Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-11-16
"From Our Special Correspond
ent,"

MONTPELIER, Nov. 18th, 1894
If the Legislature keeps up the pace
that it has kept up thus far this week,
final adjournment will doubtless occur
the day before Thanksgiving, two weeks
from yesterday, instead of a week or
two thereafter, as many anticipated.
One noticeable feature of the week has
been the wholesale slaughtering of bills,
and many an one that the introducer of
had high hopes when arose and intro
duCed it, has gone into oblivion. Among
these was the old chestnut that bobs up
every session of the Legislature, in re-
gard to running Sunday trains. The
| committee reported that the State had
sufficient legislation in the matter, and
the petitioners were advised to appeal
to the railway officials.
The House killed the bill 200, intro
ductd to pay the town of Glastonbury
| 5000 for expense incurred following up
and hunting for one Mcdowell, who
murdered man in that town several
years ago.
The Committee on Education have
devoted some time to the discussion of
the free text book bill. The idea of
State uniformity has been abandoned by
all the committee, and the only question
now to be settled is: Shall the county or
town have the deciding vote? 1t is
probable that each county will have uni
form text books.
A little game of ''give and take' was
enjoyed Tuesday, between the sportsmen
and the farmers. 1t seems that some of
the latter, since they had secured the
passage of the maple sugar bill in the
House, had decided to oppose the bill
making an appropriation for the fish
hatchery. The rumOr reachen the ears
of the supporters of the fish commission
ers and accordingly arrangements were
made to hold over the maple sugar act
in the Senate until the fate of the appro-
priation was decided. 1t resulted salts
factorily, and accordingly the maple
sugar bill will no doubt receive its third
reading in the Upper Chamber.
There was considerable discussion on
the merits of this bill. Mr.. Delano of
ElmOre, one of the smallest towns in the
State, and whose only distinction is that
it furnished the lowest per cent. of
deaths of any town in the State for 1893,
only II, thought that the appropriation
was too large, and he offered an amend
ment to make the sum $4, ZOO instead of
$1,000 Mr.. Dennison of West Randolph,
doubtless having in mind the possibility
of an appropriation for the Normal
school which is located there, at some
future session; Mr.. Pier of Jamaica,
Clark of Burlington, Lord of Montpelier,
and others, opposed the amendment.
Another member, who probably intend
ed to be funny, thought the best thing
to do was to vote an appropriation to
move the hatchery out of the State.
There was not even smile to this prop
osition, and the bill in its original form,
appropriating $1,000 was passed in the
House, by vote of 122 to 80.
Another satisfactory thing thatlthe
House did was to kill the bill creating
the office of attorney general.
S, 146, by the Judiciary Committee,
which was introduced into the Senate,
Wednesday, is one relating to State
printing, and quite au important one. 1t
creates the Secretary of State, State Aud
itor and State Librarian, commissioners
on State printing and stationery by bid
or otherwise. 1t fixes the the time for
printing all reports and journals. Pro-
vides for the disposition of the several
reports. The Secretary of State shall
deliver all laws, Journals and public doc
uments. 1t also provides that the Su-
preme Court reporters shall procure the
1t is suggested that should this law
pass, the State printing would possibly
come farther north than it has done for
some years.
Appropriations are easily asked for,
and about as easily voted. One of the
latest is S, 14S, from the Committee on
the Insane, entitled an act to relieve the
congesred condition of the Vermont
State asylum for the insane, it appropri
ates Sl50,000, and authorizes the board
of trustees of the asylum, and the lieu
tenant-gOvernor to erect north wing,
two additional wards and a mortuary,
and 80 acres of land for farm colony
for cOnvalescents.
The House passed the bill relating to
parks and sidewalks, which provides
that at the request of ten or more citi
zens, the selectmen may lay out parks
and sidewalks within the limits of the
highway, and forbid driving thereon,
the punishment for violation being fine
of not less than one, nor more than five
dollars with costs.