MASSACHUSETTS, 





Company, and to bo nndor the control of eleven 

 din .t, us. tive being those appointed on belmlf 

 .t i ho State, five chosen by tbu stockholders 

 of tho consolidated corporation, and tlio elev- 

 enth to be the president of the company, * 

 . \\ lid is to lio elected by the ten directors 



before nicliliollril. 



Tho receipts of tho railroads of the Stnto for 

 the vear amount to $34,682,482. The amount 

 of freight handled was 12,014,812 tons, and 

 tin- number of passengers carried 42,4Hn,-i;i|. 

 '1 lie nnniln-r of accidents was very small, and 

 but <>nc person was killed and seven injured, 

 except as the result of thoir own careless- 

 ness or indiscretion. The experiment favoring 

 cheap trains for laborers, from Boston to Lynn 

 on the Eastern Railroad, has proved very suc- 

 ee ful. These trains run to Boston in the 

 morning and out at night, and the fare is placed 

 at the uniform rate of five cents for the whole 

 or any part of the distance. The receipts were 

 $19.28 per trip, and the cost of running $14.14 

 per trip. The increase in receipts over the 

 previous year, which was tho first of the enter- 

 prise, was 42 per cent. 



There are 4,000 insane persons in the State. 

 Those cared for in public institutions are dis- 

 tributed as follows: At "Worcester, 485; at 

 Taunton, 508 ; at Northampton, 475 ; at Som- 

 erville, 150 ; at South Boston, 206 ; at Tewkes- 

 bury, 319; at Ipswich, 61. The asylums are 

 all crowded, and there are many lunatics in 

 tho workhouses and private institutions. The 

 number of prisoners in tho penal and reforma- 

 tory institutions of the State is 4,000. The 

 number of paupers maintained by the Common- 

 wealth is 2,700. The number of town and city 

 poor fully supported is 6,100; partly supported, 

 25,000. There are nine institutions belonging 

 to and sustained wholly by the State for the 

 care of paupers, criminals, and insane persons. 

 These are under the charge of a State Board 

 of Charities, and are as follows : For paupers, 

 the State Almshouse at Tewkesbury, the State 

 Workhouse at Bridgewater, and the State Pri- 

 mary School at Monson ; for the insane, the 

 hospitals at Worcester, Taunton, and North- 

 ampton; for criminals, the State-prison at 

 Charlestown, tho State Reform School atWest- 

 boro', and the State Industrial School at Lan- 

 caster. The actual cost of sustaining these 

 institutions for the year, after deducting the 

 earnings of the State-prison, is $464,000. There 

 was expended directly for charitable purposes 

 by the State, outside of the institutions, $192,- 

 486 ; for State and to local or private institu- 

 tions, $470,000. The cities and towns take 

 care of their local poor in various ways. Dur- 

 ing tho year, 217 almshouses were used by the 

 towns in which they arelocated, while the 

 remaining 123 towns mostly kept their poor in 

 private families, though twelve of them made 

 occasional use of the almshouses of other towns. 

 The reported value of almshouse property is 

 $2,622,336, viz. : land and buildings, $2,080,- 

 602, and personal property, $541,734. The 



average cost of full support is found to be 



ifc.'Ui.". pi-r \\rek. and \\.-i-, gfetjsj to }.":, 7 per- 

 sona in 1874, being 200 more than in 1878 ; 

 17,768 persons were partially supported during 

 the same time, being an excess of 7,188 over 

 the corresponding number for 1878. An in- 

 crease of 5,000 in the number of "tramps" is 

 recorded. In the three reformatories, an av- 

 erage number of about 850 children was main- 

 tained last year, and tho whole number of 

 deaths was but twelve, or one in seventy. 



Nothing has yet been done about the con- 

 struction of a new State-prison and a prison 

 for women, which was authorized in 1878, ex- 

 cept a report from the commissioners in favor 

 of tho project, and recommending the location 

 of the new prison at Concord, and the sale of 

 the old one. 



The State militia now consists of 406 officers, 

 and 6,042 enlisted men. The expense of sup- 

 porting for the year was $181,565.98, besides 

 $195,000 appropriated for new uniforms. 



The Fish Commissioners have caused fish- 

 ways to be built in several streams, and have 

 made ranch progress in restocking the waters 

 of tho State. The number of shad-spawn 

 taken at North Andover last year was 6,249,- 

 000; hatched and turned in above Lowell, 

 1,950,000; above Lawrence dam, 800,000; sent 

 to Neponset, R. I., 550,000. At South Hadley, 

 8,016 shad were taken, and 44,556,000 spawn. 

 The average from each shad taken at South 

 Hadley was 22,691 spawn. Of those taken at 

 South Hadley, 2,300,000 were put in the Con- 

 necticut at Bellows Falls and Smith's Ferry, 

 and places between. The artificial hatching 

 of trout has been very successfully carried on. 

 Of salmon-spawn, 280,000 have been received 

 and hatched with a loss of less than eight per 

 cent. Of land-locked salmon, 5,500 spawn 

 were hatched and distributed ; and of 200,000 

 Sacramento salmon-spawn, presented to the 

 State, only 7,000 were hatched. 



There are fifty-four mutual fire-insurance 

 companies in the State, with cash assets of $4,- 

 903,508, and eleven mutual marine and fire 

 insurance companies, with a guarantee fund of 

 $2,050,000, and gross assets amounting to $4,- 

 868,277, besides twenty-one joint-stock in- 

 surance companies, with a cash capital of $4,- 

 867,000. There are also numerous companies 

 from other States doing business in this State. 

 The grand total of capital represented in the 

 insurance business is $65,844,270, much the 

 larger portion belonging to companies out of 

 the State. 



There are now 178 savings-banks in the 

 State, of which five were organized during the 

 year. One was closed for lack of business. 

 The total number of depositors was 702,099 ; 

 aggregate amount of deposits, $217,452,120; 

 average to each account, $309.71. 



There are sixty railroad corporations doing 

 business in the State, with 2,418 miles of main 

 line and branches, 657 miles of siding, and 626 

 miles of double track. Three companies op- 



