including mild forms of insanity; the other two are general in their 

 scope. 



There are several circulating or public libraries in the county; one, 

 Takoma Park, has just been housed in a fine $40,000 building. This 

 latter is a Carnegie Library, a branch of Washington City Library; the 

 building stands in the district of Columbia, but is patronized by Mont- 

 gomery County people from Silver Spring down to the district line. 

 Rockville has a small museum, apparently but little used. 



Community Improvements 



The suburban sections of the county are of course still very much 

 in the process of making, but throughout the county more or less build- 

 ing has been going on continuously. Twenty-six new school houses 

 have been built during the last six years, 20 of them having two or more 

 rooms. At least two of these were built with the local assistance of 

 their patrons. There are a number of Town Halls in the county which 

 were built by subscription, and several of these have been put up within 

 five years. Money is now being raised for one in the Darnestown 

 District. The Knights of Pythias Hall in Gaithersburg, a fine, large 

 brick building, was built quite recently. Other buildings put up within 

 a few years which particularly deserve mention are the Baptist Church 

 and the Sunday-school building of the Southern Methodist Episcopal 

 Church at Rockville, the Episcopal Churches at Laytonsville and Olney, 

 the Club House of the Chevy Chase Country Club, the Chevy Chase 

 Presbyterian Church, the building of the Montgomery County National 

 Bank at Rockville, of the National Bank and Savings Bank at Sandy 

 Spring, and of the Fire Insurance Company at Sandy Spring. 



Local Option 



In 1880 the county voted upon the question of local option, and the 

 vote was in favor of prohibition; the fight was a bitter one, but every 

 district in the county gave Prohibition at least a small majority. 

 This went into effect the following year and has remained in force ever 

 since. Of recent years, the law has been fairly well enforced. A con- 

 siderable amount of liquor is shipped or otherwise brought into the 

 County from Washington; the "locker" system is in force at one or two 

 club houses; but there is little or no open selling. 



Newspapers 



Three newspapers are published in the county, two in Rockville, 

 and one in Kensington. Of these, one is a Republican paper and the 

 other two are Democratic. Each issues one edition a week. 



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