678 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



part a natural endowment. She won her first 

 victories and her last on the Italian operatic 

 stage. When she came to America in 1866, she 

 charmed the whole country with modern Eng- 

 lish ballads, and no one else has ever given 

 those little inartistic songs so pleasant a char- 

 acter. She turned to the long-neglected music 

 of Handel, and, filled with the spirit of the 

 grand old master, poured forth the mighty 

 music of " The Messiah " and " Samson " with 

 a majesty and glory of which America had no 

 previous conception. Passing from this to 

 English opera, she gave it a character it had 

 never enjoyed before, either here or abroad, 

 and greatly increased the probability of its 

 becoming permanently established here. Dur- 

 ing the last two years of her stay in the United 

 States, she had sung mostly in opera, her hus- 

 band being the manager of the operatic season. 

 She followed the English opera with a brilliant 

 series of Italian operas, including " Norma," 

 "The Barber of Seville," "II Trovatore," 

 "Martha," etc. After leaving the United 

 States in 1872, she sang in opera in London, 

 and visited Egypt, where she received the 

 most triumphant honors. She had returned to 

 London, and her husband had engaged Drury 

 Lane for a series of English operas, and where 

 she was to have presented Wagner's " Lohen- 

 grin " for the first time to an English audience, 

 herself assuming the magnificent and exacting 

 role of Elaa ; but her sudden death prevented 

 the accomplishment of her plans. Her greatest 

 achievement, after all, and her truest glory, 

 was that she honored her profession alike in 

 her work and her life. She opened the minds 

 of the multitude to new conceptions of art. 

 She discovered to them unsuspected beauties. 

 She elevated and refined their taste. She 

 taught them to despise vulgarity, and false 

 pretense, and affectation; to appreciate what- 

 ever is pure, and dignified, and conscientious ; 

 to hate the cheap devices of the show-man. In 

 six years she advanced the musical taste and 

 knowledge of America by the measure of a 

 whole generation. What Theodore Thomas 

 has done with the orchestra she did with the 

 oratorio, the opera, and the ballad. Her in- 

 fluence will last all the longer from the fact 

 that she was taken away before her great 

 powers had shown any evidence of decay. 



PENNSYLVANIA. The public debt of 

 Pennsylvania on the 30th of November amount- 

 ed to $24,568,635.57, including $196,751.36 of 

 unfunded liabilities. During the year preced- 

 ing, $1,230,186.57 of the State debt had been 

 redeemed. The sinking-fund contains $9,000,- 

 000 of bonds of the Pennsylvania Eailroad Com- 

 pany and the Alleghany Valley Railroad Com- 

 pany. By the constitution of the State, the 

 proceeds of the sale of public works, and, by an 

 act of the last Legislature, the tax on the capital 

 stock of corporations, are assigned to the sink- 

 ing-fund, to be applied only to the payment of 

 loans and of interest on the debt. There was a 

 balance in the 'Treasury at the beginning of the 



fiscal year, December 1, 1873, of $1,825,151.24, 

 and the receipts of the year amounted to 

 $5,871,968.27, making $7,697,119.51 the total 

 resources. The disbursements of the year 

 amounted to $6,642,567.86, leaving a surplus 

 on the 30th of November of $1,054,551.65. 

 The revenues diminished from $7,076,723.20 in 

 1873 to $5,871,968.27, in consequence of the re- 

 peal of the taxes on the gross receipts of rail- 

 roads, and the net earnings of industrial and 

 other corporations, and the tax on cattle and 

 farming-implements. While the revenues were 

 thus reduced by over $1,200,000, the expenses 

 were increased by about $500,000, in conse- 

 quence of changes made necessary by the new 

 constitution. 



There are in the State 199 national banks, 

 with an aggregate capital of about $52,000,000, 

 and 117 savings-institutions, with a capital of 

 $8,370,168.85. The deposits in the latter dur- 

 ing the year amounted to over $23,000,000. 



The Fish Commissioners of the State during 

 the year placed in the streams running into the 

 sea 376,000 California and 137,000 Kennebec 

 salmon; 85,000 salmon-trout were distributed 

 in different bodies of water favorable to them, 

 and 3,000,000 shad were hatched and turned 

 into the Susquehanna. 



There are 145 railroad companies some por- 

 tion of whose lines are within the State of 

 Pennsylvania. The latest official report covers 

 the year 1873. This shows the following facts: 

 Length of main lines of road, 6,655 miles, of 

 which 4,257 miles are in the State; length of 

 double track, 1,819 miles; length of sidings, 

 2,218 miles; length of branch roads owned, 

 1,597; miles laid with steel rails, 1,976; capi- 

 tal stock paid in, $476,701,873; funded debt, 

 $378,590,370; floating debt, $37,601,157; cost 

 of road and equipment, $621,312,048; value 

 of real estate held by the companies exclusive 

 of roadway, $25,821,727; number of engines, 

 4,054; number of first-class passenger-cars, 

 1,773; second-class cars, 257; baggage, mail, 

 and express cars, 757 ; freight-cars, 58,744 ; coal, 

 fuel, and tank cars, 79,438. The net earnings 

 of the roads for the year were, $52,788,075. 

 The total receipts were, $147,995,214; total 

 expenses, $95,207,139. The accidents of the 

 year involved the killing of 27 passengers, and 

 the injuring of 166; the killing of 254 em- 

 ployes, and the injuring of 665 ; and the kill- 

 ing of 295 other persons, and the injuring of 

 281; or the killing of -576 persons in all, and 

 the injuring of 1,112. Fully one-third of the 

 roads included in this statement are beyond 

 the limits of the State, and statistics are not 

 given applying to those roads and parts of 

 roads wholly within the State. 



The first session of the Legislature under the 

 new constitution began on the 6th of January, 

 and continued until the 15th of May. Much 

 of the legislation was such as was necessary to 

 make the laws conform to the changes in the 

 constitution. The State was apportioned into 

 new senatorial and representative districts, and 



