WISCONSIN. 



805 



medium of instruction. Industrial pursuits are 

 taught here also. 



The Industrial School for Boys, located on 

 the Fox River, near Waukesha, was opened in 

 1860, and is designed for the reformation of 

 juvenile offenders against the law. The num-" 

 her of inmates at the beginning of the year 

 was 239, two of whom were girls, and the 

 number at the end of the year was 273. The 

 number received during the year was 107; 35 

 were returned to their parents, 23 were placed 

 out, 10 escaped, and one died. The expenses 

 of the institution amounted to $36,538. Every . 

 inmate is taught some useful occupation, and 

 receives intellectual and moral training as well. 



The Soldiers' Orphans' Home was established 

 at Madison in 1866, and during the last fiscal 

 year had 228 children under its care, supported 

 at a cost of $30,000. There has been a lack 

 of harmony among its trustees, and serious 

 charges have been made regarding its manage- 

 ment. An investigation into the matter is 

 likely to be ordered by the Legislature of 1873. 



The State Hospital for the Insane is situated 

 about four miles from Madison, and has been 

 in operation thirteen years. At the beginning 

 of the last fiscal year it had 173 male and 182 

 female inmates. During the year 92 males and 

 74 females were admitted, and 83 males and 

 65 females were discharged; leaving, on Sep- 

 tember 30th, 182 males and 191 females. Of 

 the 148 set down as discharged, 60 had recov- 

 ered, 26 were improved in condition, 37 were 

 unimproved, and 25 had died. The expense 

 of maintaining the institution for the year was 

 $105,975.78. A fire on the 8th of August 

 caused considerable damage to the buildings. 

 The estimated expenses of the current year, 

 including those for needed repairs and improve- 

 ments, amount to $129,500. The Northern 

 Hospital for the Insane, at Oshkosh, is not yet 

 completed. The amount thus far appropriated 

 for land, buildings, etc.; is $383,000. Addi- 

 tional appropriations for its completion are 

 asked for, amounting to $255,350. 



The State-prison contained, at the beginning 

 of the last fiscal year, 191 convicts, and at the 

 close 186, seven of whom were females. Nine- 

 ty-four were received and 100 discharged dur- 

 ing that period. The convicts are employed, 

 for the most part, in workshops within the 

 institution itself. The receipts of the year 

 amounted to $113,446.17, of which $58,993.47 

 was paid from the State Treasury, and less than 

 $50,000 was derived from the labor of the pris- 

 oners. It is nearly twenty years since capital 

 punishment was abolished in Wisconsin, and 

 of the result Governor Washburn says : 



In July next, twenty years -will have elapsed since 

 the death penalty was abolished in this State. The 

 experiment met with strong opposition from a large 

 portion of the people of the State, who predicted that 

 a large increase of crime would result from the change. 

 The prediction, happily, has not been verified, and 

 the facts which I am about to state conclusively show 

 that no State in this Union can boast greater exemp- 

 tion from crime than Wisconsin. 



With a population of 1,200,000, representing almost 

 every nationality, and two-fifth* of foreign birth, 

 statistics show that crime, instead of increasing with 

 the growth of the State, has actually diminished. 

 This is in a great degree due to a high-toned public 

 sentiment, which causes the violated laws to be 

 promptly vindicated. 



Since the abolition of the death penalty there hav, ; 

 been tried, convicted, and sentenced to the peniten- 

 tiary for life, 71 persons in all. Of that number, :, ; 

 now remain, the rest having died, been pardoned, or 



There can be no doubt that the change in the law 

 has rendered punishment much more certain, and I 

 but express the opinion of those who have most care- 

 fully considered the question, as well as my own, 

 when I state that, but for that change in the law, at 

 least one-half of those heretofore convicted would 

 have escaped all punishment, so difficult is convic- 

 tion when the penalty is death. In the five years 

 that have elapsed from 1848 to 1853, 1 have no knowl- 

 edge of more than one person having suffered the 

 extreme penalty of the law. This was not because 

 of lack of offences, but of the extreme difficulty of 

 conviction. 



In the year 1854, the number of convictions for the 

 crime of murder was three; in 1855, three ; in 1856, 

 three; in 1857, three ; in 1858, five; in 1859, none ; 

 in I860, two ; in 1861, none; in 1862, two; in 1863, 

 eight : in 1864, none ; in 1865, five ; in 1866, one ; in 

 1867, four; in 1868, five; in 1869, two- in 1870, four; 

 in 1871, three ; in 1872, one. I have taken some pains 

 to ascertain what the conduct has been, since dis- 

 charged from prison, of those convicted of the crime 

 of murder, who have been pardoned, and I have failed 

 to learn of any instance where the party had rendered 

 himself amenable to the law. On the contrary, so 

 far as known, they have proved honest and peace- 

 able citizens extremely careful and circumspect in 

 their intercourse with their fellow-men. 



Kapid progress has been made during the 

 year toward a completion of the great rail- 

 road system of the State. The Milwaukee & 

 St. Paul Eailroad Company has completed a 

 direct line from Milwaukee to Chicago, and is 

 to extend it westward to the Mississippi ; the 

 Chicago & Northwestern is rapidly pushing 

 forward to the Mississippi, and connects with 

 the West Wisconsin at Elroy ; the Green Bay 

 & Lake Pepin line has been extended from 

 New London to the West Wisconsin road, at 

 Merrillon, a distance of over one hundred 

 miles ; the Lake-Shore line is in operation to 

 Sheboygan, and is to be extended to Mani- 

 towoc ; the Milwaukee & Northern has been 

 completed to Menasha, and will soon be opened 

 to Green Bay ; the Sheboygan & Fond du Lao 

 has extended its line to Princeton ; a narrow- 

 gauge railroad is in process of construction 

 from Galena, 111., to Platteville ; the Wiscon- 

 sin Central Railroad Company is rapidly com- 

 pleting its line through the centre of the State 

 to Lake Superior, and has leased the Milwau- 

 kee <fe Lake-Shore and the Manitowoc & Mis- 

 sissippi roads, which will give it a continuous 

 line from Lake Superior to Milwaukee. 



According to the census of 1870, of the total 

 population (751,704), ten years old and over, 

 there were engaged in all classes of occupa- 

 tions, 292,808 persons, of whom 267,273 were 

 males and 25,535 females. There were en- 

 gaged in agriculture, 159,687, including 158,- 

 300 males and 1,387 females; in professional 



