Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-09
REFORM SCHOOL.
Excellent Report for Year End
ing November 30, 1895.
Much Done In Educational Line to
Improve III Behaved Boys.
Farm Mechanical and Other Departments
Well Looked After. Other Features.

The 42d annual report of the State Nor
NAL school has been presented the Gov
ernor and Cornell The report will soon
be ready for distribution.
The report in part gives some very in
terasting figures.
There were in the school, Dec /, 1894,
40. There We're committed during 1885,
45 of those previously out on leave, three
returned; voluntarily returned, six;
escaped boys returned, 3; making the
whole number in school during the year
1877.
There have been 3S allowed to go on
trial. two were discharged; two escaped
making total of i6, leaving the l5l boys
in school Dee /, 1895. an increase Of II
over Dec. !, 1891.
The report in part. says: AT Christ
mas and at the close of the spring terms
the boys have exhibition exercises under
the training of the teachers. The writer
Of this report attended the exhibition at
the close OF last spring term and it is but
justice to the boys to say it would have
done honor to any institution OF learning
in the State.
"The singing, dcclamations and dia
logues were all exceptionally fine. One
of the boys presided over the exercises
and it requires but little stretch of the i'm
agination to see him some day, in some
place in the future, welding the gavel
with the skill Of Henry Clay. James G.
Blaine or Thomas b. Reed.
"Of the sixty boys then out on proba-
ton fifty-two gave good reports, five
failed to report and from only three were
the reports bad. When we take into
are employed as sailors and out on the
ocean, and that others are with their
parents and friends out Of the. State, be-
You'd our jurisdiction, we think this
remarkable showing. pnd very compl
mentary to the management of the school.
"While, as matter of fact, from
seventy five to eighty per cent OF the boys
who go out from the reform school, give
good evidence that they are thoroughly
reformed, there are few exceptional
cases in which boys in the language of the
Revised Statutes, chapter 14a, section Z
are found incorrigible, and their con
tinuance in the school injurious to its
management and discipline Four boys
of this character, who have been many
years in the school, have been remanded
during the past year to receive the several
alternate sentences, received when SEN
fenced to the reform school.
Great care is taken by the superinten-
dent to find q good and suitable home for
each boy, who by vote Of the trustees is
entitled to release on probation.
= The mechanical school has done good
service, during the past year. The mill
tary drill has been conducted with excel
lent results. 1t excites military pride and
incidentally love of country. When On
the drill the boys forget that they are
boys, while their ambition is awakened in
the direction of an honorable manhood
and a virtuous life.
What is popularity known in reform
schools, as the family system is no
longer in the history of this institution
lnere theory. Harrington cottage, opened
two and one-haf years since, has been a
gratifying success.
ION the 2Sth day of February, 1895,
Mrs. Ellen Z. FarriD gton, wife of Super
intendent Harrington, for long period of
suddenly removed from earth to Il home
in the better land. Mrs. Harrington was
a woman Of rare excellence. She pos
sassed in remarkable degree, all those
elements and traits Of character, needed to
enable her to perform successfully all the
high and responsible duties of her posi-
ton as matron in this institution. The
responsibilities of her position were
arduous and exacting but with serenity,
strength patience, and affectionate
fidelity, she made her quiet influence a
reforming refining and redeeming power
among those, who more than all else,
needed to know the compassion and love
of God, as unfolded in the character and
life of q noble Christian woman and
mother"
The report of the treasurer, Mark p.
Emery, gives cash on hand Dec. /, 1894,
S64 with other receipts amount to
$50, 452.
The expenditures amount to S3S. 7S9,
leaving balance on hand of $1663
Some of the expenses are $97ls for labor,
and salaries; clothing, $685. boots and
shoes, $1,000; repairs and Improvements,
s2539; military drill, $l1a2.
During the past year the municipal
courts of the various cities have sentenced
as follows Auburn, L. Augusta, 3 Ban
gor, 7; Biddeford, 5; Brunswick, 2; Dex-
ter Old Town, q Portland, 4; West