MISSISSIPPI. 



509 



Woods; Associate Justices, S. H. Terral and Al- 

 bert H. Whitfield; Clerk, Edward H. Brown all 

 Democrats. 



Finances. There was cash in the treasury on 

 Oct. 1, 1897, $53,842.00. The receipts for the 

 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 1897, and ending Sept. 

 30, 1898, were $1,572,342.24, which, added to the 

 amount in the treasury, made the revenue for the 

 fiscal year 1897-'98 $1,020,184.30. The disburse- 

 ments on pay warrants were $1,442,018.10, and 

 $115 on special warrants of 1894-'95, leaving 

 $183,451.14 in the treasury. 



There was received in the fiscal year from Oct. 

 1, 1898, to Sept. 30, 1899, inclusive, $1,003,903.78, 

 which, added to the sum in the treasury, made 

 the revenue $1,787,414.92. The disbursements for 

 the fiscal year were $1,453,034.12 on pay warrants 

 and $15 on special warrants of 1894-'95, leaving 

 $333,705.80 on Oct. 1, 1899. 



Under an act approved May 15, 1897, $85,000 

 was borrowed in June and July, 1897, and obliga- 

 tions were given therefor, payable on or before 

 Jan. 10, 1899. These obligations for $85,000 have 

 been paid, and are included in the disbursements 

 for 1898-'99. 



The payable bonded indebtedness of the State 

 at the beginning of the year was $1,003,000, in- 

 cluding the $400,000 bond issue of 1890. The 

 nonpayable debt is $1,035,102.50. This is the 

 Chickasaw school fund, the university fund, and 

 agricultural bonds. On this the interest alone 

 is payable. The outstanding warrants were $20,- 

 982.35, Oct. 1, 1899. The Auditor's report shows 

 that the issue of warrants from Oct. 1, 1897, to 

 Sept. 30, 1898, amounted to $1,409,070.12, and 

 $1,425,332.12 from Oct. 1, 1898, to Sept. 30, 1899. 



Banks. The Auditor's report, published in 

 August, shows that 91 State banks are doing 

 .business. Their resources and liabilities are each 

 $15,807,578.32. 



Valuation. The personalty assessments of the 

 counties for 1899 show a total of $48,258,051, an 

 increase of more than $1,000,000 over 1898. The 

 number of polls reported for 1899 is 203,877, which 

 is a slight decrease. The total realty and per- 

 sonalty valuation of the State, including rail- 

 road assessments for 1899, is $187,410,935. 



Corporations. The biennial report of the 

 Secretary of State shows that in the last four 

 years 505 charters of incorporation have been 

 recorded. Since the date of the last biennial 

 report 285 new enterprises have been chartered. 

 Practically all the charters for cotton mills have 

 been granted within the past two years. 



Five railroads, steamboat and packet com- 

 panies, and 13 oil mills have been chartered since 

 the previous biennial report. 



Education. The State University buildings 

 and grounds are valued at $300,000, and the ap- 

 paratus, library, and collections at $00,000. The 

 income consists of $32,043 interest paid annually 

 by the State on funds derived from sale of land 

 granted by Congress. No tuition fees are charged 

 except in the department of law, where the fee 

 is $50 a session and a matriculation fee of $10 

 from all academic students. The revenues from 

 these sources amount to about $5,000 a session. 

 Chancellor Fulton urges enlarged facilities, and 

 says that a school of medicine should be estab- 

 lished, while the schools of civil and electrical 

 engineering, pharmacy, and dentistry are other 

 pressing needs only awaiting funds to develop 

 them. 



The enrollment of public-school pupils in 1898- 

 '99, exclusive of separate school districts, was as 

 follows: White, 150,099; colored, 179,105; total, 

 328,204. Average attendance: White, 80,000; 



colored, 94,843; total, 180,903; difference between 

 total enrollment and total attendance, 148,301. 

 Average salaries of teachers: White, $30.49 a 

 month; colored, $19.59 a month. Total enroll- 

 ment, separate school districts: White, 17,079- 

 colored, 12,803; total, 29,HS2. Average attend- 

 ance, separate school districts: White, 12,319; 

 colored, 7,004; total, 19,923; difference between 

 total enrollment and total attendance, 9,9.19. 



Health. From the biennial report of the State 

 Board of Health, published in December, it is 

 learned that in 1898 yellow fever appeared at 

 30 places in the State, resulting in 1,38(5 cases, 

 of which 1,017 were white and 07 colored. The 

 number of deaths was 84. The disease was more 

 virulent this year than for the previous two years. 



Penitentiary. The reports of the Board of 

 Control and the warden and clerk of the Peni- 

 tentiary show that the convicts are humanely 

 treated, are well fed and comfortably clothed, 

 and have medical attention and are nursed when 

 sick, and have such other care and provision 

 as proper for prisoners undergoing punishment 

 for crime, and this not only without any expense 

 to the State treasury, but a profit is derived 

 from the labor of convicts. 



The plantations owned and rented made 1,788 

 bales of cotton and 35,000 bushels of corn. The 

 9 plantations on the share system made 4,585 

 bales of cotton, giving 2.2924 bales to the State 

 and the same number to their owners. The State 

 also made 30,200 bushels of corn, giving 18,100 

 to the State. The State picked 3,540 bales of its 

 cotton, and housed the entire crop. The warden 

 calculates an income of $35,000 or $40,000, which 

 is more than the State ever has received from a 

 crop since the organization of the present peni- 

 tentiary system. 



Insane. The average number of patients under 

 treatment for the year ending in October was 

 880. The number of white male inmates is given 

 as 205; white females, 251; colored males, 200; 

 colored females, 191. The actual increase in the 

 number of patients in 1899 over 1898 was 18. 



Deaf and Dumb. During the session of 1897- 

 '98 there were 97 pupils in the State institution. 

 The year 1898-'99 showed an attendance of 90. 



Blind. The report of the Blind Institute gives 

 an average attendance from May, 1898, to Sep- 

 tember, 1899, of 27 pirpils, at a cost of $23.40 per 

 pupil per month. 



Railways. The total mileage in the State in 

 1898 was 2,053,150 miles, and in 1899 the mileage 

 was 2,074,508. The increase of 1898 over 1897 

 is 80.37 miles, and of 1899 over 1897 22,352 miles. 



The total valuation of all railroad property in 

 the State for 1899 was $25,731,105. The valua- 

 tion of palace car companies was $94,400. 



Lawlessness. In January, in charging the 

 Hinds County Grand Jury, Judge Powell said: 

 " Some weeks since I read in a newspaper ' that 

 the only thing in Mississippi which was cheaper 

 than 4-cent cotton was human life.' It was a 

 fearful commentary upon the law and order of 

 a great State. We are accustomed to boast that 

 we live at the close of nineteen centuries of Chris- 

 tian civilization, and that Christ, and him cruci- 

 fied, is preached from Greenland's icy mountains 

 to India's coral strand to a believing world. We 

 are proud of the fact that our Anglo-Saxon fore- 

 fathers wrested from the hands of a reluctant 

 king the great Magna Charta of English liberty, 

 in which every man, however humble, is guaran- 

 teed an open and fair trial by a jury of his peers. 

 And yet, strange to say, hardly a week passes 

 that we do not hear of the murderous work of 

 some infuriated mob, until finally, to cap the 



