492 



MISSISSIPPI. 



MISSOURI. 



Penitentiary Farm. In accordance with 

 the act of the Legislature, a commission of 5, 

 consisting of R. A. Dean, William McSwine, J. 

 F. Robinson, B. P. Parr, and Z. P. Stutts, can- 

 vassed the matter, and on July 9 recommended 

 to the Governor the purchase of 8,000 acres for 

 penitentiary farms, to consist of 3,207 acres in 

 Rankin County and 4,793 acres in Yazoo Coun- 

 ty. The Yazoo County purchase was vetoed by 

 the Governor. Subsequently 2,725 acres were 

 secured in Hinds County, and finally 2,005 acres 

 were obtained in Holmes County, making a total 

 of 7,237 acres, for which $64,638 were paid. On 

 Dec. 27 the commission purchased 50 head of 

 mules, cows, hogs, corn, fodder hay, farm im- 

 plements, etc. The convicts were put to work 

 cleaning up creeks and branches, opening ditches, 

 building fences, stockades, etc., at once. 



War Claims. The Court of Claims in Wash- 

 ington allowed nearly $300,000, distributed 

 among the counties of Mississippi as follows: 

 Adams, $113,308.88; Alcorn, $3,725; Amite, 

 $750: Benton, $5,545; Claiborne, $35,364; De 

 Soto, $622; Hinds, $5,900; Issaquena, $2,570; 

 Jefferson, $21.762; Lafayette, $4,136; Marshall, 

 $22,986; Panola, $4,287; Scott, $2,061; Talla- 

 hatchie, $2.042 : Tishomingo, $2,614 ; and War- 

 ren, $66,368. These- claims are allowed under 

 the Bowman act of Congress for supplies and 

 stores furnished to the National army during the 

 civil war. Although the claims have been passed, 

 no money has been appropriated for them. 



State Warrants. The difficult problem of 

 anticipating expenses was apparently settled by 

 the enactment of a law by which "the State 

 Treasurer is required to prepare and sell at not 

 less than par warrants of the State to an aggre- 

 gate not exceeding $200.000, as may be necessary 

 to defray the current expenses of the State, and 

 the faith of the State is pledged for the redemp- 

 tion of these bonds." 



In June, $50,000 of these warrants, in denom- 

 inations of $5, $10, and $20, were received from 

 the bank-note company that had been employed 

 to engrave them. The new warrants had a re- 

 markable likeness to United States greenback 

 notes. A vignette of Gov. Stone was on the left- 

 hand corner, while the note said that it was re- 

 deemable at the State treasury on Jan. 1, 1896, 

 and would bear a rate of 3 per cent, interest. 

 The exigency of the State government required 

 a rapid circulation of these notes, and they were 

 ordered to be paid one half in liquidation of all 

 indebtedness in the way of salaries, etc. At this 

 juncture the chief of the secret-service division 

 of the Treasury Department wrote to Gov. 

 Stone that he was intrenching upon the prerog- 

 atives of the Treasury Department, and demand- 

 ing the surrender of the plates, the warrants still 

 in his possession, and the suppression of the 

 issue. The Governor ignored this letter, but 

 wrote to Senator George to present the facts to 

 Secretary Carlisle and secure his views thereon. 

 The Secretary answered in such a manner as to 

 lead the authorities to suppose that the matter 

 had been dropped. It was afterward learned 

 that the Secretary referred the question to At- 

 torney-General Olney, and the next heard of it 

 was the arrest of the officers of the bank-note 

 company. A formal demand was then made on 

 the Governor and Auditor for th" surrender of 



the plates, but they refused to give them up. 

 Attorney-General Olriey ordered the arrest of 

 the Governor, .Auditor, and Treasurer of Missis- 

 sippi, each of whom was released on his own re- 

 cognizance of $1,000. Later the plates were 

 handed over to the United States District Attor- 

 ney for the Southern District of Mississippi. 

 They were sent to St. Louis to be used as evi- 

 dence in the prosecution of the bank-note com- 

 pany, the understanding between the officials 

 being that the plates are to be returned to Mis- 

 sissippi when the trial shall have been concluded. 

 There was no disposition on the part of the Gov- 

 ernor and the Auditor to refuse the request, but 

 they declined to accede to the demands made by 

 the special agent, because they have never recog- 

 nized that the secret-service department had the 

 right to demand anything of this nature from 

 the State of Mississippi. 



State Taxes. The assessment rolls of the 

 counties show a decrease in personal property as 

 compared with 1893. The personal assessment 

 in 1893 was $47,540,169, and in 1894 $43,649,078; 

 decrease, $3,891,091. The last assessment of 

 realty was made in 1892. The rolls showed a 

 total' valuation of $113,409,358. The realty as- 

 sessments are made every four years, hence an- 

 other can not be had till 1896. 



Banks. There are 63 State banks, including 

 12 national banks, which reported their resources 

 to the Auditor in 1894 to be as follow : Loans and 

 discounts, $5,873,862.14; overdrafts, secured and 

 unsecured, $743,143.87 ; stocks and bonds, $704,- 

 459.49; demand loans and personal property, 

 $273,916.54; banking house, furniture, etc., 

 $540,171.14; other real estate, $299,301.04; ex- 

 penses and taxes, $141,126.47; sight exchange. 

 $1,184,626.07; and cash on hand, $723,511.97; 

 total, $10,294,118.77. Their liabilities were re- 

 ported as follow: Capital paid in, $3.278,775: 

 surplus, $387,686.88; undivided profits, $4S4.- 

 056.54; individual deposits subject to cheek. 

 $4,486,553.21; time deposits, $601,664.52: bills 

 payable, $683,259.21 ; due other banks, $156.091.- 

 77; and rediscounts, $311,634.20; total, $10,- 

 284,318.77. 



Political. The usual election was held on 

 Nov. 6, when 7 Congressmen were elected. The 

 contest was essentially between the Democratic 

 and the Populist candidates, and it resulted in 

 the election of the former in every instance. 

 The following proposed constitutional amend- 

 ment was carried by a vote of 23,477 for, to 6,507 

 against : 



Strike out of the Constitution section 10 "> thereof, 

 which is as follows: "The Legislature shall provide 

 for the enumeration of the whole number of inhabit- 

 ants and qualified electors of the State once in 

 ten years; and the first enumeration shall be made 

 during the two months beginning on the first Monday 

 in June, 1895, and the Legislature shall provide for 

 the same by law.'' 



MISSOURI, a Western State, admitted to 

 the Union Aug. 10, 1821; area, 69,415 square 

 miles. The population, according to each de- 

 cennial census since admission, was 140,455 in 

 1830; 383.702 in 1840: 682,044 in 1850; 1,1 

 012 in 1860; 1,721,295 in 1870; 2.168,380 in 1HSO: 

 and 2,679,184 in 1890. Capital, Jefferson City. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, William J. 



