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NEW YORK. 



dent and Gorton W. Allen vice-president. At 

 a meeting held on May 8 plans for a State 

 building prepared by McKim, Mead & White, 

 of New York city, were accepted. It will be a 

 handsome structure two stories in height, 193 

 feet long and 97 feet wide, with open terraces 

 on either end. It will be built of staff, a build- 

 ing material made of gravel, cement, etc., and 

 having the appearance of white marble. There 

 will be a terra-cotta roof, and the general style 

 of architecture will be the Italian renaissance. 

 On the ground floor of the building there will 

 be an information bureau, post office, and parcel 

 departments, and on the second floor will be an 

 auditorium and reception rooms, with an apart- 

 ment equipped for the newspaper fraternity. 

 The auditorium will be 42 by 82 feet. The en- 

 tire left half of the building will be devoted to 

 the uses of the women's department. The build- 

 ing alone is to cost $77,600, and the furnishings 

 and interior and exterior decorations will cost, 

 approximately. $50,000, outside of $60,000 pro- 

 vided for that purpose. 



On Oct. 22 the formal assignment of this build- 

 ing to exposition uses was effected by Chauncey 

 M. Depew as president of the Board of Managers, 

 its acceptance by Director-General Davis, and 

 addresses by Gov. Flower, Archbishop Corrigan, 

 with a dedicatory poem by William H. McElroy 

 followed. 



Holidays. According to the laws of this 

 State, the public holidays are as follow: New 

 Year's Day, Washington's Birthday, Decoration 

 Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Christmas 

 Day, every general election day, and " any day 

 appointed or recommended by the Governor of 

 this State or the President of the United States 

 as a day of thanksgiving or fasting and prayer 

 or other religious observance." 



In accordance with the public wishes, an act 

 was passed by the Legislature, and approved by 

 the Governor, designating April 27, 1892, from 

 12 o'clock at noon, a half holiday in and for the 

 counties of New York, Kings, and Westchester, 

 in order that the celebration of the laying of 

 the corner stone of the memorial of Gen. Grant 

 might be observed. Also, an act of the Legisla- 

 ture was signed making Oct. 12 a legal holiday ; 

 and in accordance with a proclamation of the 

 President of the United States, Oct. 21 was ob- 

 served as a national holiday. 



Education. This department is under the 

 charge of a superintendent, whose salary is 

 $5,000. The present incumbent is James F. 

 Crooker. According to his report, the number 

 of children of school age during the year 1892 

 was 1,845,519. The number attending the pub- 

 lic schools was 1,073,093, leaving 772,426 chil- 

 dren to be educated in private or parochial 

 schools, or without instruction in any schools. 

 The amount expended for public schools during 

 1892 was $21,134,516, an increase of $865,398 

 over that of 1891. 



The Governor, in his message, says : " If the 

 ratio of public-school children to the whole num- 

 ber of children of school age continues to de- 

 crease, it will not be long before half the latter 

 are educated at private expense or are not edu- 

 cated at all. It is well known that thousands 

 of children in the State are growing up without 

 any school education whatever, and I renew my 



recommendation of last year for a carefulh 

 guarded compulsory education law." 



The regents of the University of the State of 

 New York met with severe losses in the death 

 of George William Curtis, a regent since 1864, 

 and Francis Kernan, a regent since 1870, and 

 by the resignation of Leslie W. Russell, a regent 

 since 1878. To the last vacancy Bishop William 

 Croswell Doane was chosen, who subsequently 

 became vice-chancellor on the advancement of 

 Anson J. Upson to the chancellorship made va- 

 cant by the death of Mr. Curtis. 



Charities. The annual report of the New 

 York State Board of Charities shows that the 

 total expenditures for charitable, correctional, 

 and reformatory purposes during the year ended 

 Oct. 1, 1892, was $18,228,712. The number of 

 beneficiaries of the various charitable, correc- 

 tional, and reformatory institutions on Oct. 1, 

 1892, was 76,807. Of these, 17,457 were insane, 

 24,074 dependent children, 7,875 aged and friend- 

 less persons, and 10,539 ordinary poorhouse in- 

 mates, the remainder being in blind and deaf- 

 and-dumb asylums and in various reformatory 

 institutions. * Concerning the crowded condi- 

 tion of the State Reformatory at Elmira, and the 

 fact that the managers of the institution pur- 

 pose to ask for an appropriation for additional 

 buildings, the board advises against the grant- 

 ing of such appropriation, and recommends the 

 establishment of an eastern reformatory on the 

 same plan, to be near New York and Brooklyn. 

 The House of Refuge for Women at Hudson is 

 greatly overcrowded, the institution is misman- 

 aged, and good discipline is not maintained. 

 The Houses of Refuge on Randall's Island and 

 at Rochester are in a satisfactory condition, and 

 the management of both in good hands. Gross 

 abuses in the management of the Oswego County 

 Poorhouse have been found, the responsibility 

 for which is placed upon the county superin- 

 tendent of the poor. The board asks for an ap- 

 propriation of $40,000 for 1893, in order to carry 

 out the law directing the return to their homes 

 of paupers from other States and counties, and 

 reports favorably upon the workings of that law 

 during the year just closed. The board refers 

 to the necessity for a more decided restriction 

 of foreign immigration, and believes Congress 

 at its present session will enact laws obviously 

 necessary for the protection of the country 

 against burdensome immigrants. 



Lunacy. The State Commission in Lunacy 

 consists of Carlos F. McDonald, Goodwin Brown, 

 and Henry A. Reeves. According to their an- 

 nual report, on Oct. 1, 1892, the number of com- 

 mitted insane in the State was as follows : State 

 hospitals, 7,832 ; licensed private asylums, 902 ; 

 asylums of New York and Kings Counties, 7,887 ; 

 in county poorhouses awaiting removal, 802 ; 

 total, 17,423. The policy inaugurated in 1890 

 of assuming care and custody of dependent in- 

 sane, with the exception of those in New York 

 and Kings counties, will go into final effect be- 

 fore Oct. 1, 1893. The work of preparation is 

 nearly finished; 9 State hospitals, costing up- 

 ward of $10,000,000, have been put in readiness ; 

 about 7,900 patients from the county poorhouses 

 have been placed in the State hospitals, and the 

 remainder (about 700) are expected to be trans- 

 ferred before May 1, 1893, In order to provide 



