KENTUCKY. 



469 



mortality, and the effects of localities, employ- 

 ment, conditions, food, water supply, habits, 

 and circumstances on the health of the people. 

 They shall when required, or when they deem 

 it best, advise with officers of the government, 

 or with other State Boards, in regard to the 

 location, drainage, water supply, disposal of 

 excreta, heating and ventilation of any public 

 institution or building. They shall, from time 

 to time, recommend standard w T orks on the 

 subject of hygiene for the use of the schools of 

 the State. 



The new county of Leslie was constructed 

 from parts of the counties of Perry, Clay, and 

 Harland. 



Another act prescribes the mode of ascer- 

 taining the value of the property of railroad 

 companies for taxation, and for taxing the same. 

 It requires the president or chief officer of each 

 company in the State, in the month of July, to 

 return to the State Auditor, under oath, the 

 total length of such railroad, including the 

 length thereof beyond the limits of the State, 

 and designating its length within the State, and 

 in each county, city, and incorporate town 

 therein, together with the average value per 

 mile thereof, for the purpose of being operated 

 as a carrier of freight and passengers, including 

 engines and cars and a list of the depot grounds 

 and improvements, and other real estate of the 

 company, and the value thereof, and the re- 

 spective counties, cities, and incorporated towns 

 in which the same are located. If any one of 

 the railroad companies owns or operates a rail- 

 road or railroads out of the State, but in con- 

 nection with its road in the State, the president 

 or chief officer of such company is only re- 

 quired to return such proportion of the entire 

 value of all its rolling stock as the number of 

 miles of its railroad in the State bears to the 

 whole number of miles operated by the com- 

 pany in and out of the State. A Board of 

 Equalization then estimates the valuation of 

 the Auditor, and equalizes it where necessary. 

 The act then proceeds to direct the manner of 

 levying the tax, thus : " The same rate of taxa- 

 tion for State purposes, which is or may be in 

 any year levied on other real estate in this 

 Commonwealth, shall be, and is hereby, levied 

 upon the value so found by the said Board of 

 the railroad, rolling stock, and real estate of 

 each company ; and the same rate of taxation 

 for the purposes of each county, city, town, or 

 precinct in which any portion of any railroad 

 is located, which is or may be in any year lev- 

 ied on other real estate therein, shall be, and is 

 hereby, levied on the value of the real estate 

 of said company therein, and of the number of 

 miles of such road therein, reckoned as of the 

 value of the average value of each mile of such 

 railroad with its rolling stock, as ascertained as 

 aforesaid. And immediately after the said 

 Board shall have completed its valuations each 

 year, the Auditor of Public Accounts shall noti- 

 fy the clerk of each county court of the amount 

 so assessed for taxation in his county, and 



each railroad company of the amount of its 

 assessment for taxation for State purposes, 

 and for the purposes of such county, city, 

 town, or precinct. And all existing laws in 

 this State authorizing the assessment and 

 taxation of the property of- railroad companies 

 by counties, cities, or incorporated towns are 

 hereby repealed, and no county, city, or incor- 

 porated town in this State shall hereafter as- 

 sess, levy, or collect any taxes on the property 

 of railroad companies of this State except as 

 provided by this act." 



A bill for the reestablishment of the whip- 

 ping-post was considered in both Houses of the 

 Legislature. The people of Fayette County held 

 a public meeting to stimulate the action of the 

 Senate on the bill. Jn the preamble of the res- 

 olutions adopted, the following reasons are 

 urged to show the necessity of the whipping- 

 post : " Whereas the penitentiary of this State 

 and the jails of many counties are overcrowded 

 with persons guilty of petty larceny and other 

 minor offenses, to the great burden of tax- 

 payers, and in many instances presenting spec- 

 tacles revolting to humanity ; and whereas the 

 incarceration of such offenders oftentimes en- 

 tails misery and want and beggary and vice and 

 crime upon the wives and children of those so 

 confined ; and whereas, in our opinion, impris- 

 onment with or without hard labor, and espe- 

 cially where all classes of criminals are confined 

 in the same prison, is not a suitable punishment 

 for minor offenders, but tends to make hard- 

 ened villains out of petty thieves ; and whereas 

 it is the undoubted right and privilege of the 

 people to meet and express their views upon 

 all matters of public policy, and especially 

 where the same has an immediate effect upon 

 their interests, but most especially upon mat- 

 ters affecting their social well being : therefore 

 we desire the speedy enactment of the bill," 

 etc. One of the advocates of the bill in the 

 House urged the following among other con- 

 siderations : 



I think the bill under consideration is in tlie in- 

 terest of humanity, morality, and religion, and is 

 not a step backward, as the gentleman has said. ^ I 

 heartily concur in all that has been said by the dis- 

 tinguished gentleman from Graves, that crime has 

 been on the increase since the passage of the pres- 

 ent law on petty larceny to simply feed, ciothe, and 

 keep in jail petty thieves at the expense of good 

 citizens ; and join with him in saying that, for the 

 prevention of crime, our criminal law should have 

 the rope at one end and the lash at the other. The 

 country is demanding this at our hands; the cry of 

 a reduction of jail expenses is coming up from every 

 quarter of the grand old Commonwealth by her tax- 

 ridden people ; and the expenses of criminal prose- 

 cutions have been increased to an alarming extent 

 in the last two years, and we must do something to 

 cure or remedy this evil. 



I find from the Auditor's report for 1877, that the 

 jailers' fees for feeding and keeping the felons in 

 Kentucky amounted to the enormous sum of $120,- 

 000. These are State prisoners, at seventy-five cents 

 per day. But, Mr. Speaker, we all know that the 

 counties at the various courts of claims have to pay 

 the jailers at the rate of sixty cents per day for diet- 

 ing petty thieves, and, in my judgment, it amounts 



