UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. (ALABAMA.) 



665 



The cost of the constitutional convention was 

 $90,469.03. The whole cost of the new Constitu- 

 tion would include the cost of the elections, in 

 April for delegates, in November for ratification, 

 probably about $30,000 for each. 



The convention was in session eighty-two work- 

 ing days. 



In the apportionment of the special tax for 

 disabled Confederate soldiers and the widows and 

 children of deceased soldiers, although the fund 

 was somewhat larger the amounts were smaller, 

 the list having been increased by about 2,000 

 names. 



In the militia appropriation at Washington, 

 Alabama received $23,360. 



The total valuation of property in the State 

 was raised this year by about $10,000,000. 



Education. From a census office bulletin it 

 appears that there are in the State 413,821 voters, 

 of whom 232,476 are white and 181,345 are col- 

 ored. Of the white voters, 200,795 can read and 

 write and 31,681 are illiterate. Of the negroes, 

 73,399 are literate and 107,946 are illiterate. 



The public-school fund for the present scholastic 

 year amounts to about $1,100,000, of which $550,- 

 000 is the legislative appropriation from the gen- 

 eral fund, $245,245 the net special school tax, 

 about $152,000 poll-tax, and $115,650 comes from 

 interest on the sixteenth-section fund. 



The university trustees instituted suit to re- 

 cover lands belonging to the institution which 

 had been sold to the Sloas-Sheffield Company at 

 what was deemed much less than their value. 

 The ground of the relief sought was that the 

 sale was irregular, illegal, and void, and that 

 the meeting of the Board of Trustees at which 

 the sale was ordered was illegally called. The 

 court refused the motion of the defendant to 

 have the case dismissed for want of equity, and 

 a compromise was then effected by which the 

 lands sold, or lands equivalent, were deeded back 

 to the university and the purchase money re- 

 turned to the company. 



The catalogue of the Alabama Polytechnic In- 

 stitute showed 61 graduates this year and a 

 total in former years of 640. 



The average attendance at Booker T. Wash- 

 ington's institute at Tuskegee was given in 

 March as 1,050. The pupils come from 23 States 

 and Territories, Porto Rico, Cuba, Barbados, and 

 Africa. One hundred and three persons comprise 

 the faculty, and include officers, academic teach- 

 ers, industrial instructors, and assistants. 



The Southern University, at Greensboro, grad- 

 uated a class of 16 in June. 



The Conference College for Girls, at Tuskegee, 

 which is forty-six years old, graduated 19 in the 

 English and 9 in the classical course. 



Charities. In the insane asylum at Tusca- 

 loosa there are about 1,500 patients who are 

 crowded into a space that would be overfull with 

 1,000. During the year there have been 700 ap- 

 plications for admission, of which 137 had to be 

 declined. 



Six years ago Congress gave to the State Mount 

 Vernon barracks and reservation, consisting of 

 1,600 acres of land, on which are very comfort- 

 able brick buildings. The property was deeded to 

 the State for use for State purposes only, and is 

 now lying practically abandoned, and Dr. Searcy, 

 superintendent of the hospital, suggests that the 

 Legislature put the property at the disposal of 

 the State Hospital Board, and they be allowed 

 sufficient appropriation to make such improve- 

 ments on the buildings and grounds as are neces- 

 sary. This was done at the ensuing session of 

 the Legislature. 



The Girls' Industrial School, at Montovallo, had 

 an attendance of 17-3 at the <.|)criin^ in September. 



A reformatory for hoys has ITII established 

 at East Lake, through the ell'ori..- <>t manv women 

 of the State. In August it had ."<) inmates. The 

 Board of Control asked the Legislature for a 

 grant of $25,000, but only $15,000 was ^iven. 



Convicts. Damaging reports rcganlin;j the 

 treatment of convicts at certain place.-, in 1 1,<> 

 State have been heard during the year. l)\. \\ . 

 H. Blake, physician-inspector of convicts, made a 

 report on the Dogwood mine, where counts con 

 victs were worked, showing lack of sufficient food, 

 clothing, medical attendance, and proper atten- 

 tion to cleanliness. Eleven convicts were con- 

 fined in one room badly deficient in light and ven- 

 tilation. 



A still more dreadful state of accommodations 

 was shown by the report of another physician- 

 inspector, Dr. Shirley Bragg, in May, as existing 

 at the convict camp of Jennings Bros., near Man- 

 istee. These contractors work convicts from four 

 counties who have been sentenced to hard labor. 

 He found 19 men occupying a frame building 

 about 40 by 35 feet in size, with two doors and 

 no window, no ventilation, and no conveniences 

 of any kind. 



The Legislature appointed a committee to in- 

 vestigate the convict system of the State, and its 

 report was made in February. It charged gross 

 mismanagement, extravagance in use of the 

 funds, the use of desperate criminals as " trus- 

 ties," the employment of prisoners as house-serv- 

 ants for inspectors, abuse of perquisites by offi- 

 cials, violations of the law for hiring convicts, 

 neglect of sanitation and needful repairs, and 

 inadequate bookkeeping. 



In September a report .of convict inspectors 

 made to the Governor indicates a great reform. 

 The convicts were described as well-cared for in 

 every respect, except at one place; and there the 

 contract was canceled and the men removed. 

 The whole number of State convicts was 1,694. 



Official Irregularities. In March was pub- 

 lished the partial report of M. L. Woods, assist- 

 ant inspector of public accounts, upon the re- 

 sult of his investigation of the method of convict- 

 ing and sentencing prisoners in the county court 

 of Butler County, on a charge of startling irregu- 

 larities in the conduct of arrests and sentences 

 of prisoners charged with riding unlawfully upon 

 railroad-trains. In April the Governor pardoned 

 26 of these convicts who had been sent to the 

 mines, making a total of over 50 Butler County 

 convicts pardoned during the four or five months 

 of his administration. A fuller investigation was 

 afterward made by Hon. John T. Gorman. State 

 Examiner of Public Accounts. His report showed 

 that within the year there had been 356 prosecu- 

 tions for this offense, the costs of which amount- 

 ed to many thousands of dollars. The judge of 

 the county court, Zell Gaston, received $4 for the 

 trial of each case; the sheriff's fees were larger; 

 the clerk, the solicitor, and the witnesses also re- 

 ceived fees; and the State paid the sheriff for 

 boarding the prisoners. Many of the prisoners 

 were charged with vagrancy as well as riding un- 

 lawfully, thus giving double fees to the officials, 

 and some were charged with three offenses. Many 

 were sentenced in the jail, instead of in the 

 court-house. 



Mr. Gorman also discovered the real cause for 

 the arrest of so many persons in Butler County 

 on this charge. Sheriff Hartley made oath to the 

 statement that under an arrangement with R. S. 

 Mitchell, a railroad detective, persons were in- 

 vited by trainmen to ride free on freight-trains 



