1547

REPORT.

To the Honorable,

the General Assembly of Maryland :

GENTLEMEN :—By their Act of incorporation the Board of
Managers of the House of Refuge are required to report an-
nually to your Honorable Body the condition of the Institu-
tion. In presenting this, their sixteentk report, they bave
reason to congratulate themselves on the increased evidences
of the wisdom of their organization and the usefulness of
their labors, and at the same time they embrace the oppor-
tunity of renewing the assurance of their earnest endeavors
to secure the continued confidence of the community by a
careful performance of the responsible duties they have as-
sumed.

Since the opening of the Refuge, in 1855, sixteen hundred
and thirty-eight children have been under its discipline, of
whom thirteen hundred and ninety-four were boys, and two
hundred and forty-four were girls. At the close of the past
year there were three hundred and eighty inmates in the
House, which has been about the general daily average. The
appended report of the Superintendent will supply all other
necessary statistical details, which are not without their spe-
cial interest, and to which attention is respectfully requested.

By the annexed statement of the Treasurer it will be seen
that the total of expenditures on general account during the
last fiscal year was $51,149.00. From this sum deduct a pay-
ment of $4,116.26, on account of 1865, and we have
$47,032.74 aa the actual cost of the care-keeping of the in-
mates, which, the average number being as already stated,
is at the rate of 34 1-100 cents daily per capita. This a
large advance on the cost before the late war; in 1859 it was
as low as a small fraction over 22 cents. The contrast will
show how heavily the prices of mere common supplies have
increased; and how stringent an economy must be practiced
to sustain so large a household, even with the somewhat in-
creased means so necessarily bestowed during the last three