CONNECTICUT. 



197 



previous year. Of this increase, 9,408 are de- 

 positors of less than $500. These depositors, 

 compared with the whole population of the 

 State, are in the proportion of more than one 

 in every three of her inhabitants. The pres- 

 ent amount of all their deposits is $76,518,- 

 570.91, an increase of $3,676,127.52 over that 

 of the year last past. The average amount for 

 each depositor is $357.50, and for every in- 

 habitant in the State it is above $100. The 

 dividends annually paid by the banks have 

 been withdrawn by depositors to a much less 

 extent this year than in the preceding. 



The 28th annual report of the Railroad Com- 

 missioners shows the railways operating in 

 Connecticut to have had a prosperous year in 

 1880, their business having considerably in- 

 creased in freight as well as passenger trans- 

 portation. The total of their gross earnings 

 amounted to $12,290,878.51, which is $1,378,- 

 627.34, or 12 per cent, above that of 1879. 

 They exceed the gross earnings of all previous 

 years even of 1873, when the earnings were 

 the largest as compared with those of any pre- 

 ceding or succeeding year till 1880. A note- 

 worthy fact in the mutual relations between 

 the yearly amounts of earnings from passenger 

 and freight transportation in these roads for 

 1880 was, that the freight earnings, instead or 

 being less than the passenger, as they had al- 

 ways been, exceeded them by more than one 

 million dollars. This change has occurred es- 

 pecially in the business of two among the 

 roads, namely : The New York, New Haven, 

 and Hartford, and the New York and New 

 England. The proportion of expenses to earn- 

 ings was 62 per cent, a little more than 1 per 

 cent over the previous year's. 



Nine companies have paid in dividends last 

 year $2,539,295.70, or nearly as much as they 

 had paid in 1879. 



The aggregate length of all the railway lines 

 in Connecticut measures 953.96 miles; double 

 tracks, 108.78 miles ; sidings, 185.94 miles 

 making a total of 1,248.68 miles of single track. 



The collective amount of State tax paid by 

 the roads into the Treasury during the year 

 was $357,000. In 1879 it was $346,000. 



The education of youth continues satisfac- 

 tory, with a fair prospect of forward progress 

 in efficiency and thoroughness. The cost to 

 the State for supporting the common schools 

 in 1880 was $213,420.50, the largest amount 

 among the items of public expenditure after 

 that belonging to the judiciary system, which 

 was $256,598.93. The results of this large 

 expenditure have for many years been most 

 gratifying; and the reports of the State Board 

 of Education, and of their Secretary, show the 

 combined efficiency and thoroughness of the 

 system of free popular education. The " Com- 

 pulsory Law," so called, by which children of 

 proper age are made to attend the public 

 schools, has been more efficiently and perfectly 

 enforced this year than ever before. This 

 law seems to be of comparatively easy execu- 



tion in Connecticut, meeting with no such 

 marked opposition or complaint, on the part 

 of parents, as experience shows to have been 

 the case in some other States. For this differ- 

 ence between the States concerned, Governor 

 Bigelow accounts as follows : " This shows 

 not only the temper of our people toward edu- 

 cation, but also that there does not exist with 

 us that necessity for the earnings of children 

 of school age which supports the defiance of 

 similar laws in other communities." 



For the support of the State Normal School, 

 where teachers are trained to give instruction 

 in the common schools, the amount paid from 

 the Treasury in 1880 was $12,700. A good in- 

 crease in the number of trained teachers is 

 now promised by the building of a Normal 

 School in New Britain, for the erection of 

 which the General Assembly appropriated 

 $75,000, the said town having pledged itself 

 to contribute $25,000 more, of its own money, 

 for the same purpose. 



In the Hospital for the Insane, at Middle- 

 town, there were 610 patients at the beginning 

 of last year, and 528 at the end of it. The 

 whole number of patients treated during the 

 year was 654, which shows a permanent over- 

 crowding in the hospital, the capacity of which 

 is sufficient to give accommodations for 450 

 patients only. The additional new buildings, 

 for which the General Assembly at the previous 

 session appropriated a large sum of money, 

 and which, when completed, will probably 

 double the present capacity of the hospital, 

 have been already planned, and their erection 

 has begun. Of the 528 patients remaining in 

 this institution at the close of 1880, two only 

 were paying patients; the Governor stating 

 "that 526 were entirely supported by the 

 State, or by the towns from which they were 

 sent." 



The School for Imbeciles, at Lakeville, seems 

 worthy of continuance for its usefulness. The 

 pupils cared for in it during the year numbered 

 93, of whom 47 were beneficiaries of the State. 

 The total expenditure of the institution for 

 the year amounted to $15,799.91, of which 

 $5,960.87 were paid from the public Treas- 

 ury for the 47 State beneficiaries, and the re- 

 mainder was paid by the friends of the other 

 pupils. A department connected with this 

 school takes care of several harmless lunatics, 

 some among whom also were supported last 

 year by the State at a cost of $534. 



In the State Reform School for Boys there 

 were, at the close of 1880, 307 inmates; re- 

 ceived during the year, 148; discharged, 109. 

 This school is considered to have never been 

 in a better condition than at present. The 

 family system, so called, has been successfully 

 introduced in its management since last year. 



The Industrial School for Girls, at Middle- 

 town, during the year 1880, received 71 girls; 

 placed in positions of usefulness, or discharged, 

 63; remaining in the school on December 1st, 

 160. The whole number of inmates at this 



