NORTH CAROLINA. 



633 



chanical department of the institution. There 

 is a separate department for colored people 

 where, during the two years, 38 deaf and dumb 

 and 22 blind pupils have been received and 

 taught. This, it is claimed, was the first insti- 

 tution of the kind at the South to make pro- 

 vision for colored pupils. 



THE PENITENTIARY. On the large buildings 

 under construction for several years, and which 

 have cost a large sum of money, satisfactory 

 progress toward completion waa made during 

 this year. The main prison was sufficiently 

 advanced in December to allow of the transfer 

 of the convicts heretofore confined in old, tem- 

 porary buildings, to the new, well-ventilated 

 and well -heated cells; $110,000 have been 

 expended upon this institution during the 

 past fiscal year. The total cost is upward of 

 $1,000,000. As far as possible the convicts 

 are made to earn their support, and thus relieve 

 the tax-payer, by employing them wherever 

 practicable on the public works. The old and 

 decrepit and female convicts work on a farm 

 near Raleigh, and their work has proved to be 

 moderately profitable. On November 1st there 

 were 996 convicts in the State ; of these, 137 

 were white and 859 colored. 



THE ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. If the ne- 

 cessary appropriations be made to complete the 

 buildings now in process of construction for 

 the accommodation of the insane, no State will 

 have provided more liberally than North Caro- 

 lina for the treatment of this unfortunate class. 

 Besides the large asylum near Raleigh, con- 

 taining on November 1st 265 patients 140 

 males and 125 females the Western Asylum at 

 Morganton is now partially completed, and will 

 be ready to receive patients early in the next 

 year, and an asylum for insane colored people 

 is being already built at Goldsboro, now con- 

 taining over 100 patients. So much has in- 

 sanity increased within the past quarter of a 

 century, that it is doubtful whether even these 

 three institutions will be adequate to treat the 

 number of insane in the State. There were over 

 1,000 lunatics on November 1st, cared for in 

 the various counties. During the year the State 

 has expended $158,000 on these asylums. The 

 Oxford Orphan Asylum has sheltered, fed, 

 clothed, and educated during the year 145 or- 

 phan children, at a cost of $14,032.66, to which 

 the State contributed $5,000. The institution 

 is under the auspices of the Masonic fraternity, 

 who manage and control it, and contribute lib- 

 erally to its support. 



RAILROADS. The completion in May of the 

 railroad from Wolf Creek to Paint Rock, makes 

 the connection continuous between the North 

 Carolina system of railroads and the East 

 Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia trunk line. 

 The branch just finished crosses the French 

 Broad at two places handsome iron bridges, 

 440 feet apart, spanning the river at both 

 points. The masonry-work of these bridges 

 is all of black granite. The road from Ashe- 

 ville to Pigeon River is completed. The grad- 



ing is finished to the top of Balsam Moun- 

 tain, and the work between that point and the 

 Co wee Tunnel, sixteen miles farther, is progress- 

 ing. The tunnel is on the west bank of the 

 Tuckaseegee River, and takes the road through 

 Cowee Mountain, and then down the Tucka- 

 seegee to Charleston, Swain County, crossing 

 the Tennessee River near the mouth of the 

 Nautehala, thence along that stream to Red 

 Marble Gap, and, cutting through the moun- 

 tains and striking the head-waters of Valley 

 River, runs down that water-course to Murphy. 

 The engineering difficulties in cutting through 

 Balsam, Cowee, and Nautehala ranges are very 

 great, rendering progress at these points appar- 

 ently slow. 



The act passed by the last Legislature provid- 

 ing for the sale of the State's interest in the 

 Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad failed 

 to be carried out because conditions were at- 

 tached to it with which the purchasers refused 

 to comply. The State owns $555,000 worth 

 of the stock. The grading is almost completed 

 to Walnut Cove, the work being done by con- 

 vict-labor. The Atlantic and North Carolina 

 Railroad from Beaufort to Goldsboro, ninety- 

 five miles, was leased last year for thirty years to 

 the Midland North Carolina Railroad Company 

 for $40,000 per annum, on condition that the 

 lessees should build a road from Goldsboro to 

 Salisbury. Having only built twenty-two out 

 of one hundred and fifty miles of this road, and 

 suspended further work, the Atlantic Company 

 have declared the lease forfeited, and have taken 

 steps to recover possession. The State has a 

 nominal interest in the Atlantic road to the 

 amount of $1,266,000. This stock is worth 

 less than ten cents in the dollar, and subject to 

 a lien amounting to $248,000, with accrued in- 

 terest since August, 1868. It is proposed that 

 the next Legislature shall authorize the State 

 to surrender her interest to the Midland or any 

 other company, on condition that the road 

 from Goldsboro to Salisbury or Charlotte be 

 completed as rapidly as practicable. There is 

 a strong party in the State in favor of the crea- 

 tion of a Railroad Commission, and when the 

 Legislature meets in January a bill for that 

 purpose will be introduced and, it is believed, 

 will be adopted. The suits brought by the 

 State Treasurer against the Wilmington and 

 Weldon, Seaboard and Roanoke, Raleigh and 

 Gaston and Petersburg Railroad Companies, to 

 recover taxes levied by the Legislature, have 

 been decided in favor of the State. The ques- 

 tion involved was whether the provisions of 

 the charters of the defendant companies ex- 

 empting them from taxation, protected them 

 from the taxes levied by the General Assem- 

 bly in the acts of 1877 and 1881. Their char- 

 ters exempted their property from taxation, 

 but the taxes in question were levied on their 

 franchise, not upon the corporate property. 

 The Raleigh and Seaboard Railroad has been 

 completed this year from Williamston to Tar- 

 boro, and the work between the latter point 



