seventeen years of age to
be bound out as apprentices. In Ohio a statute also of 1838[73] provided
for guardians for the deaf, and several modern statutes are somewhat of
this nature. In Maine the deaf cannot be sent to the reform school.[74]
In Arkansas[75] and Missouri[76] it is provided that the court may
appoint guardians for deaf persons from fourteen to twenty-one years of
age in case of the death of a parent. Of somewhat different character,
but still for the protection of the deaf, is the enactment in several
states, as Wisconsin[77] and Virginia,[78] where injury or abuse of the
deaf is made a matter of special attention in the law.

LEGISLATION IN AID OF THE DEAF

Examples of legislation designed to be of material aid to the deaf are
rather more common, the chief of which, as we have noted, is the
exemption from the payment of some personal or property tax.[79] Thus in
Missouri we find a statute of 1843[80] allowing a deaf man to be exempt
from the poll tax and the tax on property up to $300. Indiana in
1848[81] exempted its deaf and blind citizens from a poll tax and a
property tax up to $500. Mississippi[82] exempted these classes from the
road duty in 1878, and two years later from the poll tax as well, this
exemption being incorporated in the state constitution, as we have seen.
Tennessee[83] in 1895 also exempted from the poll tax the deaf, the
blind and those incapable of labor. In Pennsylvania legislation seems to
have gone the furthest in its desire to be of material help to the deaf,
for here we find the deaf with the blind exempted from the penalties
which usually apply to tramps.[84] Such are instances of this form of
legislation, but similar legislation has been enacted in other states.

Very rare are instances where the state makes special provision for the
care of, or extends special poor relief to, any of its deaf population.
The chief example seems to be the action of some of the New England
states with their so-called "missions for the deaf." These are
associations, composed in great part of the deaf and engaged in various
forms of mission work, and to them state funds are granted to aid the
aged, infirm and helpless deaf. By this plan Maine is said to have been
without a deaf-mute pauper in ten years. The amounts allowed, however,
for this purpose are not large, being $200 a year in Maine and $150 in
New Hampshire.[85] In Ohio the counties are allowed to contract with
private homes for th