386 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Mississippi College graduated 8 men in June; 241 

 were enrolled. Millsaps College conferred degrees 

 on about 30, 16 of whom were from the law 

 class. The University of Oxford conferred the de- 

 gree of LL. B. on 24 students, A. B. on 9, B. S. on 4; 

 and 5 received that of bachelor of philosophy. 



Charities and Corrections. The number of in- 

 mates in the State charitable institutions is about 

 as follows: Hospital for the insane, Jackson, 600; 

 hospital for the insane, Meridian, 354; school for 

 the blind, 44 ; school for the deaf, 109. 



The Legislature appropriated the following sums 

 for maintenance: State Insane Hospital, $97,460, 

 and $2,500 for superintendent's salary; East Mis- 

 sissippi Insane Hospital, $48,000 and $2,000 salary ; 

 Deaf and Dumb Institute, $18,450, besides salary 

 of superintendent; School for the Blind, $9,818; 

 State Charity Hospital at Vicksburg, $12.000, on 

 condition that the city and county give in addi- 

 tion one third that amount. 



The Legislature gave $4,000 to build an annex 

 for colored children to the School for the Blind ; but 

 the trustees, finding the sum too small, decided to 

 turn it back into the State treasury, and ask the 

 next Legislature for a sufficient amount. 



The Board of Control, which is composed of the 

 Governor, the Attorney-General, and the 3 members 

 of the Railroad Commission, bought land for the 

 new convict farm in December about 13,000 acres 

 in Sunflower County, at $5.74 an acre for 11,000 

 acres, and $6 for the remainder. The appropria- 

 tion was $80,000. The receipts from the Peniten- 

 tiary for the fiscal year were greater by $97,627 

 than those of the year preceding. 



Railroads. The total valuation of the rail- 

 roads, express, telegraph, and palace car companies 

 operating in the State, according to the report of 

 the Railroad Commission published in March, is 

 $26,338,476, on which the tax assessed amounts to 

 $171,200.35, being an increase in valuation over 

 1898 of $1,901,290 and an increase of taxes collected 

 of $12,359.14. The privilege taxes for 1899 amount 

 to $40,862.22, against $40,582.90 for 1898, an in- 

 crease of $279.32. The figures for 1900, published 

 in July, show a still further increase in value. 



The commission ordered a new mileage tariff on 

 cotton seed, to take effect Oct. 1. 



The Gulf and Ship Island road was finished to 

 the .coast this year, and the first passenger train 

 was run about Aug. 28. The road runs from Jack- 

 son to Gulf port through Hattiesburg. 



Banks. From a tabulation prepared by the 

 Auditor it appears that there were 107 State banks 

 on Oct. 1, against 92 banks on Oct. 1 of the pre- 

 vious year. The majority of the new banks are 

 in the southern part of the State and the delta. 

 The loans and discounts on personal indorsements, 

 real estate, and collateral securities were $13,- 

 227,954.61, an increase of $2,917,817.77 over those 

 of last year. 



The stocks, bonds, and warrants, classed as re- 

 sources, amount to $1,019,268.55, an increase of 

 $125,293.17. 



The expenses and taxes are stated at $231,860.16, 

 an increase of $25,330.45 from last year's figures. 



Other items of resources are named to form a 

 total of $20,782,962.11, an increase of $3,492,885.73 

 over that of last year. 



The tabulation of liabilities states the capital 

 paid in at $4,483,096.64, an increase of $646,584.64 

 from that of 1899. The surplus this year is $578,- 

 544.35, an increase of $35,136.47. The undivided 

 profits are $1,133,045.55, an increase of $456,579.69. 

 The individual deposits subject to check arc $10.- 

 412,325.07, an increase of $1,217,924.10. The bills 

 payable are $1,927,019.22, an increase of $462,- 

 209.57. 



There are no savings banks, but several banks 

 have savings departments. There are 12 national 

 banks. The branch bank law is found to be in- 

 effective, since it does not provide for separate 

 statements of the property of the branch banks. 



Levees. The board of commissioners for the 

 Yazoo-Mississippi Delta reported for the year end- 

 ing Dec. 1 that the volume of work had been ex- 

 tensive. The disbursements from Jan. 1 to Dec. 

 1 were $601,045.30, which was for contracts, en- 

 gineering, salaries, interest on bonds, etc. When 

 existing contracts are finished the board will have 

 120 miles of levees. The levee board has been 

 in existence since 1882, and in his iinancial state- 

 ment the president shows that since that time it 

 has issued bonds amounting to $1,850,000; of this 

 amount, $773,000 have been retired. 



The Brandywine Rock Wall. A subscription 

 has been started for a fund to be used in an inves- 

 tigation of this mysterious wall in Claiborne and 

 Copiah Counties. The character of the rock, which 

 is thought by some to be artificial, is under exami- 

 nation. It is conjectured that a city was once in- 

 closed by it. 



Cotton. The cotton crop was smaller this year 

 than in other recent years. It is given as 1,230,000 

 bales. Ten mills were reported as having been 

 in operation, and 7 more were building. There 

 were 2,427 looms and 81,890 spindles. The colored 

 people are raising funds for a cotton factory in 

 Jackson, and it was understood that $50,000 had 

 been subscribed by the end of the year. 



The New Capitol. The Legislature provided 

 for the immediate building of the Statehouse. It 

 is to be on the Penitentiary site, the prison build 

 ings having been moved to the convict farms. The 

 plans of Theodore C. Link, of St. Louis, were chosen 

 for the building, and the contract was let in De- 

 cember to a Chicago firm, W. A. & A. E. Wells. 

 Their bid was $831,743, and the time set for com- 

 pleting the work twenty-eight months. 



Lawlessness. The Governor recommmended a 

 law to suppress lynching in the State, but a bill 

 with that object failed to pass. There were several 

 lynchings in the year. In March a negro accused 

 of murder was hanged by a mob near Greenville. 

 In June two negroes suspected of murdering a 

 young girl at Biloxi were taken from jail at Sli- 

 sissippi City and hanged, because it seemed certain 

 that one of them must be guilty. One had been 

 taken out a few days before and tortured to make 

 him confess, which he refused to do. In March a 

 negro was shot to death by men of his own race. 

 because of an assault upon a little girl. Another 

 who had murdered his wife was taken from ollii -er- 

 near Vicksburg, Oct. 22, and shot to death by : 

 crowd of negroes. Aug. 1.3, a negro was taken 

 from jail at Corinth and hanged in the public 

 square, for assault upon a little girl. A lynch! ML 

 took place at Gloster, April 13, said to have been 

 without even a pretext of justification, and k! 

 white men were brought to trial for it in .May ; but 

 the result of the trial has not come under notice. 

 A negro who shot a marshal at Gulf port \v;n 

 lynched near that place in December. A feud in 

 Winston County was reported to have resulted in 

 the death of 12 men; but a newspaper in that 

 county deplored the sensational reports regarding 

 the feud and said that as a matter of fact the kill- 

 ing of only 7, 5 whites and 2 negroes, could b? 

 traced directly to it. 



Legislative Session. The regular biennial ses- 

 sion of the Legislature began .Ian. 2 and ended 

 March 12. John R. Dinsmore was I 'resident ;' > 

 (cm. of the Senate, and A. J. Russell was Speaker 

 of the House. 



Gov. Longino was inaugurated Jan. 16. In 



