756 



VIRGINIA. 



Six prizes for Virginia apples were awarded at 

 the Paris Exposition of 1900. 



Jamestown Tercentenary. At its annual 

 meeting the Association for the Preservation of 

 Virginia Antiquities appointed a committee to pro- 

 mute an exposition to be held at Richmond in 

 i'.iiiT. to mark tlie three hundredth anniversary 

 of the planting at Jamestown of the- first per- 

 manent English colony on this continent. 



Monument to Confederate Dead. At Charles 

 Citv Courthouse. Nov. 21, a beautiful monument 

 to the Confederate dead of Charles City County 

 was unveiled with elaborate ceremonies. The 

 shaft. 21 feet high, is of Virginia granite, and 

 rests upon a block of white granite 5 feet square. 



Railroads. According to otlicial reports, the 

 net receipts of the railroads of Virginia were 

 greater in 1900 than in any previous year. Coal 

 shipments t<> deep water were the principal fea- 

 ture of the traflic. hut in general transportation 

 there was enormous increase. An important event 

 \\a- the acquisition by the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 of the control of the Chesapeake and Ohio and 

 Norfolk and Western lines. Another was the con- 

 solidation of the various seaboard air-line roads. 



The last spike, completing the Seaboard Air-line 

 Railway from Richmond to Tampa, Fla., was 

 driven at Richmond, June 2. Seven States are 

 traversed by the Seaboard system, and its com- 

 pletion was celebrated as a Southern triumph in 

 commercial enterprise. 



Legal Decisions. The Supreme Court of Ap- 

 peals handed down in February a decision affirm- 

 ing the constitutionality of the Virginia fence law. 

 In September the court handed down a decision 

 holding that a judge may sue and be sued within 

 the jurisdiction of his own court. In December an 

 opinion was handed down by the court that the 

 State can not sue for collection of taxes, but is 

 confined to statutory remedies distress of person- 

 alty or sale of land upon which the taxes have 

 not been paid. The State can not go into equity 

 and enforce the lien for the collection of taxes. 



Lawlessness. At Emporia, March 24, two 

 men. one white, the other colored, were taken from 

 the jail by a mob and hanged to a tree in front 

 of the courthouse, no effort, apparently, having 

 been made, either by citizens or by officers of the 

 law, to prevent the lynching, which was partici- 

 pated in by both white men and negroes. The 

 negro who was lynched had shot and killed two 

 of the most popular citizens of Greenville County, 

 and the white victim was hanged because he had 

 been in company with the murderer when his 

 ciimc was committed. 



A young negro charged with the murder of an 

 aged farmer near Mnfl'alo Springs, April 22, was 

 -a\cd from lynching at the hands of a mob, which 

 -e\ei;i! lime- gathered and demanded his life, by 

 the resolute action of the constable having him in 

 custody. 



In the lower part of Wythe County, Dec. 6, a 

 young negro who had committed a criminal as- 

 sault was taken from an ollicer and put to death 

 by a mob near the scene of his crime. A ne^ro 

 companion who was arrested along with him es- 

 caped the same fate through a "compromise ver- 

 dict" of the mob. who "ton- his clothing from 

 the upper port ion of his body and whipped him 

 unmercifully." 



On the night of Dec. 1 the house of a justice 

 of thr peace, at Coode, lied ford County, was sur- 

 rounded by a mob. who poured into it " a perfect 

 rain <>f bullets and buckshot." the fire being di- 

 rected particularly toward the justice's room and 

 bed. He wan badly wounded in the arm. but re- 

 turned the fire, and the mob soon retired. A re- 



ward of $50 was offered by the Governor for the 

 conviction of the men who fired upon the house. 



Legislative Session. The General Assembly, 

 after a three months' session, adjourned March 7, 

 The session was marked by the great amount of 

 work accomplished, and by the extraordinary 

 number of local and special bills passed. Some 

 of the most important were these: 



To require railroad companies to provide sepa- 

 rate cars or compartments for white and colored 

 passengers. This bill was passed without a dis- 

 senting vote in either house. 



To provide for separate accommodations for 

 whites and blacks on steamboats, etc. 



To provide for a recodification of all legislation 

 as to oysters, clams, crabs, fish, etc. 



To prescribe the weight of a barrel of apples, 

 and the size of barrels to be used in packing and 

 shipping the same. 



To prevent riotous conduct on trains. 



To incorporate the John Marshall Memorial As- 

 sociation. 



To incorporate the Jackson Memorial Associa- 

 tion. 



To submit to the qualified voters the question 

 of calling a constitutional convention. 



To provide for submission to the people amend- 

 ments to sections 1 and 2 of Article VII of the 

 Constitution, and also of Article X. 



To create a State Department of Insurance and 

 provide for an insurance commissioner. 



Authorizing cities and towns to maintain free 

 libraries. 



To create the office of commissioner of valu- 

 ation in every county and city of the State. The 

 Supreme Court of Appeals, on March 30, declared 

 this act unconstitutional. 



To amend the delinquent land law, popularly 

 known as " the land-grabbers' law ''' of the pre- 

 ceding Legislature. This law had met with strong 

 public disfavor, and the amendments of 1900 

 eliminated many of its objectionable features. 



To provide for the appointment of State and 

 local boards of health. 



Incorporating various railroads. 



To incorporate the Negro Agricultural and In- 

 dustrial Society of Virginia. 



To incorporate the Children's Home Society of 

 Virginia. 



The Senate, on March 3, by a vote of 20 to 2, 

 passed a resolution, which had already passed the 

 House of Delegates, calling on the Virginia Sen- 

 ators in Congress to vote for an amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States making United 

 States Senators elective by direct vote of Un- 

 people. 



The Legislature granted to the Virginia l-'air 

 Association a charter whereby horse racing and 

 "glove contests" arc authorized. 



Hy the general pension bill passed by the Legis- 

 lature, in addition to numerous private bills, the 1 

 sum of $135,000 was appropriated. The bill makes 

 some changes in the pension law, one of the most 

 important of which provides for payment to 

 widows of Virginia soldiers, sailors, or marines 

 who have died since the civil war the sum of 

 $25 per annum, upon conditions prescribed in the 

 bill. 



Important action was taken by this Legislature 

 in the direction of removing the disabilities and 

 extending the rights of married women in respect 

 of property and various matters of individual Ic^l 

 status. 



Political. The Republican State Convention 

 met in Norfolk. April 10. Candidates for presi- 

 dential electors at large were nominated. The 

 resolutions approved the administration at Wash- 





