ALABAMA. 



The Situation. The A nicer left Cabul in the 

 SIIII . pe with the rebellion of his 



-:,ak Khan, which threatened the dis- 

 iiKTinent of his kingdom. The rebellion 

 was over after one decisive engagement, but Ab- 

 durrahman remained in Afghan Turkistan for 

 thoroughly subjugating the Uz- 

 i preventing the recurrence of a rising 

 by any possibility. For two years he scourged 

 ' 



i .-utiiiu' the people by wholesale. 

 D li,- "ha-1 thus broken the spirit of the 

 north.-ni Afghans ami placed strong and faith- 

 ful irarrixms in all tlu> principal towns from 

 ;u ili,- \\v-t to Fai/abad in the east, he 

 ions to trade, admitting Russian 

 caravan- to lialkh and permitting Afghan cara- 

 10 Kerki and Bokhara. In Jan- 

 i. hi> prepared to load an expedition 

 against tin- mountaineers of Ivatiristan who have 

 never U-.-n completely subdued to the Afghan 

 yoke; but In- prudently abandoned the enter- 

 . and ninh'ni'il his attention to strengthen- 

 .!- liold on Badakshan and maintaining the 

 .n that, hi- lieutenants had acquired in 

 Shi-nan and Roshan. During the two years 

 that ho was away in the north his eldest son, 

 oullah. ruled in his stead at Cabul. The 

 r iv-enteivd his capital in July, 1890. 

 hi< return he had to encounter a revolt of 

 th.- Ali Ila/aras. a turbulent branch of the Ha- 

 zara nation dwelling to the north and west of 



M.VHAMA. a Smthem State, admitted to 



th.- I'nioii l>,-c. 14. 1819; area, 50,722 square 



. Tht- population, according to each decen- 



nial crii-ii- since admission, was 127,901 in 



v,>7 in 1830; 590,750 in 1840; 771,623 



in IS.-.M: JMI1.2IH in 1S(U) : !t!Mi.!)92 in 1870; 1,- 



> 6 in 1880; and 1,508,073 in 1890. Capital, 



Montgomery, 



l.'m-niinent. The following were the State 



; - during t he year : Governor, Thomas Seay, 



Democrat; Decretory of State, J. D. Barron; 



uvr. .John L. Cobbs; Auditor, Cyrus D. 



lorney-General, William L. Martin; 



inr. Mid- 'tit of Public Instruction, Solomon 



Palmer; Commissioner of Agriculture, Reuben 



F. Kolb: Railroad Commissioners, Henry R. 



Short. .-. 1,,-vi \V. Lawler. W. C. Tunstall ; Chief 



;he Supreme Court, George W. Stone ; 



iai.- .lu-ticr-,. David Clopton, Thomas N. 



Hun. and II. M. Somerville, who resigned 



in .Inly to accept an appointment from President 



Hain-.!i a- a member of the Court of General 



Appraisers, and was succeeded by Thomas W. 



ui. 

 PUmaees. For the year ending Sept 80, 1889, 



th.- ivport of the State- Treasurer presents the 



following figure* : Balance on Oct. 1, 1888, $555,- 



. : lot a I receipts for the year, $1,583,003.04 ; 



total expenditures, $1,757,514.11; balance on 



S.-pt. 80, I860, *:!si.07r,.so. The principal re- 



minded $1,058,818.51 from general taxes ; 



' fn.in poll taxes; * 1:51.041. 51 from li- 



-.'.>:>:{.*() from the hire of convicts; $32,- 



i tin- Agricultural Commission; and 



; ; > from solicitors' fees. Among the ex- 



penditures were s.;:;s. 11,1.44 lor the educational 



fund ; $392,100 for interest on the debt; $137.:r>s 



lor the Hospital for the Insane; $25,096.85 for 



Military expen-e^; and $15,644.53 for public 



printing. For the year ending Sept. 30, 1890, the 

 report is as follows: Balance on Oct. 1, '1889, as 

 above given, $381,076.80; total receipts for the 

 year, $2,594,442.17 ; total expenditures, $2.642,- 

 614.59; balance on Sept. 30, 1890, $332,904.38. 

 A reduction of the tax rate to 4'5 mills is the 

 cause of the decrease in the surplus. For 1891 

 the rate will be 4 mills, and a still greater shrink- 

 age is expected. The regular receipts and expendi- 

 tures for the year were less than the above-men- 

 tioned figures by $954,000, that sum representing 

 the amount of 6-per-cent. State bonds which 

 were refunded into 4-per-cent. bonds during the 

 year. The entire bonded debt of the State at 

 the beginning of 1890 amounted to $9,237,700, 

 and with the exception of $539,000 in 5-per-cent. 

 bonds, it bears interest at 4 per cent. Since 1880 

 there has been a decrease of $66,521 in the debt. 



Assessments. The total assessed valuation 

 of property for 1889 was $242,197,531, an increase 

 of $13,328,490 over 1888. Of this sum the assess- 

 ment of railroad property was $40,163,776.18. 

 For 1890 the total assessed valuation was $258,- 

 979,575.41, of which $43,338,781.47 was the assess- 

 ment of railroad property. 



Education. Thirteen of the cities and larger 

 towns are organized into separate school districts, 

 in which a system of schools more advanced than 

 that in the counties is maintained by the aid of 

 local taxation. The report of the State Superin- 

 tendent of Education for the school year ending 

 Sept. 30, 1889, presents the following statistics 

 for both these separate school districts and the 

 counties outside of the districts : 



The receipts of the State school fund during 

 the year were $534,285.76, and the disbursements 

 $535,721.95. There was also raised and expended 

 in the thirteen separate districts the sum of 

 $154,668.27, making the total expenditure in the 

 State for public schools $690,390.22. An enu- 

 meration of the school population, made at the 

 beginning of the school year, showed 272,730 

 white children and 212,821 colored, total, 485,- 

 551. These figures, compared with the enroll- 

 ment above given, show that only 60 per cent, of 

 the white children in the State, and fewer than 

 50 per cent, of the colored children, were enrolled 

 in the public schools. Moreover, these schools 

 were kept open an average of only 75 days during 

 the year, reckoning the counties and separate 

 districts together. 



The State normal schools have an encourag- 

 ing record for the year 1888-'89. At Jacksonville 

 195 pupils were enrolled ; at Huntsville, 257 ; at 



