TEXAS. 



671 



$1,350,507.14; total receipts of cash, including bal- 

 ance, $3,323,848.94; disbursed during the year, 

 $2,014,497.34; leaving a cash balance Aug. 31, 

 1900, of $1,309,351.60. Bonds on hand to the 

 credit of this fund Aug. 31, 1899, amounted to 

 $6,447,247.05; bonds purchased during the year, 

 $1,989,839.05; total, $8,437,086.10; bonds redeemed 

 during the year, $643,564.95; leaving a balance 

 of bonds on hand Aug. 31, 1900, of $7,793,521.15. 

 The amount of occupation taxes collected was 

 $918,982.48, an increase over the previous year of 

 $1,984.95. The value of assessed property for 1900 

 was $946,320,258, an increase over 1899 of $23,- 

 393,027. There was an increase in value of lands 

 of $6,106,902; of town and city lots, $975,042; of 

 horses and mules, $2,160,587; of cattle, $5,546,422; 

 of goods and merchandise, $3,637,388; money in 

 banks, $1,704,423. 



Education. The biennial report of the State 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction shows the 

 school population in 1900 to have been 706,546. 

 The State apportionment was $3,002,820.50. The 

 number of teachers employed during the year was 

 estimated at 16,000, a gain of 1,000 over 1899. A 

 statement of the permanent school fund, based on 

 the latest reports of the State Treasurer and the 

 Commissioner of the General Land Office, exhibits 

 these resources: State bonds, $2,183,100; county 

 bonds, $3,915,556.60; railroad bonds, $1,603,317; 

 municipal bonds, $91.547.55; land notes, $13,101,- 

 330.78; cash on hand, $1,309,351.60; estimated 

 value of lands leased and unsold, $20,613,527; 

 total, $42,817,780.53. 



The report says that since 1870 Texas schools 

 have received from the Peabody fund from $1,000 

 to more than $15,000 annually. 



The attendance in all departments at the State 

 University for 1899-1900 was 1,041, showing a 

 marked increase, especially in the academic de- 

 partment. Besides localities outside of the State, 

 more than 100 counties of Texas were represented 

 the enrollment. There are nearly 100 schools 

 the State in full affiliation with the university, 

 and its continuous and rapid growth seems as- 

 sured. The medical department in May conferred 

 41 diplomas, and the graduates in June numbered 

 116, making 157 in all the largest number in 

 the history of the university. 



The Agricultural and Mechanical College gradu- 

 ated a class of 27. In their biennial report the 

 Board of Directors of the college say that its 

 growth in recent years has exceeded all expecta- 

 tions, and that with adequate appropriations there 

 is practically no limit to its development. 



At the Sam Houston Normal Institute the total 

 enrollment for 1899-1900 was 493, representing 130 

 counties. The graduating class of 1900 num- 

 ' red 98. 



Charities and Corrections. The number of 

 pupils enrolled at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum 

 Nov. 1, 1900, was 346, against 245 the year pre- 

 vious. In 1900 the various industries were taught 

 129 pupils. 



The 1900 enrollment at the Institute for Deaf, 

 Dumb, and Blind Colored Youths embraced 20 

 blind boys, 20 blind girls, 26 deaf boys, and 18 

 deaf girls, a total of 84. 



At the Texas Institution for the Blind, the num- 

 ber enrolled Oct. 31 was 177; number of totally 

 blind, 70. There were 40 boys in the industrial 

 department. 



The number of patients in the Southwestern 

 Insane Asylum, Nov. 1, was 704, an increase of 

 230 during the year. In his report for 1900 the 

 superintendent calls for a change in the lunacy 

 laws so that insane persons can be committed to 

 State institutions without a public trial according 



to criminal methods, but upon a certificate of med- 

 ical men submitted to the county judge. 



At the State Lunatic Asylum the number of 

 patients, Oct. 31, was 734, of whom 399 were men 

 and 335 women. 



The annual report of the State Orphans' Home 

 shows that there were 12 graduates in 1900, all in 

 honorable employment, for which they were well 

 equipped. 



According to the biennial report of the Super- 

 intendent of Texas State penitentiaries, the net 

 decrease of prison population from Nov. 1, 1898, to 

 Oct. 31, 1900, was 365; total number of convicts 

 on hand at the latter date, 4,109; percentage of 

 whites, 35.5; negroes, 53; Mexicans, 11.5; pardons 

 for the two years, 350; escapes, 189; recaptures. 

 78; deaths, 269. 



Lawlessness. At Port Arthur, Feb. 11, a man 

 who had been tried and acquitted of the charge 

 of murder was hanged by a mob, and after an 

 inquest was given a pauper's burial. The grand 

 jury sternly denounced the mob. 



The police station at El Paso was attacked, 

 Feb. 17, by an armed mob of negro soldiers from 

 Fort Bliss, in an effort to release two soldiers con- 

 fined there. One police officer and one of the 

 attacking party were shot and killed. 



At Austin, Oct. 15, a large mob of State Uni- 

 versity students attempted to take possession of 

 the Grand Opera House during a performance. 

 According to the Galveston News, repeated as- 

 saults were made by the mob, and several valuable 

 pictures in the lobby of the building were demol- 

 ished, while for a time the whole police force of 

 the city were unable to quell the rioters. 



A fight among several men, one of them a sheriff, 

 occurred at Anderson, Nov. 7, in which two were 

 killed and two wounded, one of the wounded being 

 the sheriff, who was carried into the jail, which 

 was afterward fired on from the courthouse. 



Three negroes charged with murder, and said to 

 have confessed, were taken from the jail at Jeffer- 

 son, Nov. 14, by a mob, who hanged them from 

 a railroad trestle near the town. 



Eight men convicted of the Humphries lynching 

 of May, 1899, were taken to the Rusk Peniten- 

 tiary, Aug. 22, 1900. Three of the lynchers who 

 turned State's evidence were liberated. 



A Storm at Galveston. One of the worst 

 calamities in the history of this country visited 

 Galveston and some parts of the mainland Sept. 8, 

 when a hurricane which swept southern Texas 

 spent its greatest fury upon the " Island City " 

 and adjacent districts. The storm was attended 

 by a huge inundation. At Galveston alone thou- 

 sands of buildings and millions of dollars' worth 

 of property were destroyed in a few hours. Here, 

 also, the number of lives lost, although never fully 

 ascertained, reached several thousand, to which 

 were added hundreds more in other sections of 

 the storm area. For scenes of horror and deeds of 

 shame such as pillage and robbery of the dead 

 nobly offset by acts of heroism and self-sacrifice, 

 the catastrophe will be long remembered. The 

 property loss in Galveston is estimated at more 

 than $17,000,000, including more than $3,000,000 

 lost by the United States Government. More than 

 4,000 residences were destroyed. The destruction 

 of business buildings and stock, wharfs, shipping, 

 railroad and telegraph property, etc., was propor- 

 tionately large. More than 30 miles along the 

 shore, above and below Galveston, the country 

 was flooded for several miles inland, and the losses 

 in life and property were relatively as great as 

 those in the city. In October, on incomplete re- 

 turns, the Department of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton estimated the agricultural losses, exclusive of 



