in the air, the rudder serving efficiently as a guide. Steel tubes were used for the main parts of the framework, and ribs of bamboo, with rubber STENTZEL'S FLYING MACHINE. cloth for the covering. The performance of the machine was so satisfactory to Stentzel that he is now building a larger one, designed to carry a man. This will have about 23 yards of surface, employing a 41-horse-power motor, and is designed to weigh 200 pounds. Carl E. Myers, of Mohawk, N. Y., patented, April 20, 1897, what he styles a sky cycle or gas kite, this being a balloon of peculiar form shaped so as to split the air in its advance, the motor power being a man centrally suspended, so that he may operate both foot and hand cranks for rotating a propeller placed forward. This propeller is of most ingenious construction, having an area of 15 feet, but weighing only 2 pounds. It is made of a light steel frame, on which a cloth covering is twisted heliacally, so that it not only serves as a surface, but keeps the parts of the frame in position. Myers began his experiments by firing projectiles of all sorts and shapes from a spring gun of known force, thus learning the form best adapted to travel against the wind. He claims to have arrived at a formula that enables him to produce the very best form for the purpose; and though he has constructed the gas bags of his sky cycles in different forms, yet by MYERS'S SKY CYCLE. following his formula he always secures a shape that makes good headway against the wind. He constructs his apparatus so that it is slightly heavier than the air, depending on the propeller to draw it upward. He evidently uses the lower surface of his gas bag as an aeroplane. Several successful exhibitions have been given with his apparatus. Dr. Louis Martin, a professor in the University of Kolozsvar, Hungary, in a lecture at Buda-Pesth in 1893, exhibited an apparatus of rotating paddles operated from an eccentric, so that they beat down on one side, and were feathered on the rise. The pressure exerted by this mechanism was so satisfactory that the Hungarian Government has made an appropriation to enable him to continue his experiments, with a view of adapting the principle to a flying machine. A. M. Herring, of the United States, has experimented with a great variety of aeronautical mechanisms, mostly with small models. He has made numerous mechanical birds, driven by motors of twisted rubber that rotated propellers as it untwisted, and with these he has obtained flights of five to seven seconds, with distances of 80 to 135 feet. They can be made to fly successfully in winds of not more than 7 miles an hour. One of his larger models is shown here, this weighing 5 pounds and carrying a condensing engine of two fifths horse power. It presented a surface of 14 square feet, and, with no aid in starting, flew 240 feet, and might have done better had not the boiler burst early in its career. There is an aeronautical society in London and one in Boston, the latter growing out of an aëronautical conference, which was called in Chicago in HERRING'S FLYING MACHINE. 1893. The society publishes an "Annual," the first issue of which appeared in 1895. A monthly publication devoted to the subject is also issued in New York city by A. M. Forney. Recent literature on aëronautics includes an exhaustive treatise by Octave Chanute, in which he elaborates and explains all the modern theories and principles developed, and describes most of the flying machines exploited within the past fifty years. Samuel P. Langley has written articles concerning the principles and conclusions derived from his investigations, and Hiram Maxim and Otto Lilienthal have also written much on the subject. Maxim, in writing on "Natural and Artificial Flight," says: "I have found that if one only desires to lift a large load in proportion to the area, the planes may be made very hollow on the underneath side; but when one considers the lift in terms of screw thrust, I find it advisable that the planes should be as thin as possible and the under side nearly flat." Octave Chanute says of the conditions of sailing flight: "1. There must be wind, although it may be light. 2. No flapping whatever is needed when under way. 3. The bird must have a peculiar conformation. 4. The bird needs a certain mass or weight." Prof. Langley calls attention to the fact that birds soar in up currents of air, and by taking advantage of increased wind speed at the higher elevations. He also advises the use of the propeller rather than flapping wings. A. M. Herring is hopeful of the future of flying machines, but not optimistic. He says they never will carry freight, and that the machine to carry two persons successfully "is an invention of the relatively distant future." Through the efforts of various aviators and investigators in aëronautics, Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts, introduced into the United States Senate, Dec. 4, 1895, a bill to secure aërial navigation. It provided for the giving of $100,000 from the United States Treasury to the person who, prior to Jan. 1, 1901, should construct an apparatus carrying 400 pounds through the air, without the aid of gas, at a speed of 30 miles an hour, and having its power wholly within itself. A second clause provided a gift of $25,000 to the person who, before Jan. 1, 1900, should demonstrate the practicability of safely navigating the air in free flight, for a mile or more, without gas. This bill still remains with the Committee on Interstate Commerce, to which it was referred. AFGHANISTAN, a monarchy in central Asia, lying between Russian Turkestan and British India. The Ameer is Abdurrahman Khan, who was installed in July, 1880, while the British occupied Cabul, the capital, having expelled Shere Ali's son, Yakub Khan. The Indian Government has since paid an annual subsidy of 1,200,000 rupees per annum, increased in 1893 to 1,800,000 rupees, to enable Abdurrahman to consolidate his power and preserve a strong, united, and independent Afghanistan as a buffer state between the Russian dominions and India. The military forces of the Ameer consist of the feudal militia and the regular army, said to number 20,000. The artillery has 76 modern guns. In the arsenal at Cabul are manufactured gunpowder, cartridges, rifles, and cannon by the aid of machinery under the superintendence of Englishmen. The infantry of the feudal army have received a permanent organization. The cavalry consists of the retainers and vassals of the chiefs. In 1896 Abdurrahman Khan attempted to introduce universal conscription, and ordered the enrollment of one man in every seven, but the objections of the people induced him to defer the realization of his project. The arsenals contain breech-loading rifles enough to equip an army of 50,000 men, which is said to be the war strength of the Ameer's army. The boundaries between Afghanistan and the Russian territory and dependent khanates have been at various times a subject of negotiations between the governments of Great Britain and Russia. In 1895 the last portion of this line, that which runs through the Pamirs, was finally delimited. The line follows the Amu Daria or Oxus river up to the confluence of the Murghab and the Panjah, and then this latter, the southern branch, up to its source in Victoria lake, from which it runs eastward to a fixed point near one of the peaks of the Sarikol range. This delimitation gives to Russia the territories of Darwaz, Roshan, and Shighnan, which Afghanistan had occupied while the question as to which was the principal branch of the Oxus, and consequently the conventional boundary, was being discussed between the British and Russian governments. In the west the boundary, leaving the Oxus at Khamiab, runs in a southwesterly direction to Zulfikar, on the Heri Rud, thence southward to the peak of Kuh Malik-i-Siyah, southwest of the Helmand river, and from there in a general eastward direction to the Kwajah Amran range. Sir Mortimer Durand arranged with the Ameer in 1893 the basis of a boundary delimitation between Afghanistan and British India, which has since been carried out by a joint commission, with the exception of the stretch between the Khaibar pass and Asmar. By this agreement Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, and Chilas fall within the British sphere, while Afghanistan retains Asmar and the Kunar valley as far as Chanak, also the Birmal tract. The demarcation included Kafiristan in the Ameer's dominions, and when the people of this district, who differ from the neighboring Afghans in race, customs, and religion, and have always been at feud with them, refused to acknowledge his sovereignty, Gholam Haider with an Afghan army reduced them to submission. Afghanistan is divided into the four provinces of Cabul, Herat, Turkestan, and Candahar, over each of which is a hakim or governor, and the recently subjugated district of Badakshan, with its dependencies. Afghans and Pathans form the bulk of the population, but with them are mingled the descendants of the former Tartar and Persian conquerors and the various armies that have invaded India through Afghanistan. The Ghilzai, Duranis, Aimaks, Uzbegs, and the Tajiks are Sunnite Mohammedans, while the Kizilbashis and most of the Hazaras are Shiites. The Tajiks, who are of Iranian descent, live in the towns and are scattered among the other tribes, carrying on industrial, commercial, and agricultural pursuits. The Aimaks and Hazaras, inhabiting the Paropamisus mountains in the north, have Tartar features and are supposed to be descendants of colonies left by Gengis Khan. The total population of Afghanistan is about 4,000,000. The Ameer's revenue is derived from the tithes of agricultural produce, increased to as much as a third of the crop on irrigated lands. The Afghans raise usually two crops a year, one of wheat, barley, or legumes in the spring, and one of rice, millet, panicum, or corn in the autumn. Afghanistan abounds in fruits, such as apples, pears, quinces, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, pomegranates, mulberries, grapes, and figs, which form the main part of the food of a large section of the population, and in a preserved state are exported to India and other countries. The castor-oil, madder, and asafoetida plants are abundant in the wild condition. Asafoetida is exported in great quantities to India. Lead, gold, iron, copper, and precious stones are found. Silk, felt, carpets, and rosaries are made by the people and exported. Horses, spices, nuts, and sheepskin garments are other exports. The principal articles of import are China tea, cotton goods, indigo, and sugar. The Mittai Question.-Under the terms of the Durand convention of 1893 provision was made for demarcating the respective spheres of the Government of India and the Ameer. The object aimed at was to lay down definitely the law under which powers of sole control over particular tribes or clans were to be exercised on either side. The country dealt with was a long, narrow strip lying for 1,200 miles between British India and Afghanistan proper. The demarcation had been carried out by various commissions from Chitral and the Kafiristan border to the Helmand river before the beginning of 1897 with the important exception of the tract lying between the Kunar and Cabul rivers, from the Nawar Kotal to the neighborhood of Landi Kotal, in the Khaibar. This is the country inhabited by the large tribe of the Mohmands, which has figured prominently in the politics of the Indian border for many years. There were peculiar difficulties to be faced in dealing with this people, and by common consent the demarcation of the boundary of sole control in this region was left to the last. If the Afghans had remained quiet the Ameer and the Indian Government might have been willing to postpone it indefinitely, contenting themselves with the indeterminate joint control that they had exercised for forty years, each granting allowances and punishing or rewarding tribesmen as occasion demanded. The Khan of Lalpura, who is the hereditary chief of the Mohmands, has hitherto considered himself a vassal of Cabul, though he and the tribes under his control have often transferred their allegiance from the reigning Ameer to various pretenders in times of civil war. The eastern Mohmand clans, inhabiting the country between Lalpura and the Peshawur border, have had more intimate relations with the British authorities, some of their headmen holding land within the Indian border. The Durand convention draws a line right through the tribe, dividing it in halves, one of which falls to the Ameer and one to the Indian Government. It cuts off the residence of the hereditary chief from clans directly subject to him that live within the sphere assigned to British control. In the early part of 1896 a clan of Mohmands living in a range of hills south of the Kunar river, near Asmar, fell to quarreling among themselves. The local Afghan officials could not resist the temptation to interfere, and Gen. Gholam Haider, commanding the Ameer's troops in eastern Afghanistan, placed a strong outpost in the Mittai valley, which was on the British side of the Durand line, for the convention provided that the watershed east of the Kunar and north of the Cabul river, from Jellalabad to Kam Dakka, was to be the boundary between Indian and Afghan authority. This forward movement of the Afghan troops caused a stir in Bajaur and imperiled British influence along the new route through Swat and Dir to Chitral, where subsidized chiefs began to look with alarm for a further advance of Cabul troops, while the Mohmands and other semi-independent tribes showed signs of restlessness. The Afghans, by pushing forward their outposts, threatened, intentionally or not, to outflank the road from Malakand to Chitral. Hence the British Government was compelled to take measures of self-protection and to press for a delimitation of the frontier, which otherwise it would have preferred to leave in abeyance. All the clans on the Indian side of the Durand line were informed that they are under the sole control of the British Government. A durbar was brought about by Mr. Merk, the commissioner at Peshawur, at which a large number of Mohmand headmen acknowledged allegiance to the British notwithstanding the pressure exerted from the Afghan side to induce them to hold aloof from the assembly. Meanwhile the Afghan outpost still remained in Mittai at the beginning of 1897. No answer from the Ameer having been received in January to the invitation to appoint a new frontier commission, the commissioner of Peshawur issued a proclamation declaring that all Mohmand country and its border is now within the limits of the British Government and will have no connection whatever with the Ameer of Cabul. The British claimed as theirs under the Durand agreement not only the Mittai valley, but the whole of Bajaur, of which that valley forms a part. When the Afghan troops first occupied Mattai the British authorities sent a protest to Gholam Haider at Asmar that the valley was indisputably British under the Durand treaty. The Afghan general replied that the step had been taken by the Ameer's orders, and that the only way in which he could withdraw from the valley was on the instructions of his sovereign. The new British agent at Cabul, Ghafar Khan, when he went to his post in October, 1896, was the bearer of a strong letter from the Government of India on this sub ject, and in the course of November the Ameer replied that he was fully prepared to abide by the Durand treaty and that he recognized the watershed as the boundary, which excluded Bajaur from his dominions. For an account of the military operations on the frontier, see INDIA. ALABAMA, a Southern State, admitted to the Union Dec. 14, 1819; area, 52,250 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census since admission, was 127,901 in 1820; 309,527 in 1830; 590,756 in 1840; 771,623 in 1850; 964,201 in 1860; 996,992 in 1870; 1,262,505 in 1880; and 1,513,017 in 1890. Capital, Montgomery. Government.—The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Joseph F. Johnston; Secretary of State, James K. Jackson; Treasurer, George W. Ellis; Auditor and Comptroller, Walter S. White; Attorney-General, William C. Fitts; Commissioner of Agriculture, J. F. Culver; Superintendent of Education, John O. Turner; Adjutant General, H. E. Jones; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Robert C. Brickell; Associate Justices, Thomas N. McClellan, Thomas W. Coleman, James B. Head, and Jonathan Haralson; Clerk, Sterling A. Wood-all Democrats. Finances.-The report of the Treasurer for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1896, showed a balance in treasury at close of Sept. 30, 1895, of $18,366.67; receipts from Oct. 1, 1895, to Sept. 30. 1896, $1,999,930.13; total, $2,018,296.80. By disbursements from Oct. 1, 1895, to Sept. 30, 1896, $1,959,977.40. Balance in treasury Sept. 30, 1896, $58,319.40. Some of the principal items of receipts were: From State taxes of 1895, $1,245,096; special State taxes of 1895, $115,566; poll taxes of 1895, $145,894; licenses, $124,821; solicitors' fees, $22,602; sales and redemption of lands, $22,582; express, telegraph, and sleeping-car companies, $10,261; insurance companies license, $10,600; insurance companies for taxes on premiums, $23,926; railroad licenses, $12,500; Agricultural Department, $45,614; Penitentiary fund, $148.043; colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, $22,000. Some of the chief items of disbursement were: Salary of circuitcourt judges, $32,499; of solicitors, $29,600; of chancellors, $12,176; expense of geological survey, $6,900; expense of Agricultural Department, $47,009; interest on Agricultural and Mechanical College fund, $20,280; interest on University fund, $24,000; Alabama Insane Hospital, $119,366; interest on the public debt, $380,000; temporary loans, $100,000; feeding State prisoners, $80,648; military encampment, $15,000; educational purposes, $574,434; normal schools, $32,000; salaries of convict officers and employees. $27,610; expenses of convict department, $91,299; pensions to Confederate soldiers and widows, $115,686. From Oct. 1, 1896, to Jan. 22, 1897, the receipts in the treasury were $7,775 in excess of what they were during the corresponding period of the preceding year, and on Feb. 15 the State had all old obligations wiped out and a balance in the treasury of $101,231. On June 4, 1897, the Auditor reported cash in the treasury, $288,194.99. Liabilities: Confederate soldiers and widows, $104,073.81; twoand three-per-cent. fund, $189; school indemnity lands, $4,250; convict fund, $8,872.06; agricul tural fund, $39,540.23: colleges, agricultural and mechanic arts, $3,003; outstanding warrants, $15,840.81; due several counties as surplus solicitors' fees, etc., $6,632.41; general fund balance, $105,793.67; total, $288,194.99. Treasury receipts from January, 1897, to date, $1,332,221.21; disbursements (warrants), $974,150.82; excess of receipts, $358,070.39. The report of the internal-revenue collector for the State for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, showed a large gain over the collections made for the year previous, the total collections for the year ended amounting to $22,000 more than the foregoing year. The following figures were given as the collections: Miscellaneous, $5,617.05; beer, $33,638.14; spirit tax, $68,718.55; cigars, manufactured tobacco, and snuff, $21,301.89; special privilege tax, $29,721.62; total collections, $159,001.23. The total gain was larger than ever before. Commerce. The annual review of the trade of the port of Mobile, published by the "Register,' showed that the exports for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, were $10,131,189, against $6,995,127 for the previous year-an increase of 45 per cent. The greatest increases were in the timber and lumber trade, and in the exports of cotton (foreign), the exports in cotton being 306,639 bales, against 209,944 the previous year. The statement was made that but for the lack of room in steamers the exports of cotton would have been very much larger. Cotton equal in amount to the above increase had to be refused by the steamship lines; but arrangements were being made for additional steamers. The total foreign exports of lumber amounted to 68,000,000 superficial feet, an increase of 10,000,000 feet, which increase was about the same as was noted the previous year. There were exported 1,066,528 cubic feet of hewed and 7,070,215 cubic feet of sawed timber, of the latter about 6,500,000 feet going to the United Kingdom. The total lumber exports, foreign and coastwise, was 71,228,574 feet; the total of lumber and timber in superficial feet was 209,738,490 against 162,403,106. In shingles and hard wood there was considerable increase. The receipts of grain at the port were 4,220,955 bushels, against 2,331,871 the previous year, and there were exported 2,807,225 bushels, showing that the exports of grain for the year were greater than the receipts of the year previous. The exports of flour were 20,451 barrels, and of cotton-seed meal 36,780 sacks. For the first time in her history Mobile exported pig iron from the Birmingham furnaces, the exports amounting to 52,000 tons. The Central American business of the port showed considerable increase, the Plant line handling 56,394 tons against 37,600 tons the previous year. There was a falling off in vegetable shipments from truck gardens of about $9,000 in value. The wool business reached 225,000 pounds, an increase of 50,000 over the previous year, and an increase in value of $15,000. There were imported 2,067,755 bunches of bananas, against 1,887,059 bunches the previous year, and the imports of cocoanuts were 3,405,425 against 3,398,714 the year before. Many improvements were made in wharf facilities during the year, representing about $150,000 in value. These improvements, made by the Mobile and Ohio and the Mobile and Birmingham Railroads, will, when fully completed, double the capacity for loading steamships. The financial condition of the city was reported better than it had been for twenty years. The amount of cash on hand to the credit of the city Aug. 1 was $55,453, an increase of $24,779 over the previous year. Industries. The output of coal in 1896 was 5,743,697 tons; in 1897, about 6,000,000 tons. The total amount of coal dug every day in Jefferson County alone amounted to about 19,000 tons. The most important discovery made in the Birmingham district since it was ascertained some years ago that Alabama coal could be coked, came to light at Leeds, where a rich vein of high-grade brown iron ore was found, 10 to 40 feet below the surface and about 10 feet thick. Forty openings were made, and in all but 3 apparently continuous leads of brown ore were exposed. It had been thought that this quality of ore existed only in pockets and small deposits in the State. This ore analyzed from 49 to 52 per cent. of pure iron and is especially easy to flux, thus rendering it equivalent to 60-per-cent. ores. The first run of steel by the open-hearth basic process was made July 23 at the new 60-ton steel mill of the Birmingham Rolling Mill Company. The process was the same by which low silicon pig iron, made in that district, of Alabama red ore, by the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, was converted into steel at Pittsburg and Chicago. By the middle of August the Birmingham mill began regularly to use this new steel in all its departments. Theretofore steel billets had been brought from Pittsburg to be rolled in the plate and rod mills of that company. The company found a ready sale for all its product. In August 14 furnaces were in blast in the Birmingham district, making 2,700 tons of iron daily. In March a rich bed of lead ore was discovered in the vicinity of New Market, analysis of which showed enough silver to pay for the working, aside from the large percentage of pure lead. On another tract in the same section was found a four-foot seam of coal. A company was organized to develop these fields. Education.-The State has established 23 institutions of learning, putting at least one in each congressional district. There appears to be evidence of a general educational revival in the State, and schools, from the lowest to the highest, are reported as having been uncommonly prosperous. The State Normal College, at Troy, reports 761 students, State appropriation $5,000, total income $11,479, value of property $22,500; the State normal school at Florence, 310 students, State appropriation $7,500, total income $14,116, value of property $55,000; the State normal school at Jacksonville, 230 students, State appropriation $2,500, total income $4,906, value of property $10,250; the Normal College for Girls, at Livingston, 138 students, State appropriation $2,500, value of property $15,000; the Girls' Industrial School, at Montevallo, 350 pupils, State appropriation $15,000, value of property $35,000. Following is a report of colored schools: Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School, 1,072 pupils; total income, $124,723; of which amount $77,114 was used for current expenses, and the remainder went into new buildings; value of property, $30,000. Normal school at Montgomery, 930 students; total income, $13,000; value of property, $30,000. Agricultural and Mechanical College at Normal, 400 students; total income, $30,896. Railroads.--Associate Railroad Commissioner Ross C. Smith reported the mileage of railroads in active operation in the State at 3,625 miles, representing a taxable valuation of $45,496,602, and furnishing employment to 14,000 men. Less than 170 miles were in the hands of receivers, while four years prior more than half of the mileage was forced into bankruptcy. The Commissioner says that "the disappearance of receiverships, and as a result the reorganization of these once insolvent roads, establishes the confidence of capitalists in the ultimate success of our railroad property and in the further development of our State resources." The gross tonnage of railroads in the State for the year reviewed was given at 11,453,443 tons, and the sum of $2,274,215 was spent in improving the physical condition of the railroads. Legislative Session.-One of the few important laws passed by the Legislature was that establishing a tax commission. Concerning this law, to which there was considerable opposition, the Governor is quoted as saying: "The question that confronted the General Assembly was, how to meet a deficit, admitted by all and variously estimated at from $225,000 to over $500,000. There were but two ways to meet this deficit and secure a larger revenue to the State that would enable us to improve our public schools. One was by increasing the rate of taxation and compelling those who are now bearing the burdens of government to contribute more largely, and the other was to require those who have been evading just and fair taxation to contribute their share. The Legislature chose the latter plan, and I think chose wisely. To say that this act reflects upon the assessors is absurd, for it is well known that the census of 1890 shows that the taxable property of the State amounted to more than $623,000,000, whereas the assessments for taxation amount to only $260,000,000." Other laws passed were: Prohibiting combinations in rates. Abolishing slot machines. Prohibiting pools and gambling devices of all kinds. Exempting capital not exceeding $50,000 invested in the future in cotton manufacture in the State. Among the more important general bills that failed were: The calling of a constitutional convention, the giving arbitrary powers to the Railroad Commission, and to abolish the convict lease system. Condition of Convicts.-In March the city council of Birmingham decided to lease the city convicts to the Sloss Iron and Steel Company, who have convict stockades at Coalburg. Only those of the prisoners who had been fined $30 or sentenced to sixty days' service, and were unable to pay their fines, were to go to the stockades. The Sloss Company offered to pay $5 a month and board the conviets, which offer the city accepted, the aldermen saying that they were forced to take this course because of the overcrowded condition of the city prison. Decision. In the general revenue law passed at the late session of the Assembly there is a section levying a license tax on the capital stock of all incorporations except banks. The Phoenix Carpet Company, of Birmingham, refused to pay the tax, on the ground that the law is unconstitutional. They were arrested and convicted. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, which held that the law is constitutional. Stills destroyed. The following is a list, by counties, of the illegal distillery outfits destroyed during the year ending June 30: Randolph, 64; Cleburne, 36; Limestone, 24; Coosa, 21; Marion, 17; Lauderdale, 16; Chilton, 14; Madison, 12; Chambers, 11; Jackson, 8; Franklin, 8; Shelby, 7; Marshall, 5; Lawrence, 5; Clay, 5; Lamar, Tallapoosa, Fayette, and Calhoun, each 4; Morgan and Winston, each 3; Dale, Cullman, Blount, Walker, and Pickens, each 2: Autauga, Perry, Macon, De Kalb, Colbert, and Lee, each 1. Total, 291. During the previous fiscal year 276 outfits were destroyed, or 15 fewer than in this year. Lynching. In June a committee of citizens of Decatur, bearing a petition signed by over 2,000 citizens of Morgan County, waited on Judge Speake, at Huntsville, and requested him to call a special term of court to try negroes accused of rape. The committee stated that nothing short of their request would appease the enraged populace, and that if a special term were not called the citizens of Morgan and adjoining counties would defy resistance and hang the prisoners. Without hesitation Judge Speake ordered a special term as requested, and a number of executions resulted. In his message to the General Assembly, touching the question of lynching, Gov. Johnston said: I especially invite your attention to the consideration of the violation of our laws by mobs. Where the administration of the law is wholly within the grasp of the best citizens of the State, where the sympathies of the judge and jury are entirely on the side of victims of brutal lust, no excuse justifies the spirit that would override the orderly administration of justice. All of us understand how difficult it is to restrain the passion and indignation that arouses the hot blood of relatives and friends to visit summary punishment upon those who commit the most heinous and unforgivable crime against society; but our people must be made to understand that the proper way to punish these and all other crimes is by the law of the land. The danger of inflicting punishment upon the innocent when passion and not reason holds the scales is so great that all good citizens should repress their just indignation and aid in preserving peace and enforcing the laws of the land, which are surely of sufficient severity, and I earnestly appeal to all the good people of the State to unite with us in the resolve that during this administration not a single lynching shall occur. I suggest that authority be given the Governor to call a special term of the court and have speedy investigation and trial on information whenever any crime has been committed calculated to arouse great public indignation." Political. At a meeting of the Democratic State Executive Committee in Montgomery in January, the following resolutions were adopted as a substitute for one providing that only those who voted the State and national tickets of the party should participate in primaries, to wit: 66 Resolved, That we cordially invite all conservative voters, irrespective of past political association or differences, who can unite with us in the effort for pure and economical and constitutional government, and who will support the nominees and principles of the Democratic party, to participate in the primaries of the party throughout the State. "Resolved, further, That all persons so participating in the primaries, or mass meetings of the party hereafter to be held, thereby pledge themselves to support the nominees of such primaries, conventions, or mass meetings, whether municipal, county, State, or Federal. 66 Resolved, further, That it shall be competent for the local executive committee of each county to determine whether any other than white voters shall be allowed to participate in said primaries." ANGLICAN CHURCHES. The forty-ninth annual report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners represents that the income, on the whole, has been fairly maintained, a diminution in the receipts from agricultural lands, tithe rent charges, and minerals having been met by increased receipts from property in London, and by a temporary reduction in certain items of expenditure attached to the estates. For the current year a sum of £150,000 would be appropriated for the augmentation and endowment of benefices. During a period of fifty-six years, extending from 1840 to Oct. 31, 1896, the commissioners had augmented and endowed upward of 5,700 benefices by annual payments charged on the fund; by capital sums expended on the provision of parsonage houses, etc.; and by the annexation of lands, tithe rent charges, etc. The value of these grants exceeded £808,835 per annum in perpetuity, and was equivalent to a capital sum of, say, £24,320,909. The value of benefactions, consisting of land, tithe, and other rent charges, stock, cash, etc., secured to benefices, and met for the most part by grants from the commissioners, exceeded £181,940 per annum in perpetuity, and was equivalent to a permanent increase of endowment of, say, £5,458,200. A sum exceeding £26,000 per annum was also contributed by benefactors to meet the commissioners' grants for curates |