550 



MEXICO. 



MICHIGAN. 



Mining. There were being worked in Mexi- 

 co, at the close of 1888, 324 silver-mines, em- 

 ploying over 100,000 miners. Eleven of the 

 mines produced in 1888 $25,000,000 of pure 

 silver. Mexico produced, between 1821 and 

 1880, $900,000,000 in silver, and only $4,800,- 

 000 in gold. A rich pocket of silver was 

 discovered in August, in the Concepcion, one 

 of the Matchuala mines. Reports were re- 

 ceived on July 24 at Mexico from Las Cruces, 

 Lower California, that gold was being found 

 in excellent ore-bodies. Fourteen ounces of 

 amalgam gold were taken from a ton and a half 

 of rock at the Santa Clara mine, in Las Cruces 

 Cafion. The vein at this mine is reported to 

 be four feet in width, and a true fissure vein. 

 There were, at last accounts, thirty tons of ore 

 on the dump. This mine is owned at Ense- 

 nada. The vein at the Bonanza mine, in the 

 Valladores district, has widened from eight 

 inches to two feet six inches. Expensive ma- 

 chinery had been erected at the Fronteriza, 

 whence they were to begin shipping the metal 

 in pigs about January 1. The nearest shipping- 

 point to the mines is Baratorano station, on the 

 Mexican International Railroad. An influx of 

 miners in great numbers and prospectors had 

 begun. Many of these mines were originally 

 worked by the Spaniards, and were destroyed 

 and filled up by them when they wore driven 

 off by the native Mexicans during the revolu- 

 tion of 1810. News was received on Septem- 

 ber 20 from the Santa Rosa mining region in 

 Mexico to the effect that a great mining ex- 

 citement had set in. Persons who own the 

 larger mines, like the Cedral, the Fronteriza, 

 and the San Juan, were said to be trying to 

 keep the richness of the ore from the knowledge 

 of the public ; but it transpired that these and 

 others were taking ore that yields $105 of 

 silver to the ton, besides a large percentage of 

 lead. The rapid rise of quicksilver in London 

 has given an impetus to the working of quick- 

 silver mines in Mexico, and efforts have been 

 made to work several newly discovered depos- 

 its in the northern States. The Government 

 is about to assume the control of all its mints, 

 which are now under lease. 



Ascent of the Iztacdhuatl Volcano. In April two 

 German travelers, Lenk and Topf, undertook 

 the ascent of the volcano Iztaccihuatl, the 

 neighbor of Popocatepetl, whose summit has 

 an elevation of about 17,000 feet. They failed 

 to reach the very top, but the expedition fully 

 rewarded their efforts, as they report the ex"- 

 istence of a glacier. It has not been supposed 

 hitherto that there were any glaciers in this 

 part of the American continent. 



Earthquakes. On Jan. 2, 1888, a sharp shock 

 of earthquake was felt in the city of Mexico, 

 at 7.30 A. M. During the last quarter of 1887 

 there had been seismic disturbances through- 

 out the country. A slight shock was felt there 

 on July 18, about midnight, aud a high wind 

 sprang up simultaneously. Another slight 

 earthquake visited the capital at 16 minutes to 



9 P. M., on September 6. The oscillations were 

 from the northeast to southwest, and lasted 

 24 seconds ; at Orizaba 9 seconds ; and in the 

 State of Guerrero 15 seconds, the oscillations 

 being from west to east. 



Education. A bill was introduced in the 

 Mexican Chamber of Deputies to make gratui- 

 tous elementary school instruction compulsory 

 throughout the republic. For every 20,000 in- 

 habitants, two schools are to be founded, one 

 for boys and one for girls, and parents that do 

 not send their children to school are to be pun- 

 ished with fine or imprisonment. Higher edu- 

 cation is to be at the expense of the Federal 

 Government. 



MICHIGAN. State Government The following 

 were the State officers during the year, all be- 

 ing Republican: Governor, Cyrus G. Luce; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, James H. Macdouald ; 

 Secretary of State, Gilbert R. Osmun; Auditor- 

 General, Henry II. Aplin; State Treasurer, 

 George L. Maltz; Attorney-General, Moses 

 Taggert ; Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 Joseph Estabrook ; Member State Board of 

 Education, Bela W. Jenks ; Commissioner of 

 State Land-Office, Roscoe D. Dix ; Chief-Jus- 

 tice of the Supreme Court, Thomas R. Sher- 

 wood ; Associate Justices James V. Campbell, 

 John W. Champlin, Allen B. Morse, and Charles 

 D. Long. The principal appointees of the Gov- 

 ernor were : Private Secretary, Milo D. Camp- 

 bell; Commissioner of Railroads, John T. Rich ; 

 Commissioner of Insurance, Henry S. Ray- 

 mond ; Labor Commissioner. Alfred H. Heath ; 

 Commissioner of Mineral Statistics, Charles D. 

 Lawton ; State Librarian, Harriet A. Tenney ; 

 Oil Inspector, H. D. Platt ; Salt Inspector, 

 George W. Hill ; Game "Warden, "William Al- 

 den Smith ; Adjutant-General, D. B. Ainger ; 

 Quartermaster-General, S. B. Daboll ; Inspect- 

 or-General, F. D. New berry. 



Political. The State officers were chosen at 

 the general election in November for the two 

 years beginning Jan. 1, 1889. There were four 

 parties in the field : Republican, Democratic- 

 Greenback (Fusion), Prohibition, and Labor. 

 For Governor the Republicans renominated 

 Cyrus G. Luce ; the Democratic-Greenback 

 party, "Wellington R. Burt: Prohibition, Am- 

 herst B. Cheney ; Labor, "Wildman Mills. The 

 officers above" named were re-elected, except 

 in two instances where the incumbents had 

 served two terms. The new officers elected 

 were: Stephen V. R. Trowbridge, Attorney- 

 General, and Perry F. Powers, member State 

 Board of Education (Republicans). The votes 

 cast for the respective candidates for Governor 

 were as follow : Cyrus G. Luce, Republican, 

 233,595 ; Wellington R. Burt, Fusion, 216,450 ; 

 Amherst B. Cheney, Prohibition, 20,342 ; Wild- 

 man Mills, Labor, 4,388. 



The principal State issues in the campaign 

 were upon questions of temperance and increas- 

 ing taxation. The last Legislature passed a 

 local-option law permitting the several coun- 

 ties, by a vote of their electors, to prohibit the 



