424 



LOUISIANA. 



in 1850; 708,002 in 1860; 726,915 in 1870; 939,- 

 946 in 1880; and 1,118,587 in 1890. Capital, 

 Baton Rouge. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, Murphy J. 

 Foster, Democrat ; Lieutenant-Governor. Charles 

 Parlange ; Secretary of State, Thomas S. Adams ; 

 Treasurer, John Pickett ; Auditor, W. W. Heard ; 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction, A. D. La- 

 fargue; Attorney-General, M. S. Cunningham; 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, Henry C. New- 

 som ; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, P. T. 

 Nichols; Associate Justices, Charles E. Fenner, 



Finances. In the report of the State Treas- 

 urer the following statements were made rela- 

 tive to the general fund warrants: 



The outstanding general fund warrants on 

 June 1, 1888, were distributed as follow : 



General fund of 1884 $94,079 83 



General fund of 1885 160,409 27 



General fund of 1886 205,913 74 



General fund of 1887 81,010 60 



General fund of 1888.. 20,32750 



Making a total of $512,240 90 



Up to May 9 the above amounts had been 

 paid and reduced as follow : 



General fund of 1884 $55,429 05 



General fund of 1884, pro rata declared in May. 19,575 40 



General fund of 1885 390 03 



General fund of 1886 8,354 29 



General fund of 1887 81,010 60 



General fund of 1888 20,327 60 



Making a total of $135,086 97 



Thus reducing these outstanding warrants to 

 the following : 



General fund of 1884 $19,575 43 



General fund of 1885 160,019 24 



General fund of 1886 197,55945 



Making a total now outstanding of $377,154 12 



Against $512,240.99 outstanding June 1, 1S88. 



Education. According to the school report 

 of 1891, there were 75,688 white children in the 

 schools of Louisiana under 2,116 teachers. There 

 were in the colored schools 55,021 pupils and 

 887 teachers, or 62 pupils to every teacher. 



It was decided at a meeting of the Board of 

 Administrators of the State University, held at 

 Baton Rouge, July 2, to admit young women to 

 the institution. 



Agriculture. During the year ending Aug. 

 31, 1892, there were 4 cotton mills in operation 

 in the State, with 1,505 looms and 50,700 spin- 

 dles, 15,322 bales of cotton having been used by 

 them. In 1891 but 13,660 bales were consumed. 

 During the fiscal year ending June 30, $6,882,- 

 589.83 were paid in bounty to the producers of 

 sugar in the State. The total amount paid to 

 all sugar producers was .$7,342,077.79, Louisiana 

 having had the largest proportion. This bounty 

 was, according to the United States Commis- 

 sioner of Internal Revenue, divided among 619 

 persons, though it was actually paid to a larger 

 number of small planters, selling their cane to 

 the central factories. The bounty, therefore, is 

 estimated to have been of benefit to as many as 

 400,000 people, that being the number engaged 

 in the sugar industry of the State. 



Floods. The floods in the spring proved dis- 

 astrous in many respects. Railways suffered to 

 the amount of $200,000, agriculture to " 

 000, and other property to $100,000. 



Supreme Court Decisions. The constitu- 

 tionality of the law requiring railroad compa- 

 nies to provide separate but equal accommoda- 

 tions for passengers of both races was affirmed 

 by the court in December. A case was tried in 

 which a man had been brought into court on a 

 charge of having violated the separate-car law 

 in refusing to sit in a car assigned to passengers 

 of the colored race. He denied the constitu- 

 tionality of the law, and the Supreme Court 

 maintained it. 



Levees. The cost of levee work in the State, 

 according to the Governor's statement made in 

 May, 1892, had been, for the two years prior to 

 that time $3,353,890.98 for 17.027,127 cubic 

 yards. The work of this time has involved the 

 construction of 170-11 miles of new levees, and 

 the raising and enlargement of 317'45 miles of 

 old levees. Nearly all the work has been built 

 to grade intended to stand when settled from 2| 

 to 3 feet above the highest known flood of the 

 river, with crown from 4 to 10 feet wide, accord- 

 ing to the exposure. More new levees have been 

 built witti a width of base between 6 and 7 times 

 their height, with banquettes 20 feet wide added 

 to the land side across all sloughs, a considerable 

 depression. 



Legislative Session. The General Assem- 

 bly began its session at Baton Rouge on May 9. 

 The Republicans at once entered a protest against 

 the declared results of the election, claiming that 

 Albert H. Leonard and II. Dudley Coleman re- 

 ceived the greatest number of votes cast for 

 Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, and that 

 any other reading of returns was false and 

 fraudulent. An investigation was demanded by 

 Leonard and Coleman. 



The contest over the appointment of a suc- 

 cessor to Randall L. Gibson as a member of the 

 United States Senate from Louisiana was long, 

 ballots being taken on several successive occa- 

 sions with no definite result. On June 27 a 

 Democratic caucus decided to postpone the elec- 

 tion of Senator till next year, but to ballot daily 

 till adjournment. Senator Gibson died on Dec. 

 15. Gov. Foster appointed Donaldson Caffery 

 to fill out the unexpired term. 



Gov. Foster approved 110 acts passed by the 

 General Assembly. Among them were the fol- 

 lowing: 



Prohibiting the placing of rice flumes, dahls, pipes, 

 or other foreign substances in the levees of the State 

 for purposes of irrigation or otherwise. 



Transferring $10,000 from the levee or drainage 

 fund to the Fifth Louisiana Levee District fund. 



Prohibiting the gambling game of craps. 



Prohibiting the holding of sessions of the peace 

 courts in buildings in which barrooms are kept or 

 spirituous liquors sold. 



Repealing all that portion of act 33 of 1879 creat- 

 ing the Third Levee District, and creating a new dis- 

 trict, to be styled the Lafourche Basin District Levee, 

 making the Board of Commissioners which govern it 

 a corporate body. 



Repealing all that portion of act 33 of 1879 creat- 

 ing the First Levee District, and creating a new dis- 

 trict, styled the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District, 

 making the Board of Commissioners a body politic. 



Making the destruction of levees a punishable of- 

 fense. 



Prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets and lottery 

 drawings or schemes in the State of Louisiana after 

 Dec. 31, 1893. 



