WEST VIRGINIA. 



WISCONSIN. 



835 



proved a wise act of legislation. It is admi- 

 rably adapted to secure the protection of the 

 lives, health, prosperity, and happiness of all 

 classes of the people. 



The number of registered physicians and 

 surgeons to date of report is 1,041. Of these 

 958 are residents of the State, and the residue 

 residents of adjoining States. 



Besides the careful protection of the inter- 

 ests of the life and health of the inhabitants of 

 the State, the board is charged with the duty 

 of investigating the causes of diseases occur- 

 ring among the domestic animals. The value 

 of this provision of the law was witnessed in 

 Brooke County, when what is known as the 

 Southern cattle-fever made its appearance on 

 several farms in that county. The prompt ac- 

 tion of the State and county boards arrested 

 the spread of the disease, and probably saved 

 large sums of money to farmers of that local- 

 ity, in the preservation of their stock from 

 infection. 



LAND-TITLES. With regard to the West 

 Virginia land-titles, and the various frauds 

 practiced to induce unsuspecting persons to 

 purchase land, Governor Jackson makes the 

 following statement : " Complaints are fre- 

 quently made to this department, of frauds 

 being practiced upon persons, desiring to pur- 

 chase lands in this State, by unscrupulous per- 

 sons offering for sale in the Eastern cities lands, 

 tbe title to which has been forfeited, sold as 

 delinquent for taxes, or held under junior 

 titles." He states also that " descriptions, ab- 

 stracts, plates, seals, etc., etc.," relating to 

 above a million of acres as located in eleven 

 specified counties, and offered for sale " at ten 

 cents per acre," have actually been manufac- 

 tured in an Eastern city. In order to remedy, 

 at least in part, the evil resulting from these 

 frauds, which can not but most injuriously af- 

 fect tbe reputation and material interests of 

 West Virginia, the Governor suggests that all 

 clerks who have to do with land-titles " should 

 be inhibited from certifying the title to for- 

 feited and delinquent lands, or giving abstracts 

 of such titles, except where the same are to be 

 filed as evidence in some pending suit." 



Criminal life-insurance companies, famil- 

 iarly known as " Graveyard " and " Death- 

 Rattle " companies, because they take on them- 

 selves unusual risks, and thereby induce the 

 policy-holder to attempts against the insured 

 person's life, having been organized and char- 

 tered to transact business in neighboring States, 

 Governor Jackson warns the Legislature to 

 effectually prevent such companies, or their 

 agents, from being admitted to do business in 

 the State. 



LEGISLATION. The special session of the 

 Legislature commenced on January llth, and 

 closed at the end of March. Within that time 

 about two hundred and thirty acts were passed, 

 of which almost all are of a local character. 

 Among them were the following: 



"An act making an appropriation for the 



purpose of paying the costs of establishing and 

 maintaining a quarantine by the Board of 

 Health " ; " An act apportioning representa- 

 tion in the Senate and House of Delegates of 

 this State " ; "An act for districting the State 

 for Representatives in the Congress of the 

 United States " ; " An act fixing the maximum 

 retail price of certain school-books in use in 

 the schools of this State." 



Near to the close of this session, the follow- 

 ing communication was addressed to the Le- 

 gislature, containing a resolution, adopted by 

 the Land League of the city of Wheeling, at 

 their meeting on March 19th: 



To the Honorable the, Members of the Legislature of West 

 Virginia. 



GENTLEMEN : The undersigned citizens of the city 

 of Wheeling beg leave to state that, at a meeting of 

 the Land League of said city, held on Sunday, March 

 19th, they were appointed a committee to lay before 

 you the following resolution passed at that meeting : 



Resolved, That the Legislature of this State, now in 

 session, is respectfully requested to use its influence 

 to secure for American citizens now confined in pris- 

 ons in Ireland, by authority of the English Govern- 

 ment, contrary to the spirit of public law, all the 

 rights which, as American citizens, they are justly 

 entitled to. 



We have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obedient 

 servants. 



It was presented on March 26th to the Sen- 

 ate by one of its members, who at the same 

 time offered for adoption the following joint 

 resolution, which was passed by a unanimous 

 vote: 



Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia. That 

 the members of the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives representing this State in the Congress of the 

 United States be and they are hereby respectfully 

 requested to use such means and influence as may be 

 in their power to secure the intervention of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States for the release and pro- 

 tection of American citizens, confined in prison by 

 authority of the Government of Great Britain. 



WISCONSIN. STATE GOVERNMENT. The 

 State officers during the year were as follows : 

 Governor, Jeremiah M. Rusk, Republican ; 

 Lieutenant- Governor, Samuel S. Fifield; Sec- 

 retary of State, Ernst G. Timme; Treasurer, 



E. C. McFetridge ; Attorney-General, Leander 



F. Frisby ; Adjutant-General, C. P. Chapman ; 

 Superintendent of Public Schools, Robert Gra- 

 ham ; Insurance Commissioner, P. L. Spooner, 

 Jr. ; Railroad Commisiioner, Nils P. Hangen. 

 Judiciary, Supreme Court: Chief-Justice, Or- 

 samus Cole; Associate- Justices, William P. 

 Lyon, Harlow S. Orton, David Taylor, and 

 John B. Cassoday. 



LEGISLATURE. The Legislature convened on 

 the second Wednesday of January, and ad- 

 journed on the 31st of March, after a session 

 of eighty days. The average for the past thir- 

 teen years has been sixty-seven. 



There were introduced in the Senate 444 

 bills, of which 130 became laws ; 32 joint reso- 

 lutions were also introduced in this body ; 28 

 resolutions ; 6 memorials to Congress, and 51 

 memorials and petitions. In the Assembly, 

 484 bills were introduced, 200 of them became 



