460 



LOUBET, EMILE. 



diplomatist and litterateur. The daily La Lei, 

 conducted by Cabrera Guerra, has a Sunday sup- 

 plement, intended to collect the " most exquisite 

 literary production of the country." 



Cuba. New works are F. J. Balmaseda's Los 

 Confinados a Fernando Poo e Impresiones de un 

 Viaje a Guinea (second edition) and Las Islas 

 Filipinas: Mindanao, by B. Francia y Ponce de 

 Leon and J. Gonzalez Parrado. 



Mexico. Titles noted: Biblioteca de Autores 

 mexicanos, Vols. XVIII, XX (Obras de J. Garcia 

 Icaz Valceta, Vols. VIII and IX), and XIX 

 (Obras de J. Cuevas, Vol. I), and Obras de Don 

 Ignacio M. Altamirano, Tomo 1 : Rimas, Artlculps 

 literarios. El primer Obispado de la Nacion meji- 

 cana: Artfculos publicados sobre esta Materia y 

 sobre otros Puntos de nuestra Historia, by J. F. 

 Molina Solis, was published at Merida de Yuca- 

 tan in 1897. 



Venezuela. Cuentos de Color and De mis 

 Romerfas. by Manuel Diaz Rodriguez and Rufino 

 Blanco Fombona's Trovadores y Trovas. These 

 are both pood writers, but " dominated by the 

 mania of French modernism, which, transplanted 

 to America, turns into a preciosity without sub- 

 stance." 



LOUBET, EMILE, President of the French 

 Republic. A thrifty farmer of Marsanne, in the 

 department of the Drome, having himself risen 

 to the distinction of being chosen maire of the 

 commune, was determined that his son should 

 be a lawyer. The young peasant dutifully 

 applied himself, and, overcoming the disadvan- 

 tages of his rustic origin, completed his studies 

 and began practice in Montelimar, the nearest 

 market town to his father's farm. The advocate 

 Emile Loubet did so well that at the age of 

 twenty-eight he received in marriage Marie Denis, 

 the daughter of one of the richest men in the 

 town, a man who had begun in Picardy as a 

 journeyman nailmaker, and became a manufac- 

 turer of nails and a dealer in iron goods on a 

 considerable scale. His bride was ten years his 

 junior. He passed through the various local of- 

 fices, and won the confidence and respect of his 

 fellow-citizens as member of the municipal coun- 

 cil, maire of the commune, arrondissement coun- 

 cilor, and finally an active member in the general 

 council of the department. He came forward in 

 1876 as a candidate for a seat in the Chamber of 

 Deputies, and was elected. After serving nine 

 years in the popular house as a conscientious and 

 industrious legislator of no particular brilliant 

 gifts, he was chosen Senator for his department 

 of the Dr6me. After that he was called into 

 the Cabinet as Minister of Public Works, an 

 office that he filled with much credit to himself. 

 He became one of the great men in the councils 

 of the Republican party, and in 1892 he was called 

 upon to form a Cabinet himself. He was a Re- 

 publican of advanced and decided views, of Radi- 

 cal tendencies, a man of extensive knowledge both 

 of books and of affairs, and was greatly esteemed 

 for sound judgment, capacity for business, and, 

 above all, for sterling integrity of character and 

 unblemished honor, although his retirement from 

 the premiership had been occasioned by strictures 

 on the apparent laxity of the Government in pur- 

 suing the Panama corruptionists. In the Senate 

 he was appointed on the most important com- 

 mittees almost from his entrance into that body, 

 of which he was soon chosen secretary, and in 

 1890, on the death of M. Challemel Lacour, he 

 was elected its president. This is one of the 

 offices in France from which the step to the presi- 

 dency of the republic is easy. When the Na- 

 tional Assembly met in Congress at Versailles 



LOUISIANA. 



on Feb, 18, 1899, to elect a successor to President 

 Felix Faure, suddenly deceased, the president of 

 the Senate, who presided over the Congress, was 

 chosen on the first ballot, and only the revolu- 

 tionary disturbers who sought to create a tur- 

 moil in the interests of royalty or of any change 

 that would give a chance to their unrestrained 

 egotism ventured to decry the stanch and sound 

 Republican who became the seventh President of 

 the republic. 



LOUISIANA, a Southern State, admitted to 

 the Union April 30, 1812; area, 48,720 square 

 miles. The population, according to each decen- 

 nial census since admission, was 152,923 in 1820; 

 215,739 in 1830; 352,411 in 1840; 517,726 in 1850; 

 708,002 in 1860; 726,915 in 1870; 939,946 in 1880; 

 and 1,118,587 in 1890. Capital, Baton Rouge. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1899: Governor, Murphy J. Foster; 



MURPHY J. FOSTER, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA. 



Lieutenant Governor, Robert H. Snyder; Secre- 

 tary of State, John T. Michel; Treasurer, Alex- 

 ander V. Fournet; Auditor, W. W. Heard; At- 

 torney-General, Mr. J. Cunningham; Superin- 

 tendent of Education, Joseph V. Calhoun; Adju- 

 tant General, Allen Jumel; Commissioner of 

 Agriculture and Immigration, Jordan G. Lee; 

 Commissioner of Insurance, J. J. McCann all 

 Democrats; President of the Pension Board, J. 

 A. Chalaron; Bank Examiner, Fred G. Freret; 

 Railroad Commission, C. L. De Fuentes, R. N. 

 Sims, and W. L. Foster; Chief Justice of the Su- 

 preme Court, Francis T. Nicholls; Associate Jus- 

 tices, Newton C. Blanchard, Lynn B. Watkins, 

 Joseph A. Breaux, and Henry C. Miller, who died 

 and was succeeded in March by Frank A. Mon- 

 roe; Clerk, T. McC. Hyman all Democrats. 



Education. " Up to the beginning of 1898," 

 the State Superintendent says, " the State as- 

 sessors made every year a return to the* State 

 Auditor of the number of children in their par- 

 ishes between the ages of six and eighteen years, 

 and in obedience to the Constitution the State 

 Superintendent of Education apportioned the cur- 

 rent school fund among the parishes in propor- 

 tion to these reports of the assessors. These 

 annual reports were the subject of considerable 

 comment, and it was contended that, as the as- 

 sessors were not paid for this work, their returns 

 were based upon conjecture rather than actual 

 count. By a mandate of the Constitutional Con- 

 vention of 1898 the General Assembly passed an 



