MISSISSIPPI. 



MISSOURI. 



461 



she might have been mistaken. He said there was 

 something in there (pointing to his left breast) 

 which did not exactly satisfy him about the matter. 

 After parleying, the mob, under the leadership of 

 a few determined men, made a rush for the negro 

 and succeeded in getting him from the deputies 

 after a hard struggle. They then put a plow line 

 around the negro's neck and ran up the hill with 

 him. He was put on a big black horse and driven 

 under a tree. After the halter was fastened to a 

 limb the horse was driven from under him. His 

 feet touched, but he was strangling, and Mr. Arring- 

 ton, one of the lawyers, and another man cut him 

 down. He could not speak. The crowd allowed 

 him to be revived and then hung him in earnest. 

 Lewis denied his guilt to the last." 



A few days after this occurrence another negro, 

 supposed to have been an accomplice of Charles 

 Lewis, was put to death at Bankston Ferry. 



Levees. At the November election an amend- 

 ment to the Constitution was adopted, providing 

 that the commissioners of the several levee districts 

 shall have power to cede all their rights of way and 

 levees, and the maintenance, management, and con- 

 trol of the levees to the Federal Government. This 

 action was brought about by the high water of 1897, 

 when nearly all the levees gave way and the greater 

 part of the alluvial district was disastrously over- 

 flowed. In December the United States Senate 

 Committee on Commerce agreed to the report of the 

 sub-committee appointed under the resolution of 

 March, 1897, to investigate and report upon the 

 floods in Mississippi river and their causes and 

 prevention. The committee reported that the 

 greatest and most destructive floods have come 

 from the Ohio ; that no adequate relief can be se- 

 cured by reservoirs; and presented a comprehen- 

 sive historical sketch of the levees and jetties along 

 the Mississippi. With reference to the levees they 

 say the experience of 1897 indicates that a complete 

 inclosure of all the river basins will require con- 

 siderably higher levees, from 3 to 6 feet ; that no 

 substantial relief from floods can be obtained by 

 means of outlets; that only through properly con- 

 structed levees can relief be secured. They fur- 

 nished an estimate of the cost of completing the 

 levee system, putting the sum at $18.000,000 to 

 $20,000,000, and the necessary time at four to five 

 years. 



Decision. A suit brought by Amos Woodruff 

 et al. vs. the State, the Delta and Pine Land Com- 

 pany et al., begun in 1888, for relief from collec- 

 tion of taxes amounting to about $1,500,000, was 

 decided during the year. It was sought to subject 

 to such taxes the lands owned by the defendants 

 and claimed by them under a liquidating levee-tax 

 title. The case was decided by the Chancery Court 

 in favor of the defendants on the ground that the 

 bonds sued on were special gold contracts and were 

 not authorized by the statute creating District No. 

 1 of the Levee Board. That decision was affirmed 

 by the Supreme Court of the State, and was then 

 taken by the complainants, on a writ of error, to 

 the United States Supreme Court and was reversed. 

 This court confined itself to the single question of 

 the validity of the bonds, and held that the issu- 

 ance of special gold bonds was not in excess of the 

 authority of the Levee Board. The case was there- 

 upon remanded to the State Supreme Court, to be 

 heard upon other questions raised by the demurrer 

 to the bill. The effect of the decision is to sustain 

 the title to the lands and the claim of exemption of 

 the lands from the taxes of the levee district. 



New Legislation. Among the bills passed by 

 the General Assembly were the following : 



To provide for pensioning Confederate soldiers 

 and sailors. 



I 



To authorize the Board of Levee Commissioners 

 to issue certificates of indebtedness for the purpose 

 of raising funds for high-water emergencies. 



To require parallel railroads and railroads ter- 

 minating at the same point to connect their tracks 

 by switches for the transfer of freight cars. 



To abolish corporal punishment in the Insane 

 Asylum. 



Resolution memorializing the Congress of the 

 United States to enact a law to prohibit dealing in 

 futures or gambling in farm products. 



MISSOURI, a Western State, admitted to the 

 Union Aug. 10, 1821; area, 69,415 square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial census 

 since admission, was 140,455 in 1880; 383,702 in 

 1840; 682,044 in 1850; 1,182,012 in 1860; 1,721,205 

 in 1870; 2.168,380 in 1880; and 2,679,184 in 1890. 

 Capital, Jefferson City. 



tfOrernment. The following were the State offi- 

 cers during the year : Governor, Lon V. Stephens ; 

 Lieutenant Governor, August H. Bolte; Secretary 

 of State, Alexander A. Lesueur ; Treasurer, Frank 

 L. Pitts; Auditor, James M. Seibert; Adjutant 

 General, M. Fred. Bell; Attorney-General, E. 

 C. Crow ; Superintendent of Education, John R. 

 Kirk ; Railroad and Warehouse Commissioner. 

 T. J. Hennessey ; Secretary State Board of Agri- 

 culture, John R. Rippey ; Commissioner of Insur- 

 ance, Ed. T. Orear all Democrats, except Kirk, 

 Republican. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 

 Shepard Barclay; Associate Justices, Thomas A. 

 Sherwood , James B. Ganett. Gavon D. Burgess, 

 George B. Macfarlane, Theodore Brace, Democrats, 

 and Walter M. Robinson, Republican ; Clerk, J. R. 

 Green, Democrat. 



Finances. At the beginning of 1897 there was 

 a cash balance in the treasury of $577,463 : the re- 

 ceipts for 1897-'98 amounted to $8,300,406.96 ; dis- 

 bursements for the same period, $7,980,760.53. The 

 assessment upon which taxes were collected in 1896, 

 including real and personal, railroad, bridge, and 

 telegraph property, was $1,021,993.628; the assessed 

 valuation for 1898 was $1,050,950,801, an increase of 

 $28,957,173. Revenues were derived from a tax of 

 25 cents on the $100 valuation, levied upon real 

 and personal property of individuals and corpora- 

 tions, from license taxes, tax on premiums received 

 from foreign insurance companies, on merchants 

 and manufacturers, and express companies, interest 

 on balances with State depositories, an incorporation 

 tax, notarial fees, and from sundry minor sources. 

 The net reduction in the State debt during 1897-'98 

 was $1,334,000. The certificates of indebtedness 

 issued in 1897 and 1898 were : 1 certificate to the 

 State Board of Education, in trust for School fund, 

 dated July 1, 1898, to run twenty years, bearing 5-per- 

 cent, interest, $18,000 ; 1 certificate to the same 

 board, in trust for the Seminary fund, dated July 1, 

 1898, to run twenty years, at 5 per cent., $6,000 ; 

 total certificates issued in 1897-'98, $24,000. At the 

 close of 1898 the State debt consisted of 5 Si-per- 

 cent, option bonds, redeemable after July 1, 1892 ; 

 of 700 3^-per-cent. option bonds, redeemable at the 

 same time ; and of 2,937 3-J-per-cent. option bonds, 

 redeemable after Jan 1, 1893; total, $3,642,000. 

 Outstanding certificates were : 1 6-per-cent. School 

 fund, $2,909,000 : 5 5-per-cent. School fund, $249,- 

 000; 1 6-per-cent. Seminary fund, $122,000; 195- 

 per-cent. Seminary fund, $"1,113,839.42 ; total cer- 

 tificates, $4,393,839.42; total of bonded debt and 

 certificates at the close of 1898, $8,035,839.42. The 

 " certificates " of indebtedness are assets of the State, 

 the principal not to be paid, and the interest ac- 

 cruing thereon can only be used in supporting 

 public schools and the State university. 



Banks. There are 494 incorporated and 85 

 private banks in the State, which at the close. of 



