742 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 668

attend only when his services shall be specially required by the
judges; the said salaries to be paid in like manner as the sala-
ries of the other officers of the courts are now paid, as pre-
scribed in Section 488. Every official court stenographer of the
Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, including the stenographer
assigned to the Grand Jury, who after having served twenty-
five preceding consecutive years, shall attain the age of sixty-
five years while in office, or shall have become physically or
mentally incapacitated from performing the duties of court
stenographer from ailments or accidents not resulting from
any own misconduct, shall be entitled to retirement with a
salary of $1, 000 per annum, payable as other official stena-
graphers' salaries are now paid, provided that such retirement
shall be evidenced by a satisfactory certificate approved by the
Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, directed to the Comptroller
of the City of Baltimore, advising him of the retirement of the
stenographer, and that said retirement is in accord with the
provisions of this section.

690. Upon the organization of each grand jury, as provided
for in the preceding section, and upon their request therefor,
signified to the judge or judges for the time being especially
assigned to and sitting in the Criminal Court of the said city,
the said judge or judges may and they are hereby authorized
and empowered to appoint a clerk, who shall be a competent ste-
nographer, at a compensation not exceeding the rate of Forty-
one hundred and Forty Dollars ($4, 140) per annum, to be paid
by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, which said clerk
shall have authority to take and transcribe the testimony given
before any grand jury in said City of Baltimore, and whenever
required by the State's Attorney, shall attend upon and take
and transcribe the testimony given at coroner's inquests, and all
of the said testimony so taken and transcribed shall be for the
exclusive use and benefit of the grand jury and the State's At-
torney of said city, unless otherwise ordered by the Court. In
addition to the, compensation aforesaid to be paid to said clerk
by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, the said Mayor
and City Council of Baltimore shall make compensation to said
stenographer for all testimony taken and transcribed by him at
any coroner's inquest or inquests, and when requested by the
State's Attorney for the use of his office, at a rate not ex-
ceeding fifteen cents per hundred words of such testimony.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take
effect June 1, 1945.

Approved April 23, 1945.