MISSOURI. 



490 



State, and beds 18 inches are profitably mined 

 on a lar.i,'!' -calo. All Missouri coals are Bitu- 

 minous, with the exception of the eaiinels, which 

 arc found in local and small deposits. 



I, ii in her. From u statistical report of the 

 Soul hern Lumber Manufacturers' Association, 

 covering stocks on hand Aug. 20, 1893, and sales 

 from .la u. I to July 1, it appears that of the 94 

 mills reported from 8 States only 6 are in Mis- 

 souri. They have a total daily capacity of 430,- 

 000 feet; the stocks amounted to 80,150,000 feet, 

 and the shipments to 64,590,575 feet. 



A newspaper article published in April sav< 

 that St. Louis is developing a large trade in the 

 export of hard woods from the Southern forests. 

 The trade is entirely new, and of most remarka- 

 ble growth. Southern hard woods have been a 

 feature of the lumber market for three or four 

 years, but the export trade has been almost en- 

 t iivly confined to quartered and plain white oak, 

 ash, walnut, and gum from New York and Boston. 

 The effect of the foreign trade has so far 

 mainly been to cause a spreading out of territory 

 in which lumber is bought. In addition to all 

 this export and outside trade, there is a wonder- 

 ful increase in home consumption. It was 

 marked last year, but it is estimated to be fully 

 15 per cent, this year over last. 



Government Lands. The report of the 

 General Land Commissioner shows that, of the 

 vacant Government lands yet unappropriated, 

 Missouri has 808,799 acres, all of which has 

 been surveyed. More than one fourth of this is 

 in the Ironton district, southeast of the center 

 of the State. Taney, Camden, Stone, and Ozark 

 counties, which have, in the order named, the 

 largest number of acres of those reported by 

 Counties, are lacking in railroad facilities. They 

 arc hilly and well supplied with timber, and 

 have rich bottom lands along the streams. 



A dispatch in November says a large number 

 of home seekers have been victimized by the 

 sale to them of lands in southwestern Missouri 

 to which fraudulent titles were given. The 

 source of title is from Don Joseph Valliere or 

 Von de Carondelet, who are certified to have 

 secured from the Spanish Government, in 1793, 

 the grant of a large tract described as in the 

 White river district, extending from the rivers 

 Norte Grande and Cibulus to the sources of said 

 rivers, 10 leagues in depth. In reality all the 

 land not entered belongs to the United States 

 Government. An investigation to trace the 

 deeds to their source is in progress. 



Storm and Flood. A rise in the river in 

 April and May flooded villages, carried away 

 small buildings, and wrecked larger ones by 

 undermining. A very large dock warehouse at 

 East St. Louis gave way before the rush of the 

 water, and about one fourth of it fell in a heap, 

 the roof sinking and settling upon the wreck. 

 Thousands of boxes and barrels of goods were 

 thrown into the water, and 1 laborer was crushed 

 to death under the debris. 



In June a tornado passed over parts of Kan- 

 sas and Missouri, doing great damage in both 

 States, though Missouri suffered less than Kan- 

 sas. Orchards were torn up by the roots, grain 

 laid low, and buildings unroofed, overturned, or 

 carried away. Many persons were injured, and 

 3 were killed in Gentry County. 



Labor Interests. A special iury in a St. 

 Louis court decided that an employer damages 

 the business character of his employee by sum- 

 marily dismissing him without cause, as it cre- 

 ates a suspicion of incompetency that makes it 

 more diflicult for him to secure another job, in 

 a case against the Glendale Quarry Company, 

 which must therefore pay its former superin- 

 tendent $2,984.25 for damages and salary after 

 his discharge. He had been employed a year by 

 a verbal contract, but one day in August the 

 company informed him that he was not needed 

 any longer. No cause was assigned, but it 

 transpired that it was to make room for a rela- 

 tive of one of the stockholders. The special 

 jury was impaneled at the request of the quarry 

 company. 



There was a strike in the autumn at the coal 

 mines at Bevier, in consequence of the an- 

 nouncement that the usual increase of wages 

 for the winter months would not be granted. 

 The summer price had been 50 cents a ton, the 

 winter price 60 cents. The miners also de- 

 manded a return to the plan of payment twice 

 a month. They were joined in the s'trike by the 

 miners of Euntsville and Ardmore. 



Train Robbers. A train on the Kansas 

 City, St. Joseph, and C'ouncil Bluffs line was 

 held up at Amazonia by 6 masked men Sept.. 25. 

 A hint of their intention, however, had been 

 given in some way to the police, and a decoy 

 train loaded with armed officers was sent in ad- 

 vance of the regular express train. The decoy 

 train was just rounding a hill in a cut about a * 

 mile north of St. Joseph when the robbers 

 flagged it. They boarded the baggage car, and 

 the officers opened fire on them, killing 2 out- 

 right and capturing 3. Though the robbers 

 used their revolvers freely, none of the officers 

 were injured. 



Powers of the Mayor. The Supreme Court 

 rendered a decision in December in a suit to re- 

 strain the Mayor of St. Louis from proceeding 

 with the trial of the Commissioner of Public 

 Buildings for alleged derelictions of official 

 duty. The court affirmed the constitutionality 

 of the provision of the city charter under which 

 the trial was proceeding when interrupted by an 

 application for a writ of prohibition. 



Sale of Vagrants. Lnder an old law, which 

 is found in the revised statutes of 1889, several 

 vagrant negroes have been sold recently in the 

 State as chattels. In the case of a negro ar- 

 rested for vagrancy at Mexico, in March, the 

 constable was ordered by the justice to hire out 

 or sell him for six months to the highest bidder, 

 at public auction, at the door of the courthouse. 

 The sale was stopped by habeas corpus proceed- 

 ings brought to test the validity of the law. 1 1 

 was disputed by the negro's counsel on t\\t> 

 grounds: That the statutory provisions found 

 in the chapter named were repealed by implica- 

 tion and by the enactment of other le*gislation ; 

 and that, if not thus repealed, they were uncon- 

 stitutional. In the decision rendered by the 

 Supreme Court, Judge Sherwood said the Con- 

 stitution of the State declares that there can not 

 be in the State either slavery or involuntary 

 servitude, except in punishment of crime, 

 whereof the party shall have l>een duly con- 

 victed. The petitioner was guilty of no crime. 



