22 



ARKANSAS. 



age daily attendance, an increase of 14| P eT cent. 

 The total school population is 463.676. The amount 

 of the annual apportionment to the schools in 

 August was $343,038.10. 



The teachers of the State have united with those 

 of Texas and Colorado in the organization of a 

 Chautauqua association, which has purchased 20 

 acres near Boulder, Col., at the base of the Rocky 

 mountains, for its buildings. 



The State University graduated a class of 15 in 

 June, and Ouachita College one of 6 in the regular 

 course and 6 from special departments. From the 

 medical department of the university 19 were grad- 

 uated in April, and 9 in June from the law depart- 

 ment of the Arkansas Industrial University, at 

 Fayetteville. 



At the School for the Blind 4 boys wore graduated 

 in June with diplomas for piano tuning and 2 from 

 the Industrial Department. 



The Deaf-Mute Institute has about 235 inmates. 

 The buildings are on a tract of 90 acres on a 

 high ridge overlooking Arkansas river. With the 

 products of the gardens and shops the institution 

 has become nearly self-supporting. 



In accordance with a resolution of the Legislature 

 in 18!).~>, i lie Representatives of Arkansas in Congress 

 requested that the compact entered into between 

 the United States and the State of Arkansas with 

 regard to the "sections of land No. 16 in every 

 township," or 'an equivalent section, granting the 

 proceeds of the sale of such lands " for the use of 

 the inhabitants of such township for the use of 

 the schools" be so modified that the funds arising 

 from the sale of the lands shall be placed in the 

 State treasury and applied to school purposes with- 

 out regard to the townships where the sections sold 

 were situated, but, like other school funds, appor- 

 tioned according to the number of children of 

 school age. The act of modification was passed by 

 Congress in March. 



The Insane. The Asylum for the Insane com- 

 prises buildings with a capacity for 600 patients, and 

 more than 500 are cared for now. It is on a height 



2 miles west of the center of the capital city. The 

 annual appropriation for current expenses is about 

 $88,000. 



Criminals. The State Penitentiary has about 

 990 inmates, of whom 10 are women, 7 colored and 



3 white. The life prisoners number 15, and all of 

 them are colored ; 66 per cent, of the prison popula- 

 tion is colored. A reform farm camp has been 

 established at Palarm, to which prisoners under 

 twenty-one are sent. Eight leased farms are 

 worked by the convicts on the shaEe-crop system, 

 and this is reported to have resulted profitably. A 

 convict farm is to be bought by the State and paid 

 for by the products of its cultivation. 



The law requires that the State shall furnish con- 

 victs with tobacco, the supply of which in 1897 cost 

 $3,400. This year the tobacco used was raised by 

 the convicts themselves on the farm near Palarm, 

 showing that a fairly good quality of this product 

 can be grown in the State. In 1897 the Governor 

 granted a total of 297 pardons, restorations to citi- 

 y.en-liip in cases where sentences had been served, 

 ;ih'l remissions of fines. 



Several cases of lynching occurred in the State 

 during the year. A negro accused of assault was 

 hanged by a mob at Fairview, June 3, and soon 

 afterward two negroes were hanged for the same 

 crime by a mob of about 300 farmers in Monroe 

 County. On July 4 a mob took a negro charged 

 with murder from jail at Rison and hanged him. 

 Two other negroes, it appears, had previously been 

 lynched for participation in the same crime. July 

 14, two negroes charged with a murder in 1894 were 

 shot in jail at Moiiticello. They had been convicted 



in two trials, but were awaiting a third trial, which 

 had been granted by the Supreme Court. The 

 most flagrant case of lawlessness occurred in Claren- 

 don in August, on account of the murder of John 

 P. Orr at his home there, July 30. The coroner's 

 jury charged the crime to a negro, and accused as 

 accessories four other negroes, the murdered man's 

 wife, and a young Jewess. On Aug. 9 four of the 

 negroes, one a woman, were taken from jail and 

 hanged. They confessed to being accomplices. 

 Mrs. Orr, who was also in jail awaiting trial, took 

 poison, said to have been given to her by the mob 

 to save her from the fate of the negroes, and died 

 the next day. The circuit judge had promised to 

 convene an extra session of court and see that the 

 prisoners had a speedy trial. 



Much trouble is encountered in the efforts of the 

 authorities to put a stop to illicit distilling. It is 

 difficult to get testimony against the law-breakers, 

 for witnesses are subjected to all sorts of annoyance 

 and loss and are in fear of their lives. One who 

 had given testimony in a case of this kind in Cle- 

 burne County asked protection from the Governor 

 in a letter which said : " We have been subjected to 

 every kind of misusage by threats and destruction 

 of property. My hogs died, my dogs were killed, 

 my wagon was torn to pieces in the field, and last 

 Saturday night at eight o'clock my barn was set on 

 fire and burned to the ground with three cows and 

 farming tools, grain, and fodder, my loss being not 

 less than $400. I have been warned that 1 must 

 move out of my house and get out of the country 

 right away. I have to guard night and day what I 

 have left. I can't gather my crops. People are 

 afraid to come to my house or have anything to do 

 with me." The Governor issued a proclamation 

 offering a reward for the arrest of any person guilty 

 of the acts mentioned in the letter. 



Railroads. The figures given out in September 

 by the Board of State Assessors show an increase of 

 $371,628 in the taxable valuation of railroads over 

 that of 1897. The increase of mileage is 65.19 ; the 

 total mileage, 2,612.17. The total valuation is $22,- 

 995,492. This includes the sleeping-car, telegraph, 

 and express companies, amounting to $937,699. 



Under a decree of the court back taxes to the 

 amount of $62,477 have been paid by the Pullman 

 Palace Car Company, the Western Union Telegraph 

 Company, and the Pacific Express Company. 



The grant of 1,000 acres of State land to the 

 Springfield, Little Rock, and Gulf road, on condi- 

 tion that it be built and equipped from Little Rock 

 to Fourche la Favre river by June 26, 1898, was 

 forfeited by failure to build/although some work 

 was done: and the project appears to have been 

 abandoned. 



The Mississippi River, Hamburg and Western 

 road was completed in September to Hamburg from 

 Montrose, its junction with the Iron Mountain, a 

 distance of 20 miles only, and contracts were let 

 to carry it on to the Mississippi. The plan is to ex- 

 tend it to Tcxarkana. 



According to the Arkansas " Gazette," charters 

 have been granted for 431 railroads in the State 

 >ince Dec. 12, 1851, the date of the first charter. 

 Of these, about 400 have been forfeited by failure 

 to construct the proposed roads. Work is in prog- 

 ress on an extension of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and 

 Gulf road from Wister Junction to Little Rock, 

 and at a foreclosure sale of the Little Rock and 

 Memphis in October this road was bought for the 

 former. A line for the capital city, competing with 

 the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, is thus 

 in prospect. The purchase price of the Little Rock 

 and Memphis was $325,000 above the amount of the 

 mortgage upon it, $3,325,313. 



By a Supreme Court decision in April, the rule 



