SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, That the trustees of the estate of Dr. John DeLa Howe, deceased, of the County of Abbeville, are hereby authorized and empowered to suspend the exercises of the institution known as the Lethe Farm School.

SEC. 2. That the said trustees of the estate of Dr. John DeLa Howe, deceased, be, and are hereby, authorized to take all necesssary precautions for the preservation of the funds belonging to said estate, and the protection of the property, both real and personal, pertaining thereto, and to manage the same in accordance with the regulations heretofore adopted so far as applicable, with power to sell such personal property as may be unnecessary to retain after closing of the said institution, on such terms as, in their judgment, may be most advantageous.

SEC. 3. That the moneys belonging or coming to the estate, from the collection of debts due, principal or interest, or from the rents and profits of the land or other sources, shall be invested in good personal bonds secured by mortgage of real estate, or in bonds of the State of South Carolina, and the said trustees are hereby authorized to invest, re-invest, and change their investments, at such times as they may deem best to the interest of the fund.

SEC. 4. That the Treasurer of the said estate be required, as heretofore, to submit to the said trustees at their annual meeting. on the first Friday in November of each year, a sworn statement, showing the condition of the estate, all receipts and funds in hand and the sources whence derived, all amounts invested and in what securities, with all expenditures made, to be audited and examined by the said trustees, and when approved to be filed with the Judge of Probate of Abbeville County for record, and a certified copy thereof forwarded by him to the next General Assembly as now required by law.

SEC. 5. That the said trustees be authorized and directed to reopen, for the reception of poor children, and to carry on and conduct the said institution, under the trusts of the will of Dr. John DeLa Howe, deceased, whenever, in their judgment, a sufficient income for that purpose can be obtained from the funds of said estate without encroaching on the principal.

SEC. 6. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed.

In the Senate House, the seventeenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.

John D. Kennedy, President of the Senate.
John C. Sheppard, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Approved: December 17th, A.D. 1881.
Johnson Hagood, Governor.