572 occurATiONS. 



houses is alone given. For the otlier years the number of persons receiv- 

 ing support on the 1st June in each year, is chosen as the most accurate 

 upon which to base the comparison offered in table F. This number in 

 South Carolina agrees very nearly with the number of paui:)ers estimated 

 to have been supported during each census year. This is far from being 

 the case with the figures given for the country at large. There the 

 agsiregate number of paupers supported during the year exceeds those 

 enumerated on the 1st of June of each year by from 52 per cent, in 1870, 

 to 293 per cent, in 1860, and 168 per cent, in 1850. Wliile the superin- 

 tendent of the census states, as his opinion, that these figures are of little 

 value for purposes of comparison, nevertheless, in the absence of all other 

 data, so far as they may be relied on, they show that there has been from 

 one-half to one-fourth the proportion of pauperism among the population 

 of South Carolina that there has been in the countr}' at large, saving 

 only during the period of militar}^ rule and reconstruction, as shown by 

 the census of 1870. Of the inmates of alms houses in 1880, 277 were 

 whites and 242 were colored. 



THE CRIMINAL POPULATION 



of South Carolina has never bsen large, as will be seen by reference to 

 table F. It has always been less than that of the country at large, except 

 in the dark days of misrule, during reconstruction in 1870 — days never 

 to return, unless some social upheaval, of which no symptoms now ap- 

 pear, should occur. Of the 642 prisoners enumerated in this State in 

 1880, 586, or 91 per cent., were colored, and were confined chiefly for 

 thefts. During slavery such offences were prevented or ^punished by 

 home discipline, and when emancipation imposed the burden of their 

 correction upon the public, the number of delinquents largel}' exceeded 

 any accommodations available for them. As a consequence. South Caro- 

 lina, in common with other Southern States, was forced to lease out her 

 convicts. iSIeasures have been taken to remedy this. Industrial estab- 

 lishments are being erected at \he Penitentiar}-. Earl}' in 1883, the 

 Board of Directors of the State Penitentiary announced that, on the 

 expiration of the leases now in force, no more convicts would be let 

 out ; and that hereafter all persons condemned to labor would be worked 

 either within the Penitentiary itself, or upon State works, under the 

 supervision of State officers. 



