At the main prison two-thirds of the con victs employed in manufacture, black stnithing, farming, clerical and domestic work, etc., under direct management; one-third are similarly employed under contracts with out side parties, but all are kept under the eye of trusted State officials to see that the humane provisions of the law are carried out During 1915-16 200 convicts were hired to Campbell County, and 50 to Williamson, and employed in working on public roads at 10 cents an hour. This new departure seems to be successful; there is a strong movement so to employ the mass of the convicts in the i future. The Indeterminate Sentence Law is in force.
In 1915 an act was passed creating the Board of Control, with its office at Nashville, whereby the several public institutions of the State, as the penitentiary, State Reformatory, Tennessee Industrial School, asylums for the insane, deaf, dumb and blind schools, are brought under one board for their better and more uniform management. The statistics of the operations of this board have not been issued for 1915-16.
For a number of years following 1897, when the new system for the prison went into effect, profits over expenses were large, often running over $200,000 net profits a year, but in more recent years the receipts have not much ex ceeded expenses.
While the convicts were employed under the lease system and many of them confined in the old prison which was, from 1:4:7 to 1897, within the city limits of Nashville, the death rate was high, being at times over 3 per cent; the re port to the end of 1914 shows a death rate of 9.3 per cent.
There are two institutions which are semi penal in character, the Tennessee Reformatory for Boys and the Tennessee Industrial School. The reformatory is in a different part of Davidson County from the main prison, but is in a way connected with it, and to it are com mitted young convicts with a view to reforma tion and schooling. The judges of the Crimi nal Courts may send any convict under 18 years of age to this reformatory, and nearly all such are so disposed of. The population of the reformatory is 497.
The industrial school is designed for the care of young persons who are without the care of guardians or provident parents and such as are found wandering or loitering in company of evil repute. The pupils or in mates of the industrial school number 860. Several different counties maintain institutions of the same kind, and they are recognized by the courts. The discipline is of great value,
and there are many pupils who have not been placed in the school by reason of any com plaint against them.
The act of 1911 establishes the Juvenile Court and divides young offenders and un fortunates into two main classes, namely, de linquent and dependent. Delinquents are those who have committed some penal offense, while dependents are such as have been mentioned herein in connection with the industrial school. The heads of the Juvenile Courts in the largest cities are the city judges, but in nearly all the counties this position is assigned to the judge or chairman of the County Court. No person under the age of 16 years can now be tried and sentenced, in the first instance, to the peni tentiary, jail or workhouse, it being the duty of the judge of the Criminal Court whenever a person of such age is indicted to turn such youth over to the Juvenile Court. The Juvenile Court shall send him to the reforma tory, industrial school or other institution of the kind, or may commit him to the care of a guardian, for a definite period; and shall re tain supervision until the youth shall be of 'age. The person accused has free legal counsel, and his parents may defend £or him. If the youth prove totally intractable, after due effort at ref ormation, he may be tried later as any other criminal and sentenced to prispn. By the act of 1915 capital punishment was abolished.
Archaeology. Eolithic and pakrolithic Man —When and from whence primitive man first came into the section now known as Tennessee is still undecided. It is claimed, and also denied, that remains of man of same geological age and culture as that of the earliest and rudest of eolithic and palzolithic man of Europe have been found in several sections of the United States, but no well-authenticated finds of such have been made in Tennessee. If eolithic or palaeolithic man ever existed on this continent, the caverns and rock-shelters of the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys offered ideal places for their abodes. These were about the right distance below the great ice fields — which reached to the Ohio River, at or near the end of the last great Ice Age — to offer practically the same climate and shelter in which eolithic and palaeolithic man were found in Europe.