820 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



SPAIN. 



cians at different times to visit the convicts 

 employed on that line, and report professionally 

 as to their treatment and the cause of their 

 mortality. The separate reports of these phy- 

 sicians all pointed out its cause by averring 

 that the convicts leased to that road were most 

 inhumanly treated in all ^respects, giving de- 

 tails of what they saw among the prisoners at 

 the place of their work as well as among the 

 sick at the stockades and the hospital, so 

 called. The most unfit for duty among these 

 convicts, 26 in number, were by order of the 

 Board of Directors, under the care of two 

 physicians, removed to the penitentiary on Sep- 

 tember 16th, two of them dying before reach- 

 ing it, and one soon after his arrival. By a 

 subsequent order the Board of Directors re- 

 called almost all of the convicts leased to the 

 Greenwood and Augusta Kailroad ; but the 

 company refused to comply with the order, on 

 the ground that the convicts had been granted 

 them by the Legislature, and that only the 

 Legislature could take them away. This mat- 

 ter was brought to the attention of the Legis- 

 lature early in the session of 1879, and two 

 sets of resolutions, very strongly worded, were 

 introduced in the Lower House, to investigate 

 the subject and bring the guilty parties to con- 

 dign punishment; the one intrusting the in- 

 vestigation to a special committee appointed 

 for that purpose, the other to the two Com- 

 mittees on the Penitentiary of the Senate and 

 House of Representatives, working jointly, 

 with power to send for persons and papers. 



The general condition of South Carolina 

 with regard to trade and other material inter- 

 ests appears to have considerably improved of 

 late years. There was in 1879 a large increase 

 in the quantity of bacon made in the State; 

 besides, provisions in general were low, and the 

 colored people employed worked well. The 

 crops in 1879, with some exceptions, were good, 

 and sold at remunerative prices. In conse- 

 quence, the farmers as a body are in better cir- 

 cumstances and out of debt, or nearly so, for 

 the first time in along series of years. The ad- 

 vance in the selling price of cotton at the end 

 of the year was equal to $12 a bale ; which, on 

 a crop of 300,000 bales raised in the State, 

 makes a difference of over $3,000,000 in favor 

 of planters and farmers. The value of land in 

 South Carolina has increased, especially in the 

 middle and upper districts. An Agricultural 

 Department is now established in the State by 

 a law entitled " An act to create a Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, defining its powers and 

 duties, and charging it with the inspection of 

 phosphates and the regulation and sale of com- 

 mercial fertilizers." 



The establishment and working of cotton- 

 mills for the production of shirting, sheeting, 

 drilling, and yarn, seem to be growing into great 

 dimensions in South Carolina. The scarcity 

 of competent operatives, which was before 

 the chief difficialty encountered in the develop- 

 ment of this industry, has been in a great mea- 



sure supplied by the importation' of some skilled 

 hands from the Northern mills, who have taught 

 a number of native young women and men how 

 to feed and direct the machines. Nine such 

 factories were in operation in different parts of 

 the State in June, 1879, some of which were 

 organized in 1855, but most of them since 1870. 

 All were busy, with more orders than they 

 could execute, and carrying on a very lucrative 

 business. They employ in the aggregate above 

 55,000 spindles, with a proportionate number 

 of looms, attended to by about 1,400 operatives 

 at wages ranging from 25 cents to $3 a day, 

 according to usefulness. A large proportion 

 of these operatives are lodged in convenient 

 cabins erected near the factories for that pur- 

 pose. Their aggregate annual production is 

 reckoned at above 55,000,000 yards of shirting, 

 sheeting, and drilling, and many million pounds 

 of yarn. One of the three largest among these 

 establishments is the Piedmont Manufacturing 

 Company's mill, incorporated three years ago, 

 and situated on the Saluda River, about eleven 

 miles from Greenville, on the Greenville and Co- 

 lumbiaRailroad line. It has 12,300 spindles, em- 

 ploys 275 operatives, and produces daily about 

 16,000 yards of shirting, sheeting, and drilling, 

 and 2,300 pounds of yarns. From the books 

 of this company it appears that, for the year 

 ended March 31, 1879, its surplus assets over 

 all liabilities amounted to $36,889, and the 

 gross profits on the sale of that year's manu- 

 factures to $56,684, classified as follows: Prof- 

 its on local sales, $24,320.04; on sales to New 

 York, $9,401.98; on sales to Boston (yarns), 

 $10,619.64; on sales to Baltimore, $7,180.12; 

 on sales to all other parts, $5,163.46. 



L. F. Cardozo, ex-Treasurer of South Caro- 

 lina, and Robert Smalls, a member of her Legis- 

 lature in both Houses for a number of terms, 

 and lastly a Representative in Congress, both 

 colored, and since November 28, 1878, under 

 sentence for high crimes and misdemeanors in 

 office, with regard especially to money matters, 

 were pardoned by Governor Simpson on April 

 23, 1879. He had previously pardoned L. Casa 

 Carpenter, a white Republican Senator in the 

 State Legislature, convicted on a like charge. In 

 October, 1879, the Supreme Court of the Uni- 

 ted States, to whom Mr. Smalls had brought his 

 case on appeal from the State Supreme Court, 

 on a writ of error, dismissed it on motion of the 

 Attorney-General of the State, the appellant's 

 counsel concurring. Mr. Srnalls is to pay the 

 costs in the case. This is said to be the last one 

 of the numerous criminal prosecutions, called 

 political cases, instituted before the courts of 

 South Carolina. 



SPAIN, a kingdom of southern Europe. 

 King, Alfonso XII., born November 28, 1857, 

 proclaimed King December 80, 1874. He was 

 married on January 23, 1878, to Maria de las 

 Mercedes (born June 24, 1860, died June 26, 

 1878), and again on November 29, 1879, to 

 Maria Christine (born July 21, 1858), daughter 

 of Archduke Charles Ferdinand of Austria. 



