ALABAMA. 



23 



present tax year." The State is burdened 

 with real estate, purchased at tax sales, from 

 which it derives no revenue. In one county 

 about 197,000 acres, or nearly one third of the 

 entire county, was bid in by the State for the 

 taxes of 1873. 



As the sessions of the Legislature are bien- 

 nial, the condition of the public institutions 

 is stated for the two years before 1879. In 

 the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute, there 

 were in 1878, mutes 41, blind 13 ; total, 64. 

 The expense per capita was $224.24. All 

 deaf-mute or blind children residing in the 

 State, whose parents are unable to pay their 

 expenses while at the institute, are entitled to 

 board, tuition, schoolroom expenses, and medi- 

 cine, free of charge. No provision is made for 

 the payment of traveling expenses, or for cloth- 

 ing. An act of the General Assembly provides 

 that, "in all cases where the parents of pupils 

 sent to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb 

 and the Blind are too poor to furnish them 

 with good and sufficient clothing, or where 

 pupils are without parents and unable to fur- 

 nish themselves with such clothing, the Pro- 

 bate Judge of the county shall certify the 

 same to the principal, who shall procure such 

 necessary clothing and charge the same to said 

 county." The total expens3s of the institution 

 for the past year footed up $12,453.90. 



The total value of railroad property in Ala- 

 bama, upon which tax assessment is made, is 

 $10,297,033.35. The assessment for 1877 was 

 $10,627,559.90, showing a difference of $330,- 

 526.55 in favor of last year. 



The number of railroads in the State is 24, 

 and their total length is 1,819 miles. When 

 all the roads are completed which have been 

 projected, there will bo a total length of main 

 line of 2,850 miles. The total estimated value 

 of all the railroads, according to the assessors' 

 books, is $10,528,060. 



The number of convicts received in the peni- 

 tentiary from October 1, 1877, to September 

 30, 1878, was 218, which, added to the num- 

 ber, 655, remaining in the prison October 1, 

 1877, amounts to 873. The sex of the prison- 

 ers is: males, white, 96; females, white, 6 ; 

 males, colored, 733 ; females, colored, 38. Of 

 the number, 555 were natives of Alabama ; of 

 the previous occupations, 447 were laborers ; 

 of the crimes for which they were imprisoned, 

 there were 262 for burglary and 274 for grand 

 larceny. The earnings of the penitentiary, 

 over and above all expenses, for the fiscal year 

 ending September 30, 1878, amounted to $35,- 

 649.92. The number of convicts discharged 

 during the past year was 137, and the number 

 pardoned was 30. 



The Governor In his efforts to increase the 

 earnings of the penitentiary advertised for pro- 

 posals to lease the labor. Many bids were 

 made, but before they had been acted upon, 

 with two or three exceptions, those having con- 

 victs hired proposed to rescind their contracts 

 on the 1st of January ensuing, and to enter 



into new contracts for five years from that date 

 at $6 per month for all able-bodied convicts, 

 taking all others at rates to be agreed upon 

 between them and the warden, and receiving 

 all at the jails without cost of transportation. 

 This the Governor agreed to, and rejected all 

 the bids for lease. These new contracts em- 

 brace all the convicts in the penitentiary on 

 the 1st of January except the so-called Wil- 

 liams hands, until January 1, 1883, and except 

 about one hundred others under old contracts 

 expiring by March 1, 1881, and all that are 

 sentenced thereto for five years. There are 

 about 650 convicts, of whom about 600 are 

 able-bodied ; and this average, maintained for 

 two years, will probably be fully maintained 

 for the five years. Four hundred of these, 

 subject to the new contracts at $6 per month 

 each, will in 1880 earn $28,800. About 100 

 under old contracts not rescinded, at $5 per 

 month each, will next year earn $6,000. The 

 Williams hands will nominally earn, as here- 

 tofore, $6,000 a year until 1883. The gross 

 earnings for 1880, to become larger thereafter 

 as the $5 per month contracts expire, will 

 therefore be $34,400, exclusive of the $6,000 

 for the penitentiary farm. The dead-heads 

 will cost the State nothing heretofore an ex- 

 pense of several thousand dollars a year. The 

 transportation of convicts will cost the State 

 nothing heretofore ranging from $9,000 to 

 $15,000 a year. The State's disbursements 

 will be limited to the payment of the salaries 

 of the officers and inspectors say $7,000. 

 The net cash receipts, therefore, should be 

 about $27,000 for the calendar year 1880, and 

 greater for each of the succeeding four years. 

 This institution in former years has been a 

 constant drain on the Treasury. 



The number of patients in the Insane Hos- 

 pital on October 1, 1878, was 403, and the 

 daily average 389. The maintenance of these 

 has cost the State a small amount over $64,- 

 000. Upon an analysis of the results of the 

 biennial period ending with September 30, 

 1878, it will appear that the number of pa- 

 tients discharged cured is 40'50 per cent, upon 

 the admissions, and the deaths 3*87 per cent, 

 of the total number under treatment. The re- 

 port of the officers of the institution thus an- 

 swers the question, " What is insanity? " 



The fact should be kept prominently in view that 

 insanity is a disease, ana a disease of the brain. Too 

 great prominence, indeedj can not be given to these 

 two important considerations. Perception, thought, 

 judgment, memory, imagination, conscience, and, in 

 fact, all the manifestations, are such mysterious forces 

 or results that the average mind turns away in de- 

 spair from every endeavor to explore their relations 

 or the laws of their origin and normal action. But 

 the states of a diseased organ how they are brought 

 about, and the precautions necessary to the avoidance 

 of like pathological results under similar conditions 

 are problems which, in their analogies to those of 

 other organs and functions, invite and encourage in- 

 vestigation. But the definition will be needful in still 

 another aspect. It tends most effectually to contro- 

 vert, and will ultimately abolish, the absurd notion 

 that insanity LJ a disgrace. This erroneous view of 



