normal schools is $7,500 per annum. Deaf and Dumb Asylum, located at Fulton; legislative appropriation for 1879 and 1880, $91,000. Blind Asylum, located at St. Louis; legislative appropriation for 1879 and 1880, $46,000. Lincoln Institute,* located at Jefferson City; legislative appropriation, $10,000 for 1879 and 1880; devoted to training colored teachers for colored public schools of the state. School of Mines and Metallurgy, located at Rolla; legislative appropriation, $15,000 for 1879 and 1880; constitutes a department of the state university. State teachers' association, meets annually at places selected at each session, during the last week in June. STATISTICS OF 1878.-School population, 688,248; school enrollment, 448,033; No. of ungraded school districts, 8,142; No. of graded school districts, 279. No. of school houses, 8,092; estimated value of school houses and sites, $8,321,399; average school year in months, 5; average school year in months, in graded school districts, 9; total number of teachers employed, 11,268; total wages of teachers, $2,320,430.20; average wages of teachers per month, males, $36.36, females, $28.09; average wages of teachers per month, in grades schools, estimated, males, $87.81, females, $40.73. REVENUE. - From interest on state permanent fund, $174,030.15; from one-fourth state revenue collections, $363,276.32; from county and township permanent funds, $440,191.37; from district taxes, $2,446,910.71. Total, $3,424,408.55. PERMANENT FUNDS.-State fund, $2,909,457.11; county fund, $2,388,368.29; township or sixteenth section fund, $1,980,678.51. Total $7,278, 046.80. The state auditor's report for 1879 and 1880 furnishes the following school items; and they make a very favorable showing for the public school interests of Missouri: * Lincoln Institute was first projected by the 62d Regiment U. S. Colored Infantry, while on duty in Texas, in 1865, and was designed for the higher education of colored people. In January, 1866, the state attached a state normal department to it, to provide suitable teachers for the public schools for colored children. The school was opened Sept. 17, 1876, but was not finally provided for by law as a state normal school until Feb. 14, 1870, since which time it has gone steadily forward and done a good work for the negro population. MASSACHUSETTS AND MISSOURI SCHOOL RATES. Massachusetts is taken almost universally as the standard of measurement for other states. The state reports of Massachusetts and Missouri, for 1879, show that in the former there was applied to the education of every child of school age the sum of $13.71-in the latter, $4.37. But it must be remembered that school age in Massachusetts is between five and fifteen years; in Missouri between six and twenty; a difference of four years in school. The report of the secretary of the Massachusetts board of education, for 1879, states the "per centage of valuation appropriated for public schools," as two and seventy-two one hundredths mills. In Missouri it was over five mills. That is, every tax-paying Missourian paid nearly twice as much for the maintenance of public schools on the same amount (of value) of property as the tax-payer of Massachusetts. 1839 1844 ... Louis.. Non-Sectarian. ... Fulton Presbyterian. .... M. E. Church South. 66 66 66 66 66 66 Independence.... Christian. St. Charles Fayette THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS. Concordia College........St. Louis.... 1869 Vanderman School of The In addition to the above, the Baptists have: Stephens College, Columbia⚫ Mt. Pleasant College, Huntsville; Baptist Female College, Lexington; La Grange College, La Grange; Baptist College, Louisiana; Liberty Female College, Liberty; St. Louis Seminary for Young Ladies, Jennings Station; Fairview Female Seminary, Jackson; Booneville Seminary for Young Ladies, Booneville; North Grand River College, Edinburg; Ingleside Academy, Palmyra. The Christian connection has Christian University, at Canton, in Lewis county. The Congregationalists have Thayer College, at Kidder, in Caldwell county. The German Evangelicals have Missouri College, in Warren county. The Methodist Episcopals (North) have Johnson College at Macon City. The Presbyterians have Lindenwood Female College, at St. Charles. A good feeling prevails amongst these different schools. Each attends to its own work in its own way, caring for the patronage of its own people and the community at large, as a good neighbor of every other worker. A most liberal and impartial legislative policy is pursued, by dealing with all alike before the law, whether in the maintenance of vested rights or in the matter of taxation. By constitutional provision all property actually used for school and religious purposes may be exempted from taxes, and the same constitution most explicitly interdicts all discrimination, and also all favor or partiality. 1869 1873 1840 Missouri Medical College Kansas City College of Physicians and Surgeons.. Kansas City. Medical College of State University.. .Columbia. 1841 St. Louis Medical College. 1858 Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri. 1865 Missouri Dental College... 1864 St. Louis College of Pharmacy. SCIENTIFIC SCHOOLS. 1870 Agricultural and Mechanical College (State Uni- .Columbia. 1871 Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (State ...Rolla. 1857 Polytechnic Department of Washington University.St. Louis. Methodist, Protestant and Free Methodist Episcopal Church Total 4,160 3,437 539,004 NOTE.-Church members of the Catholic and Protestant Episcopal Churches include all persons baptized into the church. The others count only communicants in good standing. PROTECTIONAL LAWS. Our state legislature has made ample and discreet provision for the protection of a home-place from sale on execution. The home and property rights of married women, widows and orphans, are guaranteed by statute as far as is practicable. A limit has also been fixed to the amount of indebtedness which may be incurred by the people in voting bonds to railroads, or other enterprises in which they may feel a friendly interest, but in aiding which, too generally, so many western communities have burdened themselves and their posterity with debts and taxation that are grevious to be borne. HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. The laws of Missouri reserve from execution, in the hands of every head of a family living in the country, a homestead, consisting of one hundred and sixty (160) acres of land, not exceeding $1,500 in value; to every head of a family, in cities of over 40,000 inhabitants, a homestead consisting of not more than eighteen square rods of ground, and of a valuation not exceeding $3,000; and in cities and towns of less than 40,000 inhabitants, a homestead, consisting of not more than thirty square rods of ground, and of the value of not more than $1,500. Thus it is seen that a farmer's homestead in Missouri consists of one hundred and sixty acres of land and the improvements thereon, not exceeding in value $1,500; the homestead of the residents of the smaller towns is of the same value; while that allowed to the inhabitants of St. Louis, St. Joseph and Kansas City, where land is more valuable, and the cost of living greater, is fixed at $3,000. The homestead is in the nature of a lien or charge, in favor of the wife and children, upon certain property of the husband, defined in extent, and limited in value. A declaration of what this property is may be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds, and notice is thus imparted to all persons having dealings with the owner, that this particular property is not subject to execution, and that they ought not to give credit on the faith of it. The state, under this head, provides that: "Any married woman may file her claim to the tract or lot of land occupied or claimed by her and her husband, or by her, if abandoned by her husband, as a homestead. Said claim shall set forth the tract or lot claimed, that she is the wife of the person in whose name the said tract or lot appears of record, and said claim shall be acknowledged by her before some officer authorized to take proof or acknowledgment of instruments of writing affecting real estate, and be filed in the recorder's office, and it shall be the duty of the recorder to receive and record the same. After the filing of such claims, duly acknowledged, the husband shall be debarred from, and incapable of selling, mortgaging and alienating the homestead in any manner whatever, and such sale, mortgage or alienation is hereby declared null and void; and the filing of any such claims as aforesaid with the recorder shall impart notice to all persons of the contents thereof, and all subsequent purchasers and mortagors shall be deemed, in law and equity, to purchase with notice; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the husband and wife from jointly conveying, mortgaging, alienating, and, in any other manner, disposing of such homestead, or any part thereof." Such a law, while securing the benefits of a homestead to the debtor, works no injustice to the creditor. He sees that the debtor has certain property recorded as his homestead. He never gives credit on the faith that this property will be subject to his execution; but he looks simply to the other property of the debtor, or to the state of his business and his character for honesty. It may be added that the supreme court of this state has construed the homestead laws liberally, with the view of carrying out the benevolent purposes of the legislature. If the debtor is ignorant or timid, when the sheriff comes with an execution to levy, and fails to claim his right of homestead, his family are not, therefore, to be turned out of doors. The |