KENTUCKY. 



425 



The production for the year (that of .June. 

 is!i:{, being estimated) WM placed at ^..'. . 

 tax gallons, or 5(M,?(>2 barrels. The tax mi tliis 

 utnounts to $ H),2!M. :!.">:.'. !M). l-W^ed \\ hi>ky ware- 

 house receipts to the amount of $250,000 were 

 fiiuntl in March to have been floated, a largo 

 part being held by Louisville banks. 



Road Convention. The State Road Conven- 

 tion met at Bowling Green in April. The Com- 

 mittee on Road Law recommended the adoption 

 of theSims law by the Legislature. This law {Mils 

 t lie control and re pairingof all roads of dirt, si mie, 

 gravel, or other material in the hands of the 

 fiscal or county courts. It provides that a yearly 

 tax of 25 cents on the $100, and a capitation 

 tax not to exceed $1.50, shall be levied for the 

 construction and maintenance of roads. 



Natural (Jas. Great excitement was caused 

 in the early part of the year by the discovery of 

 oil and natural gas at Petroleum, in the southern 

 part of the State. A Pittsburg company leased 

 a large tract in the section, and bored wells, one 

 of which emitted a stream of natural gas, and 

 the others oil. The discovery raised the price of 

 land from $2 to $100 an acre. 



The Lottery. A decision was rendered Dec. 

 16, by the Court of Appeals, against the lottery 

 in the State. The decision holds that the State 

 had no constitutional right to contract its police 

 powers away, and the purchase of the lottery 

 franchise by authority of the Legislature will 

 not stand. The general offices and branches of 

 the Frankfort lottery were closed Dec. 18. 



Chickamanga. The State commissioners ap- 

 pointed to locate the positions of Kentucky 

 troops on the battlefield of Chickamauga now 

 a national park were on the ground in October. 

 Kentucky had 18 regiments engaged on the 

 National side in the battle, and 5 on the Con- 

 federate side. The positions of the Orphan 

 Brigade and the spot where Gen. Hardin Helm 

 fell, and the point at which Gen. Croxton's bri- 

 gade opened the battle were fixed, as well as other 

 points of interest to the Kentucky soldiers. 



The Muhlenberg Taxes. An armed force of 

 deputies was taken by the United States mar- 

 shal to Central City, in May, to enforce collection 

 of the county-bond taxes. " The marshal had in- 

 structions to see that the special collector of taxes 

 for that county, appointed by the United States 

 circuit court, was protected from violence while 

 engaged in his duty, and to protect all property 

 that may be seized for taxes. This is the cul- 

 mination of a long litigation, in which the peo- 

 ple of Muhlenberg County have sought to resist 

 their bonded indebtedness, which was originally 

 $400,000, voted in 1868, in aid of the construc- 

 tion of the Elizabethtown and Paducah Rail- 

 road, 26 miles of which runs through Muhlen- 

 berg County. For five years after making the 

 subscription the county levied and paid a suffi- 

 cient tax to keep the interest on its bonds paid 

 up. Then a spirit of repudiation took posses- 

 sion of the dominant element in the county, 

 which resulted in the resignation of the justices 

 of the peace, who, they supposed, had exclusive 

 power to levy taxes, ana the refusal of the 

 sheriff to collect taxes. Early in 1885 a funding 

 board proposed to compromise the debt by issu- 

 ing new bonds for 30 cents to the dollar of the 

 old debt, having twenty years to run at 6 per 



cent. Up to July, 1885, about cm- third of th<- 

 debt had been refunded, when 00 or ?M) citi- 

 zens filed a bill in the Muhlenberg ein-ui? 

 enjoining the funding board from furtl 

 funding, the county judge from further It-vying 

 taxes, and the sheriff from collecting taxes, or 

 to pay either the original or the compromise 

 bonds. This case was transferred to the United 

 States circuit court, where the injunction wan 

 discharged. It was then appealed to the Su- 

 preme Court, which court remanded it to t In- 

 state court. The State court disclmr^'d the 

 injunction, and the Court of Appeal*, in Febru- 

 ary last, affirmed that decision. In April the 

 special collector made affidav.t that he was 

 threatened with violence, and the bondholders 

 obtained an order directing the marshal to go 

 into Muhlenberg County and enforce the collec- 

 tion of taxes and protect the collector. The 

 debt, with interest from 1873, amounted to 

 nearly $1,000,000. 



The residents of the county deny that the col- 

 lector has ever been in any danger. A meeting 

 of citizens was held at Greenville, May 29, and 

 it was agreed that the county court should levy a 

 tax of $1 on each $100 worth of property, to'be 

 based on the assessment of 1892, the tax to be 

 collected by the sheriff. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature met 

 in January, and adjourned July 3. Judge Wil- 

 liam Lindsay, Democrat, was elected United 

 States Senator, to fill the vacancy caused by the 

 resignation of John G. Carlisle, "by a joint vote 

 of 79 against 19 for Augustus E. Willson, the 

 Republican candidate. The term will expire 

 March 4. 1895. 



The question of removal of the capital came 

 up, Louisville, Lexington. Danville, and Bowl- 

 ing Green, being the competing sites. The name 

 of Louisville was selected to fill the blank in the 

 bill, and then the bill was voted down. Frank- 

 fort was illuminated on the evening of the day 

 the vote was taken. 



A new charter, granted to Louisville by the 

 Legislature, was vetoed, on the ground that it 

 permitted banks, trust companies, and the like, 

 to be taxed by license or by a certain percentage 

 of their gross incomes, while the Constitution 

 provides that taxes "shall be uniform upon all 

 property subject to taxation," and " all property, 

 whether owned by natural persons or corpora- 

 tions, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, 

 unless exempted by this Constitution ; and all 

 corporate property shall pay the same rate of 

 taxation paid by individual property." 



A bill on charitable institutions was vetoed. 

 It was similar to the old bill, except that it abol- 

 ished the Institution for Feeble-Minded Chil- 

 dren and provided for the maintenance of an 

 asylum for insane women instead. It was vetoed 

 on the ground that it was unconstitutional, vio- 

 lating the provision that no law shall relate to 

 more than one subject, and that shall be ex- 

 pressed in its title. Many other bills and resolu- 

 tions were vetoed on constitutional grounds. 



The act prohibiting the sale of intoxicating 

 liquors was repealed for certain counties and 

 certain precincts, according to the operation of 

 the local-option law. 



Other acts passed and approved were as fol- 

 low: 



