566 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



PERKINS, JUSTIN. 



made toward the moral and religious improve- 

 ment of the inmates; the buildings totally 

 unfit for the purposes of a prison ; and where 

 the prisoners become schooled in vice, and 

 eventually graduated prepared for a life of 

 lawlessness." Other prisons are defective 

 from a want of a proper classification of the 

 criminals. The attention of the Legislature 

 has been called to this bad condition of the 

 county prisons, and the necessity that exists 

 for a thorough reform of the penal system of 

 the State. During the year ending December 

 81, 1869, 1, 550 1 applications for pardon were 

 made to the Executive, of which 62, or four 

 per cent., were granted, 1,108 rejected, and 

 380 were still under consideration at the close 

 of the year. Seven criminals suffered the 

 penalty of death during the year. 



An unusual martial spirit has prevailed 

 throughout the State during the past year. In 

 1866 there were 8 volunteer companies, in 

 1867, 38; in 1868, 67; which number in- 

 creased in 1869 to 184. During the year end- 

 ing November 30, 1869, 107 companies were 

 organized, of which 56 are in Philadelphia. 

 In his last message to the Legislature, Gov- 

 ernor Geary says of this force : " This is a 

 small but efficient and well-equipped force, 

 which, in case of riot, rebellion, or other pub- 

 lic danger, would be ready at once to imperil 

 itself for the enforcement of the laws, and the 

 protection of the lives and property of the 

 citizens. It is, therefore, desirable that the 

 Legislature should give the volunteers such 

 practical aid as would, in some degree, com- 

 pensate them for the time and money ex- 

 pended to maintain their organizations, in 

 which the people are as much interested as the 

 volunteers themselves." 



On the 6th of September a disaster occurred 

 in the Avondale coal-mine, in Luzerne County, 

 resulting in the loss of 108 lives. Early on the 

 morning of that day, 108 miners entered the 

 mine as usual for their daily labor, and, while 

 they were there engaged in work, the shaft, 

 constructed chiefly of combustible materials, 

 became ignited, and soon the only entrance 

 to the mine was filled with burning timbers, 

 fire, and smoke. The immense wooden struc- 

 ture above the shaft also took fire, and was 

 soon reduced to ashes. No assistance could 

 be rendered the sufferers from without, and, 

 there being no means of escape, all of the un- 

 fortunate miners instantly perished. Their 

 bodies were subsequently recovered. As near- 

 ly all of those who perished had families de- 

 pendent upon them for support, the suffering 

 caused in the neighboring community was 

 extreme. The condition of these suffering 

 families enlisted the sympathy of the general 

 public, and generous subscriptions were sent 

 for their relief from various parts of the coun- 

 try. The investigation into the causes of this 

 disaster revealed a culpable carelessness in 

 the construction and management of mines, 

 whereby the lives of the miners were constantly 



endangered. Public sentiment demanded that 

 the subject should receive the careful attention 

 of the Legislature, and that a law should be 

 passed prescribing such regulations in the con- 

 struction, ventilation, and working of mines, as 

 would secure proper safeguards to the lives of 

 the miners. In presenting this subject to the 

 Legislature in his last annual message, Governor 

 Geary said : " The inquiry, therefore, into the 

 causes which produced this shocking catas- 

 trophe, the various theories that have been 

 promulgated concerning it, the remedies for 

 the prevention of similar occurrences hereafter, 

 the construction and ventilation of collieries, 

 and the modes of conducting their operations 

 so that the operatives may prosecute their 

 labor without imperilling their lives, are proper 

 subjects for legislative consideration. Such 

 laws as you may enact can most certainly be 

 enforced by competent inspectors in the mining 

 districts, who should be chosen with strict 

 regard to character, integrity, capability and 

 scientific knowledge ; and whose duties should 

 be so specifically defined that they cannot be 

 misunderstood. I therefore most respectfully 

 and earnestly recommend that this whole sub- 

 ject receive the attention its importance de- 

 mands, and that a law be passed, so general in 

 its character and so stringent in its provisions, 

 that the people of this Commonwealth will 

 never again be appalled by a- calamity, within 

 her limits, so sad as that of Avondale." 



PERKINS, Rev. JUSTIN, D. D., an American 

 Congregation alist clergyman, and missionary 

 to the Nestorians, born in West Springfield, 

 Mass., March 12, 1805 ; died at Chicopee, Mass., 

 December 31, 1869. The first eighteen years 

 of his life were passed upon his father's farm, 

 but in the spring of 1823, having made a pro- 

 fession of religion, he was desirous of qualifying 

 himself for the missionary work, and, in an- 

 ticipation therefor, prepared for college in his 

 native town, and in "West-field, and, in 1829, 

 graduated at Amherst College. The next year 

 he taught in the academy of that town, and 

 the two following years studied at the Andover 

 Seminary, after which he held, for a time, the 

 office of tutor in Amherst College. Having, 

 in January, 1833, received from the American 

 Board an appointment with a view to the com- 

 mencement of a mission among the Nestorians, 

 he sailed froin Boston, with Mrs. Perkins, Sep- 

 tember 21, 1833. He remained for a time at 

 Tabreez, but established himself at Oroomiah 

 in November of 1834. Here, almost unaided, 

 he laid the foundation of the mission whose 

 history is so identified with his missionary 

 life. Schools were established which grew 

 into noble seminaries of learning. The people 

 had never seen printed books, the few copies 

 of the Scriptures existing among them being 

 manuscripts, in the ancient Syriac, which were 

 kept carefully wrapped up and hid away in 

 secret places, to save them from the ravages 

 of the Mohammedans. The reading-matter 

 for the schools, for several years, was created 



