408 



LOUISIANA. 



a State institution, and provides that it shall be 

 maintained by the State oy an annual appropria- 

 tion, which is to be based upon the number of 

 inmates sheltered in the Home on the first day of 

 April of the year in which the appropriation is made, 

 of $130 per capita, to be used for maintenance and 

 clothing. 



At the Lepers' Home, established in 1892 on a 

 leased tract of 200 acres known as Indian Camp 

 riantation, in Iberville Parish, 21 males and 14 

 females have been cared for; of these, 1 escaped 

 and 10 have died. 



The Insane Asylum at Jackson provides for 1,400 

 inmates. Improvements have been made in the 

 heating and cooking facilities. An ice plant with 

 capacity of two tons daily, and two cold-storage 

 rooms have been erected. An additional story has 

 been built on both the male and female colored 

 departments, and a new building, 152 feet long by 

 84 feet in width, has been completed at a cost of 

 $38.500. 



Since the buildings of the Charity Hospital at 

 New Orleans were erected in 1832 there have been 

 507.197 admissions, 424,521 discharges, and 79,240 

 deaths. There were during the year 8,149 bed 

 patients, with a daily average of 680, and the at- 

 tendance in the outdoor clinics was 20,895 patients. 

 There were 1,050 deaths in the year, or a death rate 

 of 12 per cent. This does not include those at the 

 isolation hospital, where 216 patients were treated. 

 New buildings and equipments have been added 

 from time to time. Ground was broken in the 

 spring for a children's hospital, for which Mrs. 

 Richard Milliken gave $75,000. 



The Charity Hospital at Shreveport is shown by 

 the report to have had an average monthly increase 

 of patients of 63, and a total of 6,631 patients re- 

 ceived in the hospital, with 213 deaths for the two 

 years past. 



A very modern four-room brick aseptic-operation 

 building has been erected and furnished with the 

 most improved equipments. 



There were more than 1,100 convicts in the 

 penitentiary at the time of report. Of these an 

 average slightly above 50 are kept within the walls. 

 The average number carried upon the books of the 

 prison is from 1,050 to 1,150. The system of re- 

 duced time service for good behavior has worked 

 well, 301 prisoners having been released in the two 

 years under its provisions. 



Militia. The total number enlisted in the Na- 

 tional Guard increased from 1,170 in 1891 to 3,048 

 in 1897. The number given in April, 1898, was 

 2,607, exclusive of the naval militia. The quota 

 called for in April by the Government was 1,940. 

 The Adjutant General, in his report, says: "The 

 annual appropriation made by the last general as- 

 sembly of $15,000 for military purposes and $6,000 

 for militia in the field has met very satisfactorily 

 the wants of the State National Guard under the 

 present strenirili." 



Naval Dry Dock. Steps have been taken toward 

 the construction of a dry dock at Algiers, in front 

 of the naval reservation on the Mississippi. By act 

 of Congress the limit of the cost of the entire work 

 is $850,000. 



Public Works. Reports of the Board of Con- 

 trol and superintendent of the new basin canal and 

 shell-road show that the canal has been dredged, 

 the shell-road rebuilt, new buildings have been 

 erected, and old ones improved. 



The work on the levees amounted to 15,541,188 

 cubic yards in 186-'98, and the cost was $2,115,- 

 841.90, of which the districts paid $1.001,785.75 

 the State $297,396.77, and the United States $816,- 

 159.38. From 1892 to 1898 $8,909,199.53 has been 

 expended upon them. 



State Lauds. Under a legislative act of 1896,. 

 disabled Confederate veterans or their widows were 

 to receive, under certain conditions, each a quarter 

 section of State land ; 230 patents covering 34,761 

 acres have been issued. 



Agriculture and Immigration. These depart- 

 ments are under one commissioner appointed by 

 the Governor. According to his report, 10,000 immi- 

 grants came into the State in 1896-'98, and 250,000 

 acres of land were sold at a cost of more than 

 $1,000,000. Farmers' institutes are held under the 

 charge of the department. The reports give details 

 regarding truck gardening and its development. 

 Embracing territory about New Orleans, Shreve- 

 port, Alexandria, Monroe, Lake Charles, Hammond, 

 Wilson, and other territory adjacent to the Illinois 

 Central Railroad, the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley 

 Railroad, the Houston, Central Arkansas and North- 

 ern, and the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Rail- 

 roads, about 5,000 additional acres have been put 

 into truck this year. In 1897, from Ponchatoula, 

 Hammond, Independence, and Amite City there was 

 shipped $380,000 worth of truck, while for 1898, up 

 to Alay, $475,000 worth of products were shipped, 

 showing an increase for 1898 of $95,000. The re- 

 port also shows an increased acreage devoted to 

 grain, hay, and forage crops, and to pasturage ; a 

 more universal practice of raising adequate supplies 

 of meat and feedstuff s, a marked disposition to 

 raise a better class of farm animals, and a more 

 general use of improved agricultural implements. 



The cotton, sugar, and rice crops were all unusu- 

 ally large. The cotton crop is given as 740,000 

 bales. The number of bales handled at the wharves 

 of New Orleans was 2,815,599. Of wheat, 16,908.- 

 207 bushels were moved, and of corn, 23,109,296 

 bushels. 



Relief for Sufferers from Drought. The suf- 

 ferers from the drought that prevailed in 13 par- 

 ishes for more than six months, beginning at the 

 middle of April, 1896, have been relieved by the 

 State and contributions from railroads and other 

 corporations and private subscription, without aid 

 from other States. The commercial fund distrib- 

 uted amounted to $216,331.47, and the State fund 

 to $96,618.92. 



Quarantine Regulations. It is alleged that 

 the State has suffered from severe and unnecessary 

 quarantine regulations. The Governor of Texas 

 has issued proclamations for two successive years 

 closing the railroads entering that State from Louisi- 

 ana and Mississippi. The quarantine was raised 

 Nov. 1. 



A new State Board of Health was appointed in 

 January, with Dr. Edmond Souchon as president. 



Mob Violence. A negro who had confessed to 

 an assault on a woman, whom he had left for dead, 

 was burned to death at Doyline, about 18 miles from 

 Shreveport, in June. 



Another lynching took place Dec. 6, when two ne- 



roes, accused of the murder of Larry Vance, in 

 ossier, were tried and condemned by a committee 

 of citizens and were hanged immediately. One had 

 confessed the crime and implicated the other, who 

 maintained his innocence to the last. 



The New Constitution. The constitutional 

 convention met Feb. 8 and framed a new Constitu- 

 tion, which was adopted May 12, and went into 

 effect without being submitted to a vote of the peo- 

 ple. The Governor said in his message that the ne- 

 cessity for adjustment of the suffrage, the. demand 

 for additional and more generous provision for pub- 

 lic education, and the importance of the reorganiza- 

 tion of the judiciary system were mainly responsi- 

 ble for the calling of the convention, and the more 

 important changes were in these departments. 



The qualifications for suffrage as provided are - 



