was 45,495, of whom 22,577 were in average attendance. In 1900 there were 1074 male and 3965 female teachers, 828 of the total number of teachers being colored. The average yearly salary in the counties is less than $300, but in Baltimore city it is nearly double that sum. A law of 1902 introduced the pension system for such teachers as have reached the age of sixty, and have devoted twenty-five years to the service of the State schools. Professional training is given to teachers at the State Normal Schools at Baltimore and Frostburg, and at Washington College.
Johns Hopkins University (q.v.) at Baltimore, opened in 1876, is distinguished for the high rank of its graduate and medical schools. There are five other regular medical schools and a homœopathic one in the city, three law schools, three dental schools, two theological schools, and one of pharmacy. An excellent Woman's College, under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was opened in Baltimore in 1886. Saint John's College (chartered 1784) at Annapolis is a non-sectarian institution taking the place of King William's School (founded in 1696). Washington College at Chestertown (chartered 1782) is the oldest institution of collegiate character in the State. Western Maryland College at Westminster (founded 1867) is an important institution under care of the Methodist Protestant Church. The Agricultural College is in Prince George County. Prominent among Roman Catholic institutions are Saint Mary's Theological Seminary, in Baltimore (founded 1791), Mount Saint Mary's College, and the Jesuit Woodstock College. The Jacob Tome Institute, one of the most richly endowed secondary schools in the world, is at Port Deposit.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. According to a law of 1900, there is a Board of State Aid and Charities, appointed by the Governor and Senate. This board receives all applications for State aid and recommends to the Legislature that certain grants should be made, and in what amounts. In 1901 about 95 institutions and organizations applied for aid, 64 of which were favorably recommended by the board. These included 23 hospitals, of which the State Insane Asylums at Sykesville and at Spring Grove received the largest contributions; 7 reformatories, 3 of which were semi-State institutions, located at or near Baltimore, viz.: House of Refuge, for boys; Saint Mary's Industrial School, for boys; and the Female House of Refuge; 6 orphan asylums and 12 ‘homes’ for the friendless, infants, etc., including the Maryland Line Confederate Soldiers' Home near Pikesville, the buildings of which are owned by the State; and a number of schools, including the State asylums, the training school for feeble-minded children near Owings Mills, the State School for the Deaf and Dumb at Frederick, and the semi-State institutions at Baltimore, namely, School for the Blind, and School for Colored Blind and Deaf. The two last-named institutions do not receive aid from Baltimore, but most of the State-aided institutions are endowed and receive local aid also. The endowed Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore is probably the most widely known institution of the kind in the United States. The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, located near Baltimore, is also worthy of note. The State penitentiary is in Baltimore. The convicts are generally employed under contract, the majority of them being engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes. Prisoners confined in jails do not, as a rule, have employment. About half the prison population are negroes.
Government. The present Constitution was adopted in September, 1867. Amendments must be proposed by three-fifths of each House of the Legislature and ratified by a majority vote of the people. Once in every twenty years the people must vote on the question of holding a convention to revise the Constitution. Voters must have resided in the State one year, and in the legislative districts of Baltimore city or in the county six months. The capital is Annapolis (q.v.).
Legislative. The Legislature, which meets on the first Wednesday of January of the even years, consists of a Senate and House of Delegates. The Senators, 27 in number, one from each county, and one from each of the four legislative districts of Baltimore, are elected for four years, one-half retiring biennially. The Delegates, 101 in number, are elected for two years by counties, the number of members being determined by the census. Members of the Legislature are paid $5 per day during the sessions, besides mileage. No minister or preacher of the Gospel or of any religious creed or denomination is eligible to the Legislature. Regular sessions are limited to ninety days, special sessions to thirty days. A majority vote of all the members elected to each House is required to pass any bill. The power of impeachment rests with the House, the trial of impeachment with the Senate.
Executive. The Governor is elected for four years, has a salary of $4500 per annum, and appoints all State officers with the consent of the Senate. In case of the vacancy of the Governorship the Legislature elects a man to that position, or if the Legislature be not in session the president of the Senate and Speaker of the House are respectively in the line of succession to that position. The Governor has a veto over any bill or any item of an appropriation bill, but this veto is overcome by a three-fifths vote of the members elected to each House.
Judiciary. The Court of Appeals, composed of the chief judges of the first seven circuits and a judge specially elected in Baltimore, has appellate jurisdiction only. The State is divided into eight judicial circuits, the city of Baltimore constituting the eighth. In each circuit, except the eighth, a chief judge and two associate judges are elected; and in each county a Circuit Court is held, having original jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, and appellate jurisdiction of the judgments of justices of the peace. In Baltimore city there are nine judges, who assign themselves to the several courts, usually sitting separately. All the above judges are elected by the people for a term of fifteen years. The orphans' courts with probate jurisdiction are composed of three men in each county, elected for a term of four years. The Governor and Senate appoint justices of the peace, and the county commissioners appoint constables for a term of two years. Each county elects a clerk for the Circuit Court, and a Register of Wills, and the State elects a clerk for the Court of Appeals.
Local Government. The General Assembly
