UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (ARKANSAS.) 



671 



are accommodations at the asylum for 600 pa- 

 tients, and appropriations for maintenance are 

 made upon that basis $100 a year per capita. 

 There were present in June 640 patients and 

 about 100 employees. Further applications for 

 admission were necessarily refused. From an- 

 swers to inquiries sent to county judges it was 

 learned that more than 300 insane were unpro- 

 vided for, except as they were kept in ordinary 

 jails. The Legislature made no provision for en- 

 larging the accommodations. 



Penitentiary. There are nearly 1,000 con- 

 victs in charge of the State. A new prison has 

 been built, the site of the old one having been 

 taken for the new Capitol. The State penitentiary 

 property was appraised by the board in November 

 at $249,008. The Penitentiary Board voted in 

 August to annul on Oct. 15 the contract entered 

 into during Gov. Jones's administration with the 

 Arkansas Brick Manufacturing Company, where- 

 by for a period of ten years the company was 

 allowed to use the labor of as many as 300 con- 

 victs at 50 cents a day each, the State agreeing 

 to guard, clothe, and feed the convicts, and fur- 

 nish medical attendance for them. The State also 

 furnished buildings, machinery, and force to op- 

 erate the machinery. The boilers and engines 

 were to be paid for in one, two, and three years 

 at actual cost and 6 per cent, interest. The 

 ground for annulment of the contract was given 

 in the preamble: 



" Believing that said contract is unjust to the 

 State and made without legal authority, because 

 the same was ,made for a term of years beyond 

 the life of the board making it, and amounts to 

 a lease of the State convicts, which is prohibited 

 by law, and believing that it is to the best in- 

 terest of the State and the management of the 

 Penitentiary that the same be annulled and set 

 aside." 



The company resisted the action of the board 

 and applied for an injunction to restrain it from 

 carrying out the resolution, and in October Chan- 

 cellor T. B. Martin, in Pulaski chancery court, 

 granted a permanent injunction to restrain the 

 board " from terminating the contract until its 

 illegality or invalidity as a contract shall be 

 adjudged and declared by some tribunal vested 

 by law with jurisdiction and authority to be 

 illegal or invalid." 



Militia. The reorganization of the militia was 

 undertaken this year, with the intention that 

 the organization, rules, and regulations should 

 conform as nearly as possible to those of the 

 United States army. The Legislature made no 

 allowance, but $16,993 was appropriated by the 

 Government for the State Guard. All white citi- 

 zens were urged to join the companies. 



Confederate Soldiers. The Soldiers' Home, 5 

 miles from Little Rock and half a mile from 

 Sweet Home station on the Iron Mountain Rail- 

 road, has 75 inmates. About 60 acres of farm 

 and garden land are cultivated by those able to 

 work. In September the State Pension Board 

 practically completed the work of passing upon 

 the Confederate pension applications from the 75 

 counties in the State. About 4,500 claims were 

 allowed, aggregating $261,000. The amount avail- 

 able was between $49,000 and $50,000, so only 

 about 19 per cent, could be paid to the pensioners. 

 The money available represented the proceeds of 

 the one-fourth of a mill levy. The last Legisla- 

 ture increased the levy to three-fourths of a mill, 

 but no revenue can be derived therefrom until 

 1902. There was a great increase this year in 

 the number of pension applications, as only about 

 3,000 were reported in 1900. The amounts, if 



paid in full, would be from $25 to $100 a year for 

 each pensioner. 



Railroads. The figures of the, railway assess- 

 ors, published in July, arc summari/ed as follows: 

 Number of miles of railroads in operation May 1, 

 1901, 3,105.88; increase in mileage .since May 1, 

 1900, 53.73; valuation of railroads, express, etc 

 in 1901, $28,298,031; increase in valuation over 

 1900, $4,246,892. 



Insurance. It was reported in July that .'> 

 insurance companies had withdrawn from the 

 State within the two weeks previous to that date, 

 and reinsured their risks in other companies, on 

 account of legislation unfavorable to their inter- 

 ests, preventing the operation of rating bureaus 

 and tariff associations. 



Products. A bulletin of the Census Bureau, 

 issued in November, shows that the State has- 

 4,794 manufacturing establishments, with a total 

 capital of $35,960,640 and a total of $44,883,783 

 worth of products, including custom work and 

 repairing. The number of establishments is 131 

 per cent, more than in 1890. The capital engaged 

 in the industry shows an increase of more than 

 140 per cent., and the valuation of products 98 

 per cent. The average number of wage-earners 

 is 26,501; total wages, $8,686,291; and miscella- 

 neous expenses, $1,482,779. 



The shipments of lumber in 1901 amounted to- 

 241,587,705 feet, against 196,646,733 feet in 1900. 



The coal product in 1900 amounted to 1,441,- 

 345 tons, and the value was $1,653,818. Arkansas 

 is one of the 4 States and Territories mentioned 

 as having made the greatest comparative gains 

 in coal production in the past decade. 



Attention has been drawn of late to the great 

 zinc deposits of the State, now being exploited,, 

 and promising immense returns when the rail- 

 roads shall have opened up the country and fur- 

 nished transportation for the product. The field 

 is in the northwestern part of the State. 



Borings for oil in the southwestern part of the 

 State are proving successful. 



Census bulletins show the nursery farms of the 

 State in June, 1900, to have numbered 47, and 

 the amount of sales of nursery stock was $131,045. 



The bulletin giving cotton statistics for 1900 

 shows the total gross weight in pounds for Ar- 

 kansas to have been 406,491,933, and the number 

 of bales 828,820. Hester's report gives the con- 

 sumption in mills of the State as 1,729, a decrease 

 of 651. The cotton acreage of 1901 showed an in- 

 crease of 10 per cent, over that of 1900. 



Lawlessness. A race trouble arose in Ross- 

 ton, Nevada County, in July, originating, it was 

 said, with a negro preacher who went about or- 

 ganizing secret societies among the negroes. One 

 of the many obligations taken was a pledge not 

 to work for whites. Several negroes were whipped 

 and the organizer was "run away abruptly." 

 The rest of the story is told as follows: " A con- 

 stable named Dalrymple went to arrest a negro 

 by the name of Lizard Porter, and as he had no 

 handcuffs he took a piece of rope to tie the negro. 

 Either Lige Sigler or his boys knocked the rope 

 from the constable's hand. A few nights after 

 this Hop Haltom and Lewis Haynie went down to 

 Lige Sigler's house to whip him, and the boys 

 fired and killed both Haltom and Haynie. The 

 boys were arrested. At night one of them was 

 taken out or got away and in the morning was 

 found down the road, shot full of holes." 



A lynching was reported as having taken place 

 at Mena, Feb. 20, the victim a negro in jail 

 charged with assault on a girl of twelve. 



The New Capitol. Under the act of 1899 

 providing for beginning a new Capitol, and appro- 



