Society $13,020 for relief of "sick and infirm persons of color." The remnant of this fund is still distributed.

All of the Church and benevolent societies co-operate with the Associated Charities.

SOUTH DAKOTA.

BY W. B. SHERRARD, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

We have had no meeting of the legislature since my last report. Nothing new has been undertaken in charitable work during the

year.

We have no dependent children. The Children's Home Society gathers them as quickly as they come to the surface, and places them in family homes. There is a general feeling, however, that the State must protect itself from the importation of defective children by Eastern and Middle Western societies.

The population of the State institutions is as follows: Deaf-mute School, 46; penitentiary, 124; Insane Asylum, 451.

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT.

BY W. J. SIBBISON, PRESIDENT BOARD OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS.

South Dakota's Charitable and Penal Institutions.

For a State which has been a member of the Union less than nine years and whose territory has been settled only from twenty to thirty years, South Dakota has made excellent progress in the establishment of penal and charitable institutions. Twenty years ago only one railroad reached what is now the State, and the wave of immigration which settled the Territory and made the Commonwealth what it is to-day began in 1881. Yet the State has to-day a large modern brick hospital for the insane, costing more than half a million dollars, a granite penitentiary, costing $140,000, a school for deafmutes housed in four granite buildings, and a boys' and girls' reformatory with two fine granite buildings. Each of these institutions possesses a large and fertile farm, where the inmates not only are taught skill in agriculture and the raising of live stock, but produce their own food.. All are managed by a trained corps of managers,

employing the most modern systems which the thought and skill of the time have evolved.

The Insane Hospital at Yankton has 455 patients, of whom 180 are women. This is an increase of 40 for the year. During the past five years 28 per cent. of those received have been discharged cured. With the exception of the violent and the hopelessly demented, the patients are all employed. There are not to exceed 25 insane patients confined in the State outside of the hospital. The institution has its own steam-heating and electric-light plant.

The penitentiary is at Sioux Falls. There are 130 prisoners, an increase of 20 during the year. This increase has been among United States prisoners chiefly, there being 35 of them. There are no female convicts. During the spring, summer, and fall the prisoners are employed on the State farm, of which 230 acres are owned by the State and 75 acres are rented. All are under cultivation, and there are raised the ordinary field crops and vegetables and feed for live stock. Steers are fattened, and hogs are raised. During the fall and winter the prisoners are employed in getting out and dressing stone for buildings. The State owns a large granite quarry. During the past year the men have prepared the stone for State buildings at Yankton, Plankinton, and Springfield. The work of the prisoners is not allowed to come into competition with outside labor. Owing to a too great leniency with which it had been practised, the parole system was abolished five years ago. There has been no new legislation for five years; and the last legislature refused to enact a bill recommended by the warden, providing that life prisoners should, under certain circumstances, earn a pardon by good conduct.

The reformatory for girls and boys is at Plankinton, and possesses a large granite building and a temporary wooden structure which accommodates the girl inmates, while a new granite dormitory is being built to replace that burned last fall. There are 110 inmates, including 23 girls, and including 12 from North Dakota, which has no reform school and makes use of ours. There is not a fence or a bar in the institution. The conduct of the boys and girls is regulated entirely by a system of rewards, which consists in extra time and. facilities for recreation and a certain relaxation in the rules governing correspondence with friends outside. Yet in five years only three have run away.

The school has a farm of 1,500 acres. The

boys are also taught printing, while the girls are instructed in household work and sewing.

The school for deaf-mutes occupies four large granite buildings at Sioux Falls, consisting of a dormitory, a workshop, a recitation building, and a barn. There are 45 pupils in attendance, the number being about the same as last year. The work of the superintendent, himself a mute, has been highly successful. A farm of 60 acres, half belonging to the State, is connected with the institution; and the pupils are taught farming.

The State has no school for the blind, but takes charge of the education of its blind citizens. At present there are only three, and they are being educated at the Iowa State School at the expense of South Dakota.

TENNESSEE.

BY MATT HOKE, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

We have no reform legislation to report except a bill requiring county jailers or their assistants to sleep in the jail. As 76 of our county jails are not fire-proof, this bill is an important one. Three men were recently burned to death in the Stewart County Jail at Dover at night, the jailer being absent with the keys.

Prison Sunday was observed this year for the first time in this State, through the efforts of Rev. James A. Orman, president of the Board of State Charities. This matter will be looked after from

now on.

A new building for the colored insane has just been completed at Bolivar, and all colored patients have been removed there from the Eastern and Central Hospitals for the Insane.

The Tennessee Industrial School is soon to have a $10,000 auditorium and chapel. This is the munificence of Colonel E. W. Cole, of Nashville, the founder of the institution. The grounds are to be beautified by Mrs. Cole.

The new State prison at Nashville is nearly completed, and is an up-to-date prison. Only about 100 convicts remain in the old prison (which has disgraced our State so long), and they will soon be removed.

We again have the convict lease system, although in a modified

form. Convicts may be leased to manufacturers, but the work must be done inside the prison walls.

Our State prison is now self-sustaining. The last legislature appropriated $25,000 for an addition to the Eastern Hospital for the Insane at Knoxville, to accommodate 100 additional patients. It is nearly complete.

The Board of State Charities has appointed County Boards of Visitors in many counties, from which boards we expect great results.

The Board of State Charities has again been hampered by the refusal of the last legislature to appropriate money for the board's expenses.

Rev. P. L. Cobb, chaplain of the Main Prison, has organized night schools, in which more than 200 convicts have been taught to read and write.

TEXAS.

BY REV. W. L. KENNEDY, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

No legislation has been enacted in our State in the field of charities and correction for some years past, except the establishment of a Soldiers' Home in the capital of our State. Of course, our soldiers could not be pensioned by the federal government; and, in lieu of pensioning them, it was thought better to establish for them a home. where the aged infirm or maimed could be cared for. There are about 150 inmates of the home now.

No public or private charitable associations have been formed for the care of the poor or dependent. I have heard that Rev. Mr. Buckner of the Orphans' Home of Dallas, Tex., has been trying to work up an institution for providing employment for discharged prisoners or convicts,- something very much needed.

Class 1.- Criminals. Prison proper, 1,735; Harlem State Farm, 152; contract forces, 1,761; Slum farms, 595; railroad forces, 298; total on hand, 4,541,- decrease of 75 since last report.

B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES.

The Poor, Destitute, Sick, and Injured. Are cared for by county or municipal law. No wards of State of these classes. Cities have their hospitals, and the inmates are constantly changing.

C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES.

Class 1. School for Blind, at Austin, 146 pupils.

Class 3.- Feeble-minded Children. Unprovided for.

Class 4. Insane. At three asylums: Austin, 727; San Antonio, 4271; number at the Terrill asylum not known.

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT.

BY REV. R. C. BUCKNER, D.D., OF DALLAS.

The State of Texas has an orphanage with extensive and beautiful grounds, and a family approximating 300. In addition to three large asylums for lunatics, it has a school for the blind and one for the deaf, and a reformatory for boys.

There are thirteen orphan asylums conducted by churches and benevolent organizations. The Methodist Orphanage at Waco, the Odd Fellows' Orphanage at Corrigan, the Buckner Orphanage and the Industrial School at Dallas, are unrestricted by State lines. The latter has 800 children under its watch and care, with 375 within its several buildings. The Methodist Orphanage has about 200. There is a total of at least 2,000 children in the various orphanages in the State, not including those on the outside under their supervision. There is also a Children's Home Society.

In addition to these is the Buckner Home Annex in the city of Dallas, a free sanatorium for deformed, crippled, and otherwise afflicted orphans and destitute children. It is not limited by State lines, but only by its limited means.

There are in Texas several rescue homes.