LITKIIATrUE, CONTINENTAL. IX 1896. 



LOUISIANA. 



421 



and writers. Ilazafias has edited the " Obras de 

 Gutierre de < Vtina." and Foulcht'-Delbosc has un- 

 cart lied some poems of Yglesiaa <" Yriarte. Padre 

 I'., <iarcia'> " Literal ura i-spauola en el Sigl<> XIX." 

 Part III. deals, nut very adequately, with Ideal and 

 Spanish-American literature, to which latter P. M. 

 Poncelis's " Literature his-pano-americana" is also 

 devoted, and Diaz Cassou presents a curious volume 

 on the popular literature of Murcia. Colrueiro 

 writes of the plants and animals mentioned in 

 " Don Quixote,'' and Carreras of " Lo Cervantisme 

 en Barcelona." 



The fiction of the year includes Galdos's interest- 

 inn: " Nazarin"; Valera's " Juanita la larga." admi- 

 rable in language and description ; Pereda's " Pachin 

 Gonzalez," a short story, pure and bright in style : 

 " Los Majos de Cadiz." by P. Valdes, inferior to his 

 former work ; " Cuentos morales," by Alas (Clarin) 

 and ' Cuentos de mi Tiempo," by Picon, both col- 

 lections of short stories of real merit : " Novelas 

 ejemplares." " Por la Espana pintoresca," ' Vida 

 contemporanea." and " Arco Iris," four volumes in 

 which Sefiora Pardo Bazan has collected short stories, 

 sketches of travel, etc., by herself; and "Arrozy 

 Tartana" and " Flor de Mayo," two Valencian sto- 

 ries by Blasco Ibanez, a new writer, promising de- 

 spite his crudities, showing " intensity of observa- 

 tion and color and beauty of description." Poetry 

 still languishes. Nothing original or powerful in 

 the verse, produced, except, perhaps, the sonnets, 

 madrigals, and tender love poems of Rodriguez 

 Marin and the verse of Maragall. Nor is there 

 much to say of the drama. Dicenta's "Juan Jose" 

 proved the greatest success of the season a realistic 

 drama of passion and low life. Echegaray's " El 

 Estigma " made only a moderate hit. and %i La Mu- 

 jer de Loth." by Sclles. and Caspar's ''La eterna 

 Cuestion," were both unsuccessful, as was also " Vo- 

 luntad." by P. Galdos, a dramatization of whose 

 novel, " Dona Perfecta," has been well received. 

 Feliu y Codina's drama " Maria del Carmen " is in- 

 ferior "to the play (' La Dolores") which made his 

 reputation. It is reported that an independent 

 theater (Catalan) has been founded at Barcelona, 

 where modern authors like Ibsen and Maeterlinck 

 are given a hearing. 



Sweden. New historical works include L. Sta- 

 venow's ' D o en store engelska Revolutionen i det 

 sjuttonde Arhundradets Midt" and "Studier i 

 Standsriksdagens senare Historia"; H. II. van 

 Schwerin's "Helgoland: historisk-geografisk Tn- 

 dersokning" and R. v. Koch's " Statsministern. II. 

 Hans Exc. Friherre Krabbe." Oscar Montelius is 

 the author of " La civilisation primitive en Italic 

 depuis I'lntroduction des Metaux." " I Gog og 

 Magogs Land : Skildringeroch Studier fran en Resa 

 i Kaukasien " is by M. Anholm. A. Ahlstrom writes 

 "Om Folksagorna." II. Schiick and K. Warburg 

 are issuing an " Illustrerad svensk Litteraturhisto- 

 ria." similar in general treatment to Koenig's Ger- 

 man and P. Hansen's Danish work, and promising 

 to be a real contribution to Swedish thought. C. 

 E. A. Soderstrom. in ''Carmina selecta." consisting 

 mostly of translations from Swedish into Latin, 

 shows fluency in the latter tongue. Contributions 

 to prose fiction are : V. Lindhe's " Ragnhild " : A. 

 Lundegard's " Fru Hedwigs Dagbok " ; I. Fiting- 

 hoffs " Gamla Niiset " : and "Fideikommissarien 

 till Ilalleborg." by Sigurd (pseudonym of A. Ileden- 

 stierna). The reaction in the direction of idealism, 

 referred to last year, is dealt with in an interesting 

 paper on " Le Roman Suedois," by 0. G. de Hei- 

 denstam. in the " Revue des deux Mondes " of June 

 1 and 15. 1*06. " though." we are told. " it is neces- 

 sary to add that as yet there are not in Sweden 

 schools or systems of literature, but simply individ- 

 ual writers." 



LOUISIANA, a Southern State, admitted to 

 the Union April :!<>. IH'J ; area. -is.T^u square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial census 

 since admission, was 152.92:: in is-jo; 215.739 in 

 ls:;o : :}.'.2.411 in 1840; 517,726 in 1850; 708,002 in 

 1860: 726.IM5 in 17<> : !i:',!.!M6 in 1880; and 1,118,- 

 5S7 in 1890. Capital. Baton Rouge. 



Government. The new State Government was 

 inaugurated May 18. Three of the State officers 

 were elected for the next term : The Governor, 

 Murphy J. Foster: the Auditor. W. \V. Heard ; and 

 the Attorney-General, M. J. Cunningham. Robert 

 H. Snyder is the present Lieutenant Governor, 

 Alex. V. Fournet succeeded John Pickett as Treas- 

 urer. John T. Michel succeeded T. S. Adams as 

 Secretary of State, and Joseph V. Calhoun took the 

 place of A. D. Lafargue as Superintendent of Edu- 

 cation all Democrats. Other State officers were: 

 Adjutant General, Allen Jumel. succeeding T. E. 

 Bell ; Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigra- 

 tion. Jordan G. Lee, succeeding A. V. Carter : Chief 

 Justice of the Supreme Court. Francis T. Nicholls; 

 Associate Justices, Samuel D. McEnery, Lynn B. 

 Watkins, Joseph A. Breaux, Henry C. Miller all 

 Democrats. 



Finances. The Governor's message says: 

 " Every current obligation of the State has been 

 met and promptly paid in cash when due. There 

 have been paid and canceled : Warrants outstand- 

 ing for 1885-'86, $318.116; interest coupons 1 to 

 11, $483.183.91 ; total. $801,299.91, at a total cost to 

 the State of $413,858.97 : consolidated constitutional 

 bonds, $712.000, at a cost of $6S>0.731.57 : and baby 

 bonds, $359,510, at a cost of $148,834.84. Without 

 increasing assessments to any appreciable extent, 

 and after providing for all the current expenses and 

 all lawful demands, there have been paid out of the 

 surplus of the treasury $1.872,809.91 at a cost of 

 $1,253,425.38. and when the taxes for 1895 are col- 

 lected and every current obligation met. there will 

 be a surplus to the credit of the two funds of about 

 $300,000. The consolidated bonds retired, amount- 

 ing to $712,000, bore interest at 4 per cent., which 

 will result in an annual saving in interest of $28,- 

 480. At the close of business April 30, 1896, there 

 had been collected 97 per cent, of the collectible 

 taxes for 1892. 96-9 for 1893, and 96-3 for 1894." 



From the direct tax fund of $314,500.84, received 

 from the national Treasury, claims amounting to 

 $210.761.71 have been paid." 



Education. Since the last report to the General 

 Assembly the number of public schools has increased 

 249, the number of teachers 293. while the aggre- 

 gate increase of revenues devoted to public educa- 

 tion for the same period is $239,273.24. The follow- 

 ing figures will give some idea of the present con- 

 dition of the public-school system : Number of 

 schools in 1895, 2,894, of which 825 were for ne- 

 groes ; number of teachers in 1895. 3.537 : number 

 of pupils in 1895, 164,317 : amount devoted to 

 school purposes, $1.321.392.05. This includes the 

 i of 1 mill of State tax taken from the interest 

 fund and added to the school fund : the disburse- 

 ments were $1.256.595. For 1895 the school tenn 

 for whites was 164 days, and for negroes 129 days. 



The number of private schools reported in 49 

 parishes is 546, and of these 170 are denomina- 

 tional. In many of the parishes, notably in Caddo 

 and Calcasieu. modern and handsome school edi- 

 fices have been erected, and large sums have been 

 devoted to public education by the police juries in 

 almost all the parishes. 



The State Normal School, at Natchitoches, had 

 359 students at the beginning of the year, and 15 

 professors and instructors. In the ten years of its 

 existence it has graduated 170. 



The Industrial Institute and College of Louisi- 



