SIGNAL SERVICE. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



817 



both sides of tbo break, and evoking spirited 

 pursuit and seveiv punishment by the troops. 

 As .-in engine of civilization the frontier tele- 

 graph rivals the railway, enabling the Govern- 

 ment to throw an gis of protection over the 

 rapidly expanding wave of Western emigration, 

 iiinl thus facilitating no doubt the sale and set- 

 tlement, AS well as the material development, 

 of the public lands. These Signal Service lines 

 are in part self-supporting, as they transmit not 

 only Government but private telegrams of the 

 civilian population, and save the expense of 

 telegraphing by other lines the meteorological 

 reports necessary for the weather -work at 

 Washington, besides serving to convey a great 

 number of official dispatches and correspond- 

 ence for various departments of the Govern- 

 ment, that would otherwise have to be trans- 

 mitted at considerable cost on non-governmen- 

 tal lines or sent by couriers. 



But, apart from all the incidental benefits 

 and economies wrought by this frontier tele- 

 graph system, its value in the scientific work 

 of the Weather Bureau proper is felt to be the 

 greatest. The lines in Texas have made it pos- 

 sible to furnish weather-reports daily on the 

 coast of that State ; and those in the Northwest 

 permit a series of observations and reports not 

 otherwise attainable, which are of the first 

 importance for all purposes of weather-predic- 

 tion throughout the United States. Meager as 

 the data now obtainable from the Northwest 

 are, they are indispensable for the processes of 

 weather-telegraphy in the Mississippi Valley 

 and lake region. To study these momentous 

 meteorological agencies, and to receive timely 

 notice of their arrival on the extreme north- 

 western frontier, is perhaps the most important 

 task, so far as weather-prognostication goes, 

 that the Signal Service could pursue. The ex- 

 tension of its telegraphic and observational 

 stations in this direction would immensely en- 

 hance its general effectiveness, and give a fresh 

 stimulus to almost every meteorological inves- 

 tigation which the Service is now pushing. 



The length of Signal Service telegraph-lines 

 in the interior and on the frontier at present is 

 as follows: Arizona Division, 934 miles, with 



17 stations, from 12 of which weather-reports 

 are received at Washington ; New Mexico Di- 

 vision, 486 miles, with 12 stations, from 6 of 

 which reports are daily received ; Texas Di- 

 vision, 1,590 miles, with 28 stations, 25 of 

 which telegraph full meteorological reports ; 

 the Northwestern Division, 921 miles, with 



18 stations; and the Washington Territory Di- 

 vision, 69 miles, with 2 stations; total, 4,000 

 miles, with 77 stations. 



In concluding this necessarily much con- 

 densed sketch of the national weather service, 

 its pressing wants should not be overlooked. 

 No other service appeals so strongly to the in- 

 terests which it daily subserves for intelligent 

 cooperation. The public press can do much to 

 advance its development by systematic republi- 

 cation and explanation of its observations and 

 VOL. xix. 52 A 



deductions, and especially by reproducing the 

 data furnished in its " Monthly Weather Re- 

 view," and in the daily telegraphic " Synop- 

 sis." Time and toil are necessary to harvest the 

 fruit of seeds sown ; but, as the President of the 

 American Geographical Society, Chief Justice 

 Daly, has said, " Nothing in the nature of sci- 

 entific investigation by the national Govern- 

 ment has proved so acceptable to the people, 

 or has been productive in so short a time of 

 such important results, as the establishment of 

 the Signal Service Bureau." Like a little army, 

 however, which has fought its way to a com- 

 manding yet difficult position, its ranks must be 

 recruited and its resources be augmented before 

 it can push its conquests forward or reap what 

 it has sown. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. By a letter dated 

 February 24, 1879, addressed to Lieutenant- 

 Governor Simpson as acting Governor, Wade 

 Hampton resigned his office of Governor of 

 South Carolina. On the 26th W. D. Simpson 

 was formally sworn in and installed as Gov- 

 ernor of the State. On the same day Governor 

 Simpson commissioned Mr. Hampton as United 

 States Senator from South Carolina, to which 

 office the two Houses of the Legislature at the 

 November session of 1878 had elected him by 

 a unanimous vote. 



For the regular session of 1879, the Legisla- 

 ture met at Columbia on November 25th. 



On December 10th the two Houses convened 

 in joint assembly to elect an Associate Justice 

 of the Supreme Court in the place of A. C. 

 Haskell, who at the beginning of that month 

 had resigned. The candidates were Samuel 

 McGowan of Abbeville and W. D. Wallace of 

 Union. Mr. McGowan was elected by a ma- 

 jority of three, the vote having stood 76 and 73 

 respectively. The joint convention then pro- 

 ceeded to ballot for the election of a Chief Jus- 

 tice of that Court for six years. Henry Mclver, 

 one of the two Associate Justices, was unani- 

 mously elected, having received all of the 146 

 votes then cast. On December 15th Judge 

 Mclver declined the office, and the two Houses 

 met together again on the 18tb. Governor 

 Simpson received 131 votes, the whole number 

 cast, and was elected. In regard to the va- 

 cancy of this seat as occurring in 1880, there is 

 a decided disagreement between its present 

 occupant, Chief Justice Willard, and the State 

 Legislature. He was elected by the Legisla- 

 ture of 1877 upon the office becoming vacant 

 by the death of Judge Moses ; and while the 

 Legislature of 1879 was formally electing his 

 successor, he plainly declared, as he has also 

 done since, that no vacancy of his office is to 

 occur in 1880; that he was elected in 1877 for 

 the full term of six years ; that the Legislature, 

 according to the State Constitution, has no 

 legal power to elect his successor before the 

 expiration of his sexennial term ; and that he 

 is determined to keep his seat after August 1, 

 1880, leaving to the now elected Chief Justice 

 the task of dispossessing him of it on & writ of 



