4:60 



MISSISSIPPI. 



white females 299, colored males 247, and colored 

 females 24(5 : discharged recovered, 98 white males 

 23, white females 38, colored males 13, and colored 

 females 24 ; discharged improved, 13 white males3, 

 white females 6, colored males 2, colored females 2; 

 discharged unimproved, 11 ; died, 95 white males 

 2!), white females 13, colored males 26, and colored 

 females 27 ; remaining at the end of the year, 831 

 white males 191, white females 238, colored males 

 !!>!). and colored females 193; daily average, 825. 

 Total amount expended for the fiscal year 1896-'97, 

 $150,809.18 ; total amount appropriated for 1896-'97, 

 $190,000 ; unexpended balance, $39.190.82. 



Deaf and Dumb Institute. The number of 

 pupils enrolled in 1896-'97 was 114; average monthly 

 attendance, 107. The superintendent reports that 

 " while, this statement of the attendance is very fa- 

 vorable when compared with the reports of former 

 years, yet, when taken in connection with the uned- 

 ucated deaf of the State, it reveals a lack of interest 

 on the part of parents and guardians in the educa- 

 tion of this class of children that is not only lament- 

 able but is actually culpable." 



Cotton. The total crop of cotton in 1897-'98 

 was 1.524,771 bales. The total movement was 

 l,. r >61,529 bales : By rail to New England mills. 266,- 

 330 bales; to Mobile, 86,226; to Norfolk, 19,322; to 

 Louisville, 11,452; to Savannah, 9,554 ; to interior 

 Alabama points, 9,378; to Boston, 9,154; to interior 

 Louisiana points, 7,982 ; to Brunswick, Ga., 7,975 ; 

 to Pensacola, 5.465; to Virginia mills, 3,833: to 

 North Carolina mills, 3,447; to Tennessee mills, 

 2,604; to Baltimore, 1,744; to Canada, 1,442; to 

 Western mills, 1.368: to New York city. 1,152; to 

 Philadelphia, 1,146; to Helena, Ark., 1,002; to Pa- 

 cific ports, 1.020; to Ohio river points, 532: to 

 Charleston. 405 ; to Newport News, 200 : to Cin- 

 cinnati. 96 ; to Augusta, Ga., 75; to North Atlantic 

 ports. 50; to Chicago, 9; by rail and water to New 

 Orleans, 812,364; by rail, river, and wagon to Mem- 

 phis, 293,863; by rail and river to St. Louis, 2,273. 



Knee Trouble. As the result of an attempt to 

 arrest a negro near llarperville, Scott County, in 

 October, 1898, one white deputy was killed, three 

 deputies were wounded, and fourteen negroes were 

 killed. A news dispatch from the scene of the 

 trouble gave the following account of the affair: 

 " Last Friday a negro named Bill Burke had an 

 altercation with his employer, Charles Freeman, a 

 white man, in which the negro got the best of the 

 difficulty. That night a crowd of white men went 

 to Burke's house to arrest him, but he was not 

 there. The white men decided to go back the next 

 night, and the plan was not concealed from the 

 I ducks. Headed by Wallace Sibley, a white man 

 dcputixod to arrest the man, the crowd went to 

 Burke's house. When they arrived upon the scene 

 and called for Burke they were greeted by a fusil- 

 lade by negroes concealed in the bushes and in the 

 house itself. Wallace Sibley fell dead at the first 

 volley and three other white men were wounded. 

 The whites returned the fire, but were unable to do 

 any execution. During the night a large mob of 

 whites went to Burke's house and got from his 

 mother the names of all in the negro party which 

 had ambushed the white men the night' before. 

 About forty negroes had gathered to prevent the 

 arrest of Burke, and a list was made up at her dic- 

 tation. All of them had fled before the crowd made 

 their appearance the next morning. Then the 

 search for each of the proscribed blacks begnn. 

 Six of the negroes were found and killed by the 

 crowd before the sheriff arrived. Gathering a posse, 

 the sheriff started for the place, and when he ar- 

 rived he was joined by crowds of citizens. The 

 sheriff's pursuit resolved itself into a chase of the 

 negroes implicated. At times several of them at- 



tempted to make a stand together in the swamps 

 against the whites, but they were forced to abandon 

 their ground in every case." 



Through the influence of the Governor and his 

 attendants, quiet was eventually restored, and there 

 was no further bloodshed. 



Lynching 1 . On June 25, 1897, a negro man was 

 savagely lynched in the village of Crystal Springs 

 on a charge of murder. In April, 1898, the grand 

 jurors of the Circuit Court for the Seventh Judicial 

 District reported to Judge Robert Powell that with 

 diligence, patience, and persistency they had spent 

 more than a week ''in the vain and futile attempt 

 to identify and bring to the bar of justice the perpe- 

 trators of this most foul deed." Upon hearing the 

 report of the grand jury, Judge Powell remarked : 

 "The Court would be recreant to the duty that has 

 devolved upon it, and to its own feelings, did the 

 Court fail to say that it believes that this grand 

 jury, at least, have done their whole duty conscien- 

 tiously, faithfully, and fearlessly. Jt is passing 

 strange to me, gentlemen, as you said in your re- 

 port, that a cruel and diabolical murder could be 

 committed right under the sound of the church 

 bells, right in the sight of civilized people, in the 

 broad-open daylight, in the crowded streets of a 

 city, and men be summoned from the highest to the 

 lowest stations in life, men from right along the 

 highway where the procession passed, and yet not a 

 single man can be found to identify a single indi- 

 vidual who participated in that mob. Somebody, 

 gentlemen, has committed cold-blooded, willful per- 

 jury beyond a controversy or a doubt. I am told 

 that they had dust in their eyes. Somebody, gen- 

 tlemen, had dust upon their consciences. And yet. 

 they say that the courts of the country are not do- 

 ing their duty and criminals go unwhipped of jus- 

 tice, when the very men who should be law-abiding 

 citizens, who stand well in the community, will 

 come before the juries of the country and perjure 

 themselves, and fail to tell the truth. Another 

 thing, gentlemen, that passes my comprehension is 

 that the highest peace officers in the country, who 

 had sworn to protect their prisoners and to do their 

 duty, could have a man taken away from them in 

 the broad-open daylight, and yet not strike a blow 

 for the law, and fail to recognize a single individual 

 who had taken away their prisoner. That is tin 

 situation, gentlemen, in Copiah County. God hclf 

 them ! " 



On Dec. 10, 1897, a negro named Charles Lewis, 

 supposed to be the murderer of Mrs. Brown Smith 

 and four of her children, in Lawrence County, WHS 

 lynched. The following account of the affair was 

 published : " The mob placed him alongside of 

 several other negroes, and asked the little girl who 

 was spared by the murderer to pick out the ono 

 who killed her mother. She at once pointed to 

 Charlie Lewis. This strong evidence to the mob 

 made it difficult for Sheriff Gasscll, of Montioello, 

 to induce the people to turn Lewis over to him for 

 safekeeping. lie assured them he would have th' 

 negro at Bankston Ferry yesterday morning at 10 

 o'clock for trial. As promised, he arrived there on 

 time with Lewis, and another mob of 200 men, 

 armed with shotguns and Winchesters, met him on 

 the opposite bank of the river. Speeches were mad 3 

 by cool-headed men, among them being Hon. A. K.s 

 Weathersby, Senator from Lawrence County, and 

 Rev. Drummonds, a Methodist preacher, who plead- 

 ed eloquently for the negro's life. Mr. Brown 

 Smith, the man whose family was murdered, jumped 

 upon the water-shelf of the little store gallery aivl 

 pleaded with the crowd to be patient and not t > 

 rush hastily into a thing they might regret. He 

 said that, while he did not doubt his child's wore, 

 yet she was so young that there was a possibility 



