for the 

 establishment and successful management of 

 soldiers' orphans' schools, where the destitute 

 orphan children of the soldiers who lost their 

 lives in the late war are fed, clothed, and edu- 

 cated, at the public expense. These institutions 

 now meet with the cordial support and en- 

 couragement of the people of the State. The 

 increasing number of applicants renders it 

 necessary that some definite limit to admissions 

 should be determined upon by law. It has, 

 therefore, been recommended that " the indi- 

 gent children of Pennsylvania soldiers, who 

 served in Pennsylvania regiments, and who 

 died prior to January 1, 1866, from wounds 

 received, or disease contracted, in the service 



of the United States during the late war, 

 shall be hereafter admitted and none others." 

 The entire cost of supporting these schools for 

 the year ending May 31, 1869, was $500,971.62. 

 The number of pupils in attendance at the end 

 of the year was 3,631. 



By a recent act of the Legislature, the man- 

 agement of the charitable institutions of the 

 State has been vested in a Board of Public 

 Charities, composed of five gentlemen. This 

 change in the management of these institu- 

 tions is regarded as one of great importance, 

 and calculated to lead to beneficial results. 

 During the year 212 patients were admitted 

 into the State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, 

 being a greater number of admissions than in 

 any previous year since the opening of the 

 hospital. The number remaining in the hos- 

 pital at the end of the year was 410 212 

 males and 198 females. Of those discharged 

 during the year, 40 were restored, 42 improved, 

 and 48 unchanged ; the number of deaths was 

 28. The accommodations of the hospital have 

 not been sufficient for the number of appli- 

 cants, and preference has been given to re- 

 cent cases over those of long standing. The 

 receipts into the treasury for the year 1869 

 were $91,438.78, while the expenditures 

 amounted to $91,359.17. The number ad- 

 mitted into the Pennsylvania Hospital for 

 the Insane, at Philadelphia, during the year 

 1869, was 220 ; the number discharged was 

 243, leaving 313 (157 males and 156 females) 

 under treatment at the end of the year. The 

 highest number of patients in the hospital at 

 any one time during the year was 347; the 

 average number for the year was 330. Of 

 those discharged, 115 were cured, 21 much 

 improved, and 33 unchanged ; 31 died during 

 the year. All classes of insane persons are 

 admitted into this institution, without regard 

 to the duration or curability of their disease. 

 The enlightened system for the instruction and 

 amusement of the inmates reflects credit upon 

 the State. The pleasure-grounds, workshops, 

 museums, and reading-rooms, have proved 

 highly successful in the treatment of the in- 

 sane. Much encouragement is given to out- 

 door games and in-door amusements. At least 

 three evenings of every week are devoted to 

 entertainments of some kind in the lecture- 

 room; while billiard-rooms, bowling-alleys, 

 gymnasiums, and officers' tea-parties, have pro- 

 duced very beneficial results. 



The subject of prison discipline has been 

 brought prominently before the people of the 

 State by the recent report of the commis- 

 sioner appointed "to visit, for philanthropic 

 purposes, the prisons and almshouses in the 

 various counties of the Commonwealth." 

 While the construction and management of 

 some of the county prisons are commended, 

 others are represented to be "unsafe, where 

 prisoners could not be held unless loaded with 

 chains, where the sexes were not separated, 

 where there was no discipline, nor any effort 



