806 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (TEXAS.) 



Davis monument fund showed that there was 

 $35,000 on hand, but that $40,000 more was need- 

 ed. A proposal to change the Confederate Memo- 

 rial Day from June 3, the birthday of Jefferson 

 Davis, failed, but a resolution was passed allow- 

 ing any State desiring a different date to take in- 

 dividual action. The Credentials Committee re- 

 ported that 707 camps had paid their per capita 

 tax, and were entitled to 2,252 votes, while 748 

 camps were reported in arrears. The report of 

 the Committee on Battle Abbey showed that of 

 the $200,000 necessary for the reconstruction of 

 the museum the treasury has now $176,053. Gen. 

 Gordon was reelected commander-in-chief. About 

 150,000 persons attended the reunion from all 

 parts of the South. New Orleans was chosen as 

 the next meeting-place. 



Change of Boundaries. On Dec. 6 a report 

 was filed in the State Land Office describing the 

 work done under the act of Congress of 1901 re- 

 quiring the Secretary of the Interior to establish 

 the one hundredth meridian, which forms the 

 eastern boundary of Texas from Red river, in 

 Childress County, north to and including Lips- 

 comb County. It was first understood that 

 the new line would give Texas a strip of 8 

 miles of Oklahoma; but the report fixes the 

 meridian so that Texas loses a strip of land 

 three-fourths of a mile wide, taking off that 

 much of the eastern edge of Lipscomb, Hemphill, 

 Wheeler, Collingsworth, and Childress Counties, a 

 total loss of 1121 sections or 7,200 acres, which has 

 always been regarded as part of Texas. 



The same condition prevails on the west side of 

 the State, the entire length of the Panhandle, 

 United States surveyors having fixed the one hun- 

 dred and third meridian, which forms the western 

 boundary of Texas, so that a strip of 3 miles is 

 taken from all the border counties, making a to- 

 tal of about 300,000 acres. 



New Mexico also disputes the boundary-line ex- 

 tending from the westernmost point of Texas east 

 along the northern edge of El Paso, Reeves, Lov- 

 ing, and Winkle Counties, to the point where it 

 turns north, it then being in the 3-mile contro- 

 versy. 



Lawlessness. On March 7 a party of whites 

 went at night to the home of Nathan Bird, a ne- 

 gro farmer living near Prairie Lea, and demand- 

 ed his son, but were refused. The son was accused 

 of having beaten a white boy and broken his arm. 

 The party then shot and instantly killed the fath- 

 er. Thej r carried away the son, and are believed 

 to have killed him, as no trace of the boy has 

 since been found. 



At Hemstead, Oct. 21, 2 negroes, Reddick Bar- 

 ton and Jim Wesley, were tried for criminal as- 

 sault and murder, convicted and sentenced to 

 death. The people were unwilling to wait for the 

 delay of thirty days prescribed by law to take 

 place between the sentence and its execution. 

 They seized one prisoner in the court, the other 

 in the jail, and hanged them from the arm of a 

 telegraph-pole in the public square. 



A negro named Dudley Morgan was burned 

 alive at the stake at Lansing, May 22. When it 

 was learned that he was on a train being brought 

 to Lansing to be identified by the woman he had 

 assaulted, about 200 men, armed with Winches- 

 ter rifles, surrounded the train as it entered the 

 city, seized the negro, and conducted him to the 

 spot where the execution was to take place. Mor- 

 gan confessed having committed the crime, and 

 after he was chained to the rail with his hands 

 and legs free, the members of the mob began to 

 take ties from a fire already started and burn out 

 his eyes, and held the red-hot and burning timbers 



to his neck, burning his clothes off and other parts 

 of his body. The negro was tortured until death 

 came to his relief, the crowd all the while crying 

 " Let him die slow." A large number of women 

 from all parts of the surrounding county were 

 present at the spectacle. 



Disasters. On March 7 the Southern Pacific 

 train No. 9 went into a ditch 25 miles west of 

 Sanderson. The wreck took fire and 12 persons 

 were consumed by the flames before aid could 

 reach them, and 28 were injured, many of whom 

 died. The Avreck occurred in the middle cf the 

 night. 



Several fires occurred at Dallas after 3 o'clock 

 in the morning, April 20. Two men were fatally 

 injured. The Dorsey Printing Company, one of 

 the largest establishments of the kind in the 

 South, was destroyed. The losses aggregated 

 about $500,000. 



A terrible cyclone struck Goliad on May 18, 

 completely destroying the western part of the city 

 a strip 3 miles wide and 1 mile long. The dead 

 numbered about 125. The number of those in- 

 jured was about the same, not more than half of 

 whom were expected by the physicians to recover. 



A fire occurred at Temple, Aug. 10, in which 

 the Landon Hotel and the block in which it was 

 situated were reduced to ashes. Ten guests of 

 the hotel were burned to death, and a great 

 many others were injured. 



The Santa Fe express was wrecked by a broken 

 rail 16 miles from Brownwood, and about 30 per- 

 sons were injured, some fatally. 



Destitution along the Bio Grande. In 

 April it became known that more than half of 

 the 11,000 people in Starr County, and of the 6,000 

 people in Zapata County, were in a destitute con- 

 dition. No corn had been raised for two years. 

 The drought began fourteen years previously, and 

 had grown worse year after year. The destitute 

 region is from 50 to 100 miles from the nearest 

 railway points, and the inhabitants were without 

 horses. As soon as the situation became known. 

 successful efforts were made by State officials and 

 private individuals to relieve the distress. 



Galveston. The value of the year's business 

 exceeded that of any previous year. The total 

 value of the business of the port for 1902, both ex- 

 port and import, was $347,993,163, the correspond- 

 ing figures for 1901 being $253,771,552. The bank 

 clearings for the year were $389,104,000, compared 

 with $378,435,800 for 1901. The custom-house re- 

 ceipts for the year were $263,508, compared with 

 $169,064 for 1901. The value of Galveston's for- 

 eign exports for 1902 was $92.756,044, compared 

 with $106,526,508 for the preceding year. This 

 decrease was due to the diminished crops of cot- 

 ton and grain. 



In 1902 181,335 tons of oil cake and meal, val- 

 ued at $4,075,357, were exported through Ga 

 ton, compared with 256,582 tons, valued at $5,568,- 

 449, for 1901. In 1902, 3,740,566 gallons of cotton- 

 seed oil, valued at $1,244,678, were exported, 

 compared with 4,933,371 gallons, valued at 

 $1,502,307 for 1901. 



I. n MI her to the value of $523.302 was exported, 

 compared with a valuation of $479,457 on lumber 

 exported in 1901. The live-stock exports wen- 

 valued at $247,892, compared with $199,717 f< 

 1901. 



The foreign imports through Galveston in 1902 

 were valued at $1.312,394. compared with $U>ls. 

 888 in 1901. The coastwise trade was more limn 

 doubled during the year, and the Southern Paeitic 

 Steamship service was inaugurated, as well 

 regular service to Brownsville and Port Arthur. 

 A feature in the foreign tonnage was the size of 



