NEVADA. 



629 



was also passed ; its object being to require the 

 State to keep and care for persons belonging to 

 that unfortunate class within her own borders, 

 instead of sending them to a private medical 

 establishment at Stockton, in California. The 

 act designates Reno as the place in which the 

 asylum shall be erected, and created a board 

 of commissioners charged with the duty of 

 carrying its provisions into effect. An act " to 

 appropriate funds for the relief of the several 

 orphan asylums of this State," appropriates 

 $11,000 to be paid "to institutions which 

 would receive orphan children, regardless of 

 creed or sect," and appointed a " Board of 

 Examiners," to inspect all claims presented 

 by orphan asylums for the payment of any por- 

 tion of the appropriation. This law has given 

 occasion to an investigation, first before the 

 Board of Examiners and then before the State 

 Supreme Court, in a case entitled " Nevada 

 Orphan Asylum vs. J. F. Hallock, State Comp- 

 troller," upon a bill presented to the Examin- 

 ers on June 6th, for the payment of $1,219.79. 

 This amount was claimed as due to the said asy- 

 lum in accordance with the provisions of the 

 above act, " for the care of sixty orphans and 

 twenty-eight half-orphans during the quarter 

 ended June 3, 1881." After some discussion 

 on this claim, the board referred it to the At- 

 torney-General for his opinion as to its validity ; 

 upon which that officer subsequently addressed 

 to the board the following communication: 



OFFICE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, | 

 CARSON, June 80, 1881. J 



To the Honorable the Board of Examiners in and for 

 the State of Nevada. 



GENTLEJIKN : I have had under consideration the 

 claim of the Nevada Orphan Asylum of Virginia. 

 Nevada, referred to this office at your meeting, held 

 June 6th, and beg leave to report as follows : 



I am informed that the Trustees of the Nevada 

 Orphan Asylum, of Virginia City, Nevada, do receive 

 into their institution and provide for orphans and 

 half-orphans, regardless of their creed or sect. I am 

 also informed that all the orphans and other children 

 received into said institution and instructed in the 

 schools attached to the said Nevada Orphan Asylum 

 were, and are, instructed in the religious sectarian 

 tenets and doctrinea taught in the Roman Catholic 

 Church, and that they are required and compelled to 

 attend and be present at prayers and religious services 

 in that particular creed, and will not be permitted to 

 attend any other place of worship ; and, if such be 

 the case, the said Orphan Asylum of Virginia City is 

 not entitled to receive any sum or sums of money from 

 the State Treasury, as applying any moneys for such 

 purposes would be in violation of section 10 of Article 

 XI of our Constitution. ... I would therefore recom- 

 mend that the board set apart a day in the near 

 future, and send for persona and papers, and upon 

 such investigation, if the Board or Examiners Bnall 

 become satisfied that the said Nevada Orphan Asylum 

 of Virginia bo conducted upon sectarian principles, 

 then the claim be rejected. But if orphans of all sects 

 and creeds are ret-cived into said institution, and are 

 not required to conform to the rules, regulations, and 

 tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, they are entitled 

 to have the claim allowed. 



M. A. MURPHY, Attorney-General. 



The Nevada Orphan Asylum in Virginia City 

 is under the charge and management of the 

 Sisters of Charity, who are Roman Catholics, 



and the oral testimony, which was taken on 

 November 29th, had for its object to ascertain 

 whether the said institution is conducted in 

 what is called a " sectarian " manner or not ; 

 the witnesses heard included the Mother Supe- 

 rior, who has had the asylum in charge from its 

 first organization ; the Sister who is, and has 

 been for thirteen years, the secretary of the 

 institution, and a school and music teacher 

 in it; a Protestant female teacher in a pub- 

 lic school of Virginia City for many years, 

 who received her education at the asylum as a 

 day-scholar for six years, and as a boarding- 

 scholar for two years and a half more, during 

 which thirty months she lived within the asy- 

 lum building as her home ; and two Protestant 

 old residents of Virginia City who have sent 

 their children to the asylum for their educa- 

 tion, and left them living in it as boarding- 

 scholars during four months and five years 

 respectively. The answers given by these wit- 

 nesses, the Attorney-General being one of the 

 interrogators, established that the asylum re- 

 ceived and cared for children of all creeds and 

 sects ; that Protestant children were " not re- 

 quired to conform to the rules, regulations, and 

 tenets of the Roman Catholic Church," nor in- 

 fluenced in any way to become Catholics ; but 

 that they were left entirely free to follow and 

 practice the doctrines of their own creeds. 



A great addition to the wealth of Nevada is 

 expected from working out the mica deposits 

 existing in numerous sections of the State. 

 From beds located in various parts of Eastern 

 Nevada there have, in the course of the last 

 five years, been taken specimens in sheets of 

 considerable sizes, even as large as ten inches 

 square. 



A local railway has been built in Nevada 

 during the year, connecting Bodie District 

 with the timber-belt south of Mono Lake. It 

 is a narrow-gauge road of thirty-one miles in 

 length. For the first ten miles from Bodie the 

 road is on a steep grade of two hundred feet to 

 the mile, and the remaining twenty-one miles 

 are on an arid alkali plain. The road is stated 

 to have been built under very great difficulties, 

 at a cost of about half a million dollars. 



The following shows the population of Ne- 

 vada by counties in 1880 and 1870 : 



* Formed ID 1S78 from port of Lander. 



