The Portland daily press., 1899-01-21
ESPECIAL TO THE FRESH

bred law makers to that city so that they
might inspect the work done on the new
insane hospital. A number of prominent
Bangor men who ara not members of the
| legislature were on the train. Among
them was Hon. William Engel, who saw
30 1t that the members were provided
with tickets. The train is called legis-
lative train by courtesy, for as "a matter
of fact 1t was the regular morning train
from Portland, two special cars for the
lawmakers bringing up the rear. When
the Legislators gathered In the early fore
noon for the short session which preceded
the departure on the tour of discovery in
Penobscot county, there were questions
on all sides as TO who were going and the
few who said that they did not intend
joining the expedition at once learned
how cordial is Bangor hospitality for they
received so many urgent invitations that
1T required strong mind and steady
purpose to resist. One of the scoffers
called the trip an expedition to see Mayor
Bsals piazza. and then-tell 1t not In
Bangor-somebody asked what that
meant Thereupon the story was told of
the porch which the mayor has built In
front of one of the hotels which he owns,
porch which, 1t Is claimed, extends out
over the sidewalk and which the Bangor
city fathers have ordered removed on n
number of occasions. Now when the
city government passed tho order" said
the story teller when he was interrupted
| by one OF the bystanders who remarked:
"Hold on The Bangor city government
| never passed any such order. The city
council did that. Mayor Beal is the city
government. And then when the laugh
was over the story was over, too, for the
passage of the order was the last act in
the drama. The piazza is still there. The
Bangor plan of convincing the legisla-
tors of the necessity of an appropriation
| by the means of personal inspection
Will, it is said, be tried again next week.
Then the committee will visit the Uni
| versity of Maine and an announcement
Is expected that opportunity will he
afforded members who desire to do so
to accompany the committee. The MEM
bers at this stage of the session have a
good deal of spare time and there are
great possibilities in the plan. When the
report of the commission which recon .
mends the building of three new normal
schools is taken up there might be further
opportunities for inspection. One Of
the three places suggested Is Calais. A
trip to Calais would no: only give the
members "A chance to judge for them
selves of the desirability of that city as
place for normal school. but would
enable them to take trip over the new
Washington county railroad. Houlton
and Dexter, the other two towns named
by the commission, are good places to
visit and if all the towns which want
normal schools, but did not get mention
In the report were included in the list
the Legislators might do lot of travel
ing
THE ACADEMY APPROPRIATIONS.
The education committee has not yet
taken up for action the resolve prohibit
ing the app opriation Of funds for private
schools and the members of the commit
tee have not expressed even to their col
league their opinion of the matter. On
one point, however. they speak freely.
They say that Mr.. McFadden's argument
in support OF his resolve was an able
one. One point on which MIR. McFadden
did not touch, but which was the sub
ject of bill before the last Legislature
Is the manner in which some Of these
academies receive state aid from two
sources. The last legislature made appro-
priations of annual sums ranging from
three hundred to a thousand dollars or
more to aid 30 schools and academies not
including the University of Maine. Now
many of these academies serve as free
are situated The town authorities enter
into an arrangement with the academy
trustees to give the pupils of the town
a high school education, the town pay
ing the tuition. The school law provides
that towns maintaining free high schools
may receive state aid to an amount not
exceeding $3.50 year. So the academy
becomes also the town high school, 1t
gets an annual state grant of $500, per-
haps, and in addition it1receives from
the state treasury $3.50 more, although
this is not paid directly to the school. In
fact in one instance at least the claim
was set up that the scnool only received
$500 from the state. In making return
to the Office of the superintendent of
schools the trustees of the academy in
question took the ground that they re-
ceived only the $500 from the state. The
town authorities paid them for the tuition
of the town scholars. If the town got
$3.50 from the state that was not the affair
of the academy. The school received so
many scholars and got its pay for them
from the town. 1t had no official knowl-
edge where the towns money came
from. Nevertheless $3.50 taken from the
state treasury found its way to the
treasury of the academy. MIR. McFad-
denis position Ia that this system is an
unjust one in that it deprives some towns
~ ,norav in crrar that othars may ha va