DELAWARE. 



21' 



CUBA, the largest and westernmost island of the 

 Antilles, before the Spanish-American War a col- 

 ony of Spain. It has a length of 780 miles and is 

 from 25 to 130 miles wide, with an aggregate area 

 of 43,319 square miles, including the Isle of Pines 

 and other adjacent islands. 



Finances. At the beginning of 1898 the war 

 had already cost Spain $300,000,000, including $60,- 

 000,000 of arrears that there was no money to meet. 

 The Cuban debt on Jan. 1, 1898, consisted of $118,- 

 010,200 of Cuban bonds of 1886, $171,710,000 of 

 Cuban bonds of 1890. $143,300,000 of customhouse 

 bonds issued in Spain for the expenses of the war, 

 and $14,000,000 of bank notes issued without specie 

 guarantee by the Spanish bank for war purposes, 

 making, with the $60,000,000 of arrears of pay to 

 the army, navy, and civil service and $15,000,000 of 

 other outstanding debts, the total sum of $522,020,- 

 200, of which more than $350,000,000 had been in- 

 curred on account of the war. 





DELAWARE, a Middle Atlantic State, one of 

 the original thirteen, ratified the Constitution Dec. 

 7, 1787; area, 2,120 square miles. The population, 

 according to each decennial census, was 59,096 

 in 1790 ; 64,273 in 1800 ; 72,674 in 1810 ; 72,749 in 

 1820; 76.748 in 1830; 78,085 in 1840; 91,532 in 

 1850; 112,216 in 1860; 125,015 in 1870; 146,608 

 in 1880 ; and 168,493 in 1890. Capital, Dover. 



(government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, Ebe W. Tun- 

 nell; Secretary of State, James H. Hughes; Treas- 

 urer, Willie M. Ross ; Auditor, B. L. Lewis ; Attor- 

 ney-General, Robert C. White ; Adjutant General, 

 Garrett J. Hart ; Insurance Commissioner, Edward 

 Fowler ; Agricultural Inspector, E. H. Bancroft 

 all Democrats; Chancellor, John R. Nicholson; 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Charles B. 

 Lore; Associate Justices, William C. Spruance, 

 Ignatius C. Grubb, James Pennewill, and William 

 H. Boyce. 



Finances. The State has a debt of $719,750, 

 but the interest-bearing assets amount to about 

 $300,000 more ihan that sum. The time for satis- 

 fying claims against the war tax repaid to the 

 State having expired, the sum of $8,232.17, which 

 was left unclaimed, reverts to the State treasury. 

 The Treasurer received in October $12,500 taxes 

 from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and $13,362.- 

 50 from the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore. 



Education. Delaware College had about 90 stu- 

 dents in 1897-'98 ; the expenses amount to about 

 $40,000 yearly, including $15.000 for the experi- 

 ment station. The value of farm lands belonging 

 is $3,000 ; four acres are under cultivation, and four 

 are used for experiments. Improvements have 

 been made in the library and reading room, and it 

 now has 8,500 bound volumes. A fire broke out in 

 the machine shops, April 26. which threatened to 

 destroy all the buildings, but all but the shops were 

 saved. The loss was about $25,000. A new me- 

 chanical building was finished and occupied by 

 November. The Legislature appropriated $19,200 

 to the institution. 



At the closing exercises of the State College for 

 Colored Students, near Dover, May 27, two diplomas 

 were given, and prizes were awarded for the highest 

 average standing, and for excellence in shop work 

 and in declamation. The estimate for the year's 

 appropriation was $4,800. 



Apropos of the failure of an educational bill in 

 the Legislature, it was said by a speaker at the New 



Commerce and Production. The crop both 

 of sugar and of tobacco promised to be larger in 

 1898 than in the preceding year. Of sugar a yield 

 of 300,000 tons was looked for, provided the insur- 

 gent leaders would allow the cane to be cut and 

 crushed. The yield of tobacco was considerably 

 greater than in 1897, amounting to nearly 80,000 

 bales in the Vuelta Abajo and 130,000 in other 

 parts of the island, in all about three tenths of an 

 average crop before the war, when 823,096 tons of 

 sugar were produced annually, besides 103,000 tons 

 of molasses, and when the crop of tobacco was 

 about 300,000 bales. The exports were then valued 

 at nearly $30,000,000, and imports at $12.000,000. 

 There are about 1,000 miles of railroad and 3.000 

 miles of telegraph. There were more than 1,000 

 vessels, with a tonnage exceeding in the aggregate 

 1,200,000, entered at Havana alone. (For a nar- 

 rative of military operations in Cuba, see UNITED 

 STATES.) 



Century Club: "We have no State head in our 

 school government ; we have 100 local school gov- 

 ernments who draw more than half the public 

 funds, yet are not amenable to any head in the 

 State, but keep their school districts in local hands ; 

 we need an effective State board." The Legislature 

 appropriated $100,000 for the free schools, $450 for 

 institutes for white teachers, and $100 for colored. 



Charities. The biennial report of the State 

 Hospital for the Insane, at Farnhurst, shows that 

 there were 258 patients at the beginning of the 

 term, and 178 had been admitted since ; 98 were 

 discharged, 58 died, and 4 were cured. The aver- 

 age number was 273, and 276 were present, Dec. 1. 

 From the farm attached to the asylum produce 

 valued at $1,969.47 was raised. In the sewing 

 room 7,233 pieces of clothing were made. The 

 amount expended in the two years was $95,871.26, 

 of which '$89,999.57 came from the State and 

 $5,871.69 from the board of patients. The average 

 cost per patient was $162.23. 



The Industrial School for Girls was chartered in 

 1893, and has been housed since its opening in 

 rented quarters. A square of ground in Wilming- 

 ton valued at $8,000 was given for a site by Mr. 

 and Mrs. Samuel Bancroft, and in September the 

 corner stone was laid of a building to cost $20.000. 

 The school contained twenty-five girls in 1898. 

 The State makes a small appropriation and the 

 county another, but the expenses are largely paid 

 by contributions from the people of W'ilmingfon. 



The Ferris Industrial School had 70 boys in 

 April. The levy court made but half the usual 

 appropriation this year. 



The annual report of the Delaware Hospital for 

 1897 shows that 343 patients were admitted, and 

 more than 300 received free treatment. The whole 

 number of days' care given was 7.200. In the dis- 

 pensaries free treatment was given to 1,726 patients. 

 New facilities have been added, and a training 

 school for nurses has been established. The endow- 

 ment fund was increased in 1897 by $10.710, of 

 which $5,000 was given by the family" of Dr. W. P. 

 Johnston ; and it was further increased in 1898 by 

 a bequest from Mrs. M. M. Carter of $5,000. The 

 receipts, including cash balance at previous report, 

 were $19,902.83, and the cash balance in bank, Jan. 

 1, 1898, $1,660.63. The revenue from patients was 

 $1,281.28. The annual subscriptions aggregated 

 $3,430.50. The report says that the dispensary 

 service has been abused by persons who are able to 



