Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/771

 KANSAS 751 for his debts. She may convey her property, or make contracts concerning it. She may sue and be sued, in the same manner as an unmar- ried woman, and may carry on any trade or business and have full control over her earn- ings. Neither husband nor wife may bequeath more than one half of his or her estate away from the other without written consent. Di- vorces may be granted by the district court, among other causes, for abandonment for one year, adultery, impotency, extreme cruelty, drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, and im- prisonment in the penitentiary subsequent to marriage. The plaintiff must have resided a year in the state. In actions for libel, the truth published with good motives and for justifiable ends may constitute a good defence. The legal rate of interest is limited to 12 per cent. Kansas is represented in congress by two senators and three representatives, and has therefore five votes in the electoral college. The total state debt, Jan. 1, 1874, was $701,- 650; bonded school debt of counties, $1,928,- 685; municipal debt, $10,899,445; aggregate, $13,529,580. The income and disbursements of the various funds were as follows : SOURCES. Rtceiptl. Diibunementa. Balance. General revenue $744,856 99 146,775 11 47,229 96 249,771 82 281,164 61 7,516 89 $658.855 S3 98,408 00 8,905 00 237,220 23 229,625 97 3,500 00 $86,001 16 58,872 11 88.324 96 12,581' 59 1,538 64 4,016 89 20 2,150 57 8,272 00 4,049 87 Annual school fund. . . Permanent school fund Military fund 8,210 88 6,060 81 Int. on municipal bonds Total 58,839 16 54,289 79 !}i.4!i!).^nr.4j $1,291,860 18 IJ.'O.V-'TT -19 The value of taxable property, as fixed by the state board, and the amount and rate of taxa- tion since Kansas became a state, are shown in the following table : YEARS. Tuabh property. Rate. Tu levied. 1861 $24.744883 8 milb. 1S62 19,285,749 6 " 101,409 1863 25 460,400 127,302 1864 80 508 791 152,884 1S65 86 227,200 5 " 181,186 1866 50 439 634 4 " 201,760 1867 . ... 56-276.8IM 6 " 281,881 1868 fill 949 54I ft " 435,407 1869 76,8Sr3,697 10 " 768,836 1870 92.528 ft!>9 ft " 309,680 1871 108,758,575 652,521 1872 127,69(1,987 4 " 1,085,372 1673 125,684,176 6 " 754,105 The state government is supported chiefly by a tax directly upon the people, the assessment being made upon a cash valuation of all the real and personal estate, including the proper- ty of railroad companies and other corpora- tions. The asylums for the insane, deaf and dumb, and blind are each controlled by a board of six trustees appointed by the gover- nor and senate. The asylum for the insane at 461 VOL. ix. 48 Osawatomio is greatly inadequate to the needs of the state. The number of patients at the close of 1873 was 121 ; the current expenses for the year amounted to $28,221. Since the opening of the asylum in 1863, 378 per- sons have been admitted, of whom 161 have been discharged recovered, 38 improved, 26 stationary, and 19 died. The asylum for the deaf and dumb at Olathe, organized by the legislature in 1866, is intended to afford in- struction, without charge for board or tuition, to all the deaf and dumb of the state between the ages of 10 and 21 years. The course of instruction covers six years, but may be ex- tended in certain cases. Students are also re- quired to devote time to industrial pursuits with a view of being able to obtain a liveli- hood after leaving the institution. By this means a considerable income is created for the asylum. In 1873 there were 5 instructors and 77 pupils, of whom 52 were in attendance at the close of the year. The amount appropria- ted by the legislature was $36,604, including $20,000 for additional buildings. The institu- tion for the blind, founded in 1867, is at Wy- andotte. It comprises educational and indus- trial departments, and in 1873 had 4 instruc- tors and 33 pupils. The cost of the institution in that year was $11,590. The state peniten- tiary at Leavenworth at the end of 1873 had 340 convicts, of whom 19 had been sentenced by the United States and 49 by military courts ; 25 had been convicted of murder, 11 of man- slaughter, 10 of assault with intent to kill, 173 of larceny, 32 of burglary, 15 of robbery, and 15 of rape. The disbursements for 1873 were $126,267; the resources amounted to $139,- 607, including $70,000 appropriated by the legislature and $54,232 received from prison- ers' labor, boarding United States prisoners, &c. Some of the convicts are employed in various industrial pursuits within the prison, while others are employed under contract out- side. Convicts may receive a percentage of their earnings. In 1873, for want of a state reform school, 75 boys from 15 to 20 years of age were confined in the penitentiary. The constitution requires the legislature to " en- courage the promotion of intellectual, moral, scientific, and agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of common schools, and schools of a higher grade, embra- cing normal, preparatory, collegiate, and uni- versity departments." The proceeds of all lands granted by the United States to the state for schools, and of the 500,000 acres granted to each of the new states by congress in 1841, all estates of persons dying without heir or will, and such percentage as may be granted by congress on the sale of lands in this state, are made a perpetual school fund. The in- come of the state school funds is required to be disbursed annually among the school dis- tricts ; but no district is entitled to receive any portion of such funds in which a common school has not been maintained at least three
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