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1892-1900) was succeeded as U.S. senator in 1913 by Joseph Eugene Ransdell (b. 1858; 

 Democrat, representative in Congress since 1899). In 1912 Robert F. Broussard 

 (b. 1864; representative in Congress, 1897-1913) was chosen senator for the term be- 

 ginning 1915, to succeed John R. Thornton. On January 5, 1912, died Francis T. 

 Nicholls (b. 1834), who served in the U.S. Army from 1855, when he graduated at 

 West Point, to 1857 and in the Confederate Army in 1861-65, and was governor in 

 1877-80 and 1888-92 and a justice of the supreme court of the state after 1893. 



The state supreme court (Jan. 25, 1912) held that negroes may not be ejected from 

 street cars reserved for whites if there are no seats in cars reserved for negroes an 

 important modification of the " Jim Crow " law. A negro accused of murder was 

 lynched at Opelousas (Jan. 29, 1911); one on the same charge in Claiborne parish (July 

 24th) and one at Delhi (Nov. 3rd), and one at Winnsboro (Sept. 15th) for assault. At 

 Shreveport (April 9, 1912) a mob lynched a negro for insulting a white woman, and at 

 Yellow Pine (May 3rd) another was lynched for insulting a white woman over a tele- 

 phone. At Delhi (April 25th) a negro was lynched; another at Grand Cane (Sept. 25th) ; 

 three at Benton (Nov. 28th) for murderous assault; and one, convicted of murder, at 

 West Baton Rouge (Dec. 23rd). 



During a strike (called May 13, 1912) of timber workers at Grabow, there was (July 

 7th) a riot in which 4 men were killed. The strike leaders were arrested and tried for 

 murder but were acquitted (Nov. 2nd). They said that they were fired upon by em- 

 ployees of the lumber company. 



In March and early April 1912 heavy rains swelled the Mississippi and its affluents, 

 already full after a long winter with a heavy fall of snow. The danger mark, 18 ft. of 

 water, was reached April 9th. Part of the U.S. Army, especially its engineers and 

 commissary, had been ordered to the help of the threatened districts by President Taft 

 on the 6th, and now Governor Sanders and Mayor Behrman began strengthening levees, 

 organising patrols and getting relief for the homeless. The condition, was aggravated 

 by heavy rains in the lower course of the river which could scarcely be carried off by 

 ordinary methods of drainage. A levee 6 m. below Melville, St. Landry parish, on the 

 W. bank of the Atchafalaya, was cut by some one who wished to save the E. bank. A 

 large area was flooded and the patrols were strengthened. Pointe Coupee and parts of 

 Iberville, Assumption and Feliciana parishes were flooded; in Pointe Coupee the water 

 was above the telegraph wires in May. The damage was not confined to crops, especial- 

 ly sugar cane, which gives this low region the name of the " Sugar Bowl," but much live 

 stock and hundreds of people were killed. Ten breaks in the Louisiana levees flooded 

 about 2,800 sq. m. and at least one of these breaks was probably due to weakening by 

 crawfish holes. The flood was of unusual duration. In the second week in June nearly 

 TOO m. of levees gave way and many railways were inundated; and the water was 

 still high in July. Although the volume of the river may have been less than in the flood 

 of 1897, the water was higher at almost every point than at any time since 1871 when 

 gages were first used, and the provisional grades for levees will have to be changed all 

 along the river. (See A. L. Dabney, in Engineering News for June 13, 1912; N. C. 

 Frankenfield, in same for April 18, 1912; and R. M. Brown in Bulletin, American 

 Geographical Society, Sept. 1912), 



On April 30, 1912, the state celebrated the centenary of its admission to the Union. 



Bibliography. Acts Passed by the General Assembly (Baton Rouge, 1912) and other official 

 publications; John Rose Ficklen, History of Reconstruction in Louisiana (Baltimore, 1910); 

 J. A. Robertson, Louisiana Under Spain, France and the United States, 1785-1807 (1911). 



MAINE 1 



Population (1910) 742,371 (6.9% more than in 1900)584.9% were native whites, 

 18.2% whites of foreign parentage, 14.8% foreign-born, and 0.2% negroes. Density 

 24.8 (23.2 in 1900) to the sq. m.; 51.4% lived in cities or towns of 2,500 inhabitants or 

 more. The cities or towns with 5,000 or over were: Portland, 58,571; Lewiston, 26,- 



1 See E. B. xvii, 434 et seq. 



