422 



LOUISIANA. 



ana, established in 1895 at Huston in Lincoln Par- 

 ish, had, at its first session, 221 students, and in 1895, 

 250. The pupils were taught practical blacksmith- 

 ing, carpentry and mechanical engineering, print- 

 ing, telegraphy, typewriting, bookkeeping, drawing, 

 shorthand writing, surveying, civil engineering, an- 

 alytical chemistry, agricultural chemistry, biology, 

 geology, etc. 



The Southern University, a State institution for 

 colored youth, gives instruction in agriculture and 

 mechanical trades, and in academic subjects. A 

 farm has been bought for it. There are 332 pupils. 



Tulane University has 69 professors and instruct- 

 ors, and 923 students. Three hundred and seven- 

 ty-four young men, representing many States, were 

 engaged in the study of the science and practice of 

 medicine and surgery, while 63 were in the depart- 

 ment of law. There' were 139 free scholarships, of 

 which 54 were filled by members of the Legislature. 

 The medical department has been moved to new 

 quarters in the building erected as a memorial to 

 Dr. T. (jr. Richardson, who was for many years dean 

 of the department. 



The Sophie Newcomb College, which was liber- 

 ally endowed, has 233 pupils enrolled. 



Charities. During the biennial period 1,230 

 persons were under treatment at the insane asy- 

 lum, with a daily average of 809. Of those ad- 

 mitted, 39 per cent, have recovered and 9 per cent, 

 have died. Two large three-story brick buildings 

 have been added, and one enlarged. 



The report of the board of control of the Leper 

 Home shows that progress has been made, and 

 gives promise of great usefulness. 



The number of patients at the Shreveport Charity 

 Hospital, which two years ago admitted 90 to 125 

 patients monthly, had during the last biennial pe- 

 riod from 175 to' 350. 



At the New Orleans Charity Hospital the num- 

 ber of admissions in 1895 exceeded those of the pre- 

 ceding year by 748, and the outdoor clinics by 

 1,614. A half million cases have been treated in 

 the hospital in the sixty years of its existence. 



Militia. A naval-reserve battalion has been 

 organized as a part of the National Guard. The 

 strength of the militia is reported at 2,033 officers 

 and enlisted men. 



Banks. There were 3 bank suspensions in New 

 Orleans, Sept. 9-11 of the Union National, the 

 Mutual National, and the Bank of Commerce. 

 The American National had failed before. Two 

 of the individual bookkeepers of the Union Na- 

 tional were arrested, charged with falsifying ac- 

 counts. One gave bonds, but the other died from 

 morphine administered by himself. The amount 

 of the defalcations was about $500,000. The presi- 

 dent and the cashier of the Bank of Commerce 

 were arrested, charged with having accepted a 

 deposit the day before the failure, when they knew 

 the bank was insolvent. 



Products. The season of 1895 was a prosperous 

 one. The crops of sugar and cotton were short, but 

 good prices prevailed. The cotton crop was esti- 

 mated at 360,000 bales about 57 per cent, of the 

 amount in 1894. The sugar crop was estimated at 

 about 80 per cent, of the previous year's. The corn 

 crop was 28,000,000 bushels, the oat crop about 

 714,000, and that of sweet potatoes about 3,500,000. 

 The rice crop was very large. 



In 1896 there was great suffering and loss in the 

 northern part of the State from a long drought in 

 the spring and summer. The yield of rice was 

 very short, especially in the prairie district. On 

 the river, the absence of rain was in some measure 

 made up by irrigation. 



"The Mineral Collector" says of the sulphur in 

 Calcasieu Parish : " The Standard Oil Company has 



finally solved the great problem, on which hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in 

 vain, of getting at the immense mass of sulphur 

 which lies hundreds of feet below the surface. 

 For thirty-five years, company after company has 

 experimented with this deposit of sulphur, which 

 is probably the largest in the country, and is valued 

 at |80,000,000 to $100,000,000. There was no doubt 

 about the sulphur being there, but between it and 

 the surface lay an immense quicksand. Within the 

 last few weeks the Standard Oil Company has got 

 control of the property. Instead of using freezing 

 as the means of getting at the sulphur, it is trying 

 heat. Superheated water is forced through a 10- 

 inch pipe on the sulphur, melting it, and the liquid 

 sulphur water is then pumped up. A little expo- 

 sure to the air, to evaporate the water, leaves al- 

 most pure sulphur." 



Commerce. The growth of the foreign trade of 

 New Orleans is indicated by the report of the Bu- 

 reau of Statistics for November. New Orleans was 

 first, not only in cotton exports, as usual, but also 

 in corn, having exported 3,044,932 bushels. Balti- 

 more came next, with 2,636,632 bushels. Compared 

 witli 1895, New Orleans has nearly doubled. In 

 wheat, flour, and lard the shipments have increased, 

 the exports of the last amounting to 23,500,000 

 pounds during eleven months, while in 1895 the 

 total for the same period was 673,000 pounds. 



Public Works. The Governor, in his message, 

 says : " For the last two years our State has been 

 free from overflow. The system, inaugurated by 

 the National Government, of continuing provisions 

 for river protection and improvement, the organi- 

 zation of the State into separate levee districts, and 

 the method adopted in the State system, have all 

 aided in giving us immunity from the floods. 

 Since the last reports the levee districts have built 

 4,868,812 cubic yards of earth, at a cost of $686,- 

 283.22. The State has built 2.777,806 cubic yards, 

 at a cost of $293,008.27, while the National Govern- 

 ment has added 12,018,289 cubic yards, at a cost of 

 $1,419,245.46. 



The navigation of Red river was much improved 

 by work done in October and November. The en- 

 tire dangerous reach of the river, a distance of 140 

 miles, was gone over. The report of work done is 

 suggestive : " Snags pulled, 315 ; stumps pulled, 

 1,007; logs removed from the channel, 253; stumps 

 blown from the channel, 69 ; shore snags cut, 4,572 ; 

 stumps cut out, 4,506 : leaning trees cut down. 

 42,515 ; trees girdled, 260 ; yards of brush cut, 390." 



An appropriation of $100,000 for the Algiers 

 Dry Dock was incorporated in the naval appro- 

 priation bill in March. It is to be made of tim- 

 ber instead of concrete, which will reduce the cost 

 from $1,200,000 to $800.000. 



The Government has begun the work of remodel- 

 ing and renovating the fortifications guarding the 

 approaches to New Orleans and to the Mississippi 

 valley. Work is in progress on a battery at Fort 

 St. Philip, on the east bank of the river. 



Decisions. The constitutionality of the State 

 law under which juries are formed was brought 

 into question on account of alleged informalities 

 in its enactment, but it was declared valid in March 

 by the judges of the criminal district court. 



The United States Supreme Court, in May, sus- 

 tained the constitutionality of the Louisiana law 

 requiring railroads to provide separate coaches for 

 white and colored passengers. 



The Supreme Court gave the following decision 

 in July in regard to insane criminals: "Where a 

 party has been indicted, and his counsel suggests 

 his insanity before trial, and a commission is ap- 

 pointed to inquire into his mental condition and 

 reports him to be insane, and the jury returns a 



