WIST VIRGINIA. 



WHITMAN. WALT. 



795 



It cost i IK- Si, 'ilo daily per capita, to maintain 

 its convicts at tin- penitentiary in isssi. ..\.-r 

 I'on \-two cents, and in 1890 thirty-six and a 

 tract ion ci-nis. The average daily cost per 

 capita for tin- two fiscul yean ending Sept. 5)0, 

 \\as a fraction over thirty-four cents. It 

 cost daily per capita, to feed the prisoners in 

 1889, twelve and a half cents, and in 1890 ten 

 ami two-third cents. The average daily cost per 

 capita for the last two years was ten cents. The 

 daily average cost per capita for maintaining 

 convicts includes salaries of all officers and em- 

 ploy's, and every other item of expense. 



Charities. In the State Reform School the 

 number of boys admitted in 1891 and 1892 was 

 ninety-nine. 



There were present in the school term ending 

 June 11, 1891, 107 inmates in the School for the 

 Deaf and Blind. 



In the Hospital for the Insane there were, ac- 

 cording to the superintendent's report submitted 

 on Sept. 30, 1892, 944 patients. Of these, 451 

 were white males, 447 white females, 20 colored 

 males, and 26 colored females. 



Natural Products. According to the Gov- 

 ernor's message, the amount of coal produced in 

 the State in 1892 was 8,710,888 tons over the 

 1.404,008 tons produced in 1880. The amount 

 of coke produced in 1892 was 1,313,449 tons over 

 the 121,715 tons produced in 1880. 



While West Virginia accordingly maintains 

 its rank as fourth among the coal-producing 

 States of the Union and second in the produc- 

 tion of coke, the development of its timber in- 

 terests has so increased that the products of its for- 

 ests yield more wealth annually than doits mines. 



Agriculture. The State Board was created 

 by act of Legislature, March 13, 1891, and there 

 has not been time for it to accomplish more than 

 a thorough organization of the bureau and map 

 out and satisfactorily begin the work expected 

 to be performed. 



Bunks. The report of the Bank Examiner 

 shows that there is invested in banks and bank- 

 ing institutions in the State the sum of $5,017,- 

 486.49, of which $2,563,486.49 is in State banks 

 and $2,454.000 in National banks. There was on 

 deposit in the various banks at the date of their 

 several reports the aggregate sum of $15,161,- 

 f> 41.1)7, an increase of $1,567,391.77 over the 

 deposits reported the previous year. 



Taxes. By reason of the revaluation of real 

 estate, the taxable values of the State have been 

 increased over $25,000, COO. This, at the present 

 rate of 25 cents on the $100. means an increased 

 annual revenue of $62,500 for State purposes. 

 During the past three years, notwithstanding 

 the large appropriations made by the last legis- 

 lature, every demand upon the treasury was met 

 without borrowing; the so-called State debt, 

 which aggregated $184,511.48, being discharged, 

 The present rate of taxation will yield more rev- 

 enue than the necessities of the State require. 



Political. The Democratic State Convention, 

 held at Parkersburg in August, nominated the 

 following : For Governor, W. A. McCorkle ; 

 Auditor, J. V. Johnson ; Superintendent of 

 Schools, Virgil A. Lewis ; Treasurer, John M. 

 Rowan ; Attorney- General, T. S. Riley ; Judge 

 of Supreme Court ; Long term, Marmaduke 

 Dent; Short term, Homer A. Holt. 



At the Republican State Convention, held in 

 May, for the selection of delegates to the National 

 Convention, resolutions were adopted upholding 

 the principles of the Republican party in all 

 questions referring to the tariff, to protection, to 

 reciprocity, to the equalization in value of all 

 gold, silver, and paper issues, and to liberal 

 pensions. The administration of President Har- 

 rison was approved. 



The following ticket was chosen when the 

 State Convention met in August : For Governor, 

 Thomas E. Davis ; Auditor, Jacob S. Hyi-r ; 

 Treasurer, William P. Payne ; State Superin- 

 tendent of Schools, Thomas C. Miller ; Attorney- 

 General. T. O. Bullock ; Judge Long terra, 

 J. M. McWhorter ; Short term, Warren Miller. 



The platform declared : 



As West Virginians, we are in favor of that pol- 

 icy which has developed and made great States of 

 less wealth in natural resources than our own, 

 bringing the workshop class to the farm and gather- 

 ing about the opened coal seams large communi- 

 ties of wage-earners who make a ready market for 

 the products of agriculture. We denounce the 

 Democratic doctrine that it is unconstitutional to 

 open coal mines and establish factories in West Vir- 

 ginia. We accept as better authority the decision 

 of the Supreme Court of the United States, that 

 the McKinley tariff act is a constitutional measure. 

 Moreover, we believe it to be one of the best meas- 

 ures ever passed by the Congress of the United 

 States. 



Restriction of immigration was earnestly ad- 

 vocated. The passage of a law to prevent the 

 further use of hired troops for the settlement of 

 difficulties between miners and their employers 

 was made a subject of special plea. The Demo- 

 cratic administration of the State was character- 

 ized as fruitful of disastrous results. 



The act of the legislature " in refusing Nathan 

 Goff the office of Governor of West Virginia, to 

 which he was justly and legally elected by the 

 people," was characterized as destructive of free 

 government and disgraceful to Christian civiliza- 

 tion. 



In November the Democrats elected their 

 whole State ticket, and all four Representatives in 

 Congress. On the Presidential ticket, out of a 

 total vote of 171,048, the vote was, for Harrison, 

 80,285 ; for Cleveland, 84,468. ' 



WHITMAN, WALT, an American poet, born 

 at West Hills, Huntington township, Suffolk 

 county, Long Island, N. Y., May 31, 1819 ; died 

 inCamden. N. J., March 26, 1892. His ancestry 

 dates back with considerable certainty to 

 Zechariah Whitman, who emigrated from Eng- 

 land to Milford, Conn., about 1640. The latter's 

 son, Joseph, removed to Huntington, Long 

 Island, as early as 1664, where the burial hill of 

 the Whitmans is still to be found, containing 

 the graves of manv generations of the family. 

 Walt, as he was called to distinguish him from 

 his father, Walter Whitman, was born on the 

 ancestral farm. His mother belonged to one of 

 the old Dutch families that settled the western 

 end of Long Island. She was the daughter of 

 Major Cornelius Van Velsor and of Amy 

 Williams, of the Society of Friends. Thus 

 Whitman combined in himself the three most 

 vigorous strains of American descent. He was the 

 s"eoi ul of a family of nine children, most of whom 

 he survived. His father, who had learned the 



