

CALIFORNIA. 



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Communications. There were 600 miles of rail- 

 roads in 1897. The state telegraph lines had a 

 length of 8,164 miles, with 6,500 miles of wire. The 

 number of dispatches in 1895 was 1,282,525. The 

 post office in that year carried 18,385,000 pieces of 

 mail matter. The postal and telegraph receipts 

 amounted to 2,720,399 lei ; expenses, 2,929,791 lei. 

 Political Affairs. The understanding between 

 ustria. and Russia served to avert any serious dis- 

 rbance in Macedonia when the Greco-Turkish 

 ar afforded an opportunity to the Balkan states 

 seek to achieve their ambitions. Yet, however 

 rrect the attitude of the Bulgarian Government, 

 the party of expansion at Sofia was restless, and 

 became bolder and more excited when the war was 

 over and the Turkish provincial authorities dealt 

 severely with Macedonian revolutionists and Pan- 

 Bulgarian agents who had stirred them to futile 

 sporadic action. The gradual massing of an im- 

 mense Ottoman military force in Thrace and Mace- 

 donia checked the smuggling of arms and seditious 

 publications into Macedonia, discouraged fresh in- 

 cursions of Bulgaro-Macedonian bands, and effectu- 

 ly restrained the Bulgarian party of action. The 

 iplomatic relations between Sofia and Constanti- 

 lople were not outwardly ruffled. On Jan. 31, 1898, 

 lie Grand Vizier replied to a memorandum of M. 

 Markoff, the Bulgarian diplomatic agent, promis- 

 ing that all persons arrested on mere suspicion in 

 the vilayet of Uskub would be released, that the 

 mli' would be held responsible for any further acts 

 of violence, and that a military court would investi- 

 gate. In the vilayets of Kossovo and Monastir also 

 all imprisoned Bulgarians were set free except 

 those who were known to have been implicated in 

 volutionary designs. After the commission of 

 "cers sent to inquire into cases of murder and 

 outrage alleged to have been committed by Turkish 

 soldiers, principally in the vilayet of Kossovo, had 

 begun its investigation a secretary of the British em- 

 bassy made a tour of inspection in Uskub and found 

 evidences that some of the imprisoned Bulgarians 

 had been horribly tortured, but they had been re- 

 leased before the arrival of the commission and 

 threatened with death in the event of their giving 

 evidence that they had been ill treated. The Forte's 

 apprehensions concerning Bulgaria were allayed by 

 the assurance that the Government would not pro- 

 voke nor promote any Macedonian movement. Nev- 

 ertheless the Turkish forces in the adjoining vilayets 



continued to be strengthened. The military activ- 

 ity excited in the neighboring Balkan kingdoms 

 by the Bulgarian intrigues in the Turkish provinces 

 acted also as a check on the movement. Roumania 

 began moving troops down to the Danube. Diplo- 

 matic relations with Servia were strained. Mean- 

 while the tension that had existed between the 

 courts of Vienna and Sofia since the reception of 

 Prince Boris, the Bulgarian heir apparent, into the 

 Orthodox Church was relieved to such an extent 

 that the Emperor Franz Josef received Prince 

 Ferdinand on March 7. Austria-Hungary con- 

 tinued to o'bserve the truce with Russia in regard 

 to Balkan affairs. The influence of Great Britain, 

 which was long so powerful, in conjunction with 

 the former policy of Austria, as to keep the Bul- 

 garians estranged from their Russian liberators, 

 had been completely extinguished. The warm and 

 effusive New Year's congratulations exchanged be- 

 tween Prince Ferdinand and Prince Nicholas of 

 Montenegro, long the only protege of the Czar in 

 the Balkans, was a sign of the changed relations 

 between Bulgaria and Russia. The complete and 

 triumphant subordination of the Bulgarian Govern- 

 ment to Russian influence was proved by the return 

 of the refugee Bulgarian officers who had been 

 forced to fly the country because of the part they 

 had taken in the various pro-Russian conspiracies 

 against Prince Alexander and the regency and 

 later against Prince Ferdinand and his ministers. 

 One after another these officers, upon whom the 

 death penalty would have been inflicted by former 

 governments, were welcomed back to Bulgaria and 

 reinstated in the army and advanced in rank on 

 account of their service in the Russian army over 

 the heads of those who had remained steadily loyal 

 to the Government and impervious to the tempta- 

 tions held out by the insidious agents of Russian 

 diplomatic intrigue. Excessive military and other 

 expenditures created financial embarrassments for 

 the Government, which were temporarily bridged 

 over by a loan of 10,000,000 francs obtained from a 

 French syndicate. Large retrenchments in the 

 military expenditure are promised. In July the 

 Czar signalized the return of cordial relations with 

 Bulgaria by entertaining Prince Ferdinand with 

 the Princess and their son. Prince Boris, at Peterhof . 

 After his return from Russia, Prince Ferdinand 

 visited the Czar's other protege, Prince Nicholas of 

 Montenegro. 



CALIFORNIA, a Pacific coast State, admitted 

 to the Union Sept. 9, 1850; area, 158.360 square 

 miles. The population, according to each decennial 

 census since admission, was 92,597 in 1850 ; 379,994 

 in 1860; 560,247 in 1870; 864,694 in 1880; and 

 1*208,130 in 1890. Capital, Sacramento. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, James H. Budd, 

 Democrat ; Lieutenant Governor, William T. Jeter, 

 Democrat ; Secretary of State, Lewis H. Brown, 

 Republican; Treasurer, Levi Radcliffe, Repub- 

 lican, until his death, April 21, when the Governor 

 appointed W. S. Green, Democrat, to succeed him ; 

 Attorney-General, William F. Fitzgerald, Repub- 

 lican; Comptroller, E. P. Colgan, Republican; 

 Superintendent of Instruction, Samuel T. Black, 

 Republican ; Surveyor-General, Martin J. Wright, 

 Republican; Superintendent of Printing, A. J. 

 Johnson, Republican ; Insurance Commissioner, 

 Andrew J. Clunie ; Adjutant General, A. W. Bar- 

 rett ; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, W. H. 



C 



Beatty, Republican ; Associate Justices, T. B. Mc- 

 Farland, C. H. Garoutte, R. C. Harrison, W. C. 

 VanFleet, F. W. Henshaw, Republicans, and Jack- 

 son Temple, Democrat. 



Finances. The assessment roll was fixed, Sept. 

 1, at $1,085,904,868 for all property other than rail- 

 roads. Railroads were assessed at $44,457,473. mak- 

 ing the total roll $1,130.362,341. The amount to be 

 raised was $2,553.602 for the general fund, $2,314,- 

 963 for the school fund, $141,435 for the interest and 

 sinking fund, and 2 cents on each $100 for the State 

 University. This requires a tax levy of 48.8 cents. 



In San Francisco the amount of taxable property 

 was $351,784,094, an increase over the assessment 

 of 1897 of $3,829.264. The assessment of personal 

 property is $68,695,110, and of real estate $283,- 

 088,984. Of the latter sum $189,559.834 represents 

 the assessment of land and $93,529,150 of improve- 

 ments. The figures show an increase in real-estate 

 valuations of $4,931,119 and a decrease in personal- 

 property assessments of $1,101,855. 



