July 12, with his entire force-2,400 men, native and Italian, under 54 Italian officers he arrived at the front after the enemy had begun to retire. He closely pursued them, but they made good their retreat to Kassala and awaited behind intrenchments the coming of the Italians, who left Sabderat, on the border of the Italian territory, at midnight, and at dawn on the 17th came unexpectedly upon Kassala. The Italian troops advanced at once to the attack, and carried the outer works without difficulty, as the Mahdists were taken somewhat by surprise. Inside the town the garrison, consisting of 2,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, fought desperately, but were dislodged by a charge of cavalry, well supported by the infantry, and retreated in disorder to the Atbara river. Capt. Carchidio was killed while charging at the head of his squadron, and a few of the native auxiliaries lost their lives. The dervishes were unable to cross the swollen Atbara, and most of them surrendered to the troops that were sent in pursuit. A strong garrison was left at Kassala in a fortified position, provided with artillery and ammunition and stores sufficient for a siege. Anglo- Italian Protocol. The boundary between the British East Africa and the Italian sphere of influence, as settled on March 24, 1891, ascends the Juba river in a northwesterly direction to the sixth parallel of north latitude, then runs due west to the intersection of the thirty-sixth meridian of east longitude, and thence due north to the Blue Nile. On May 5, 1894, another protocol was signed at Rome, which delimits the Italian sphere from the British possessions on the Gulf of Aden. The boundary is constituted by a line that, starting from Gildessa and running toward the eighth degree of north latitude, skirts the northeast frontier of the territories of the Girri, Bertiri, and Derali tribes, leaving to the right the villages of Gildessa, Darmi, Giggiga, and Milmil. On reaching the eighth degree of north latitude the line follows that parallel as far as its intersection with the fortyeighth degree of longitude east of Greenwich. It then runs to the intersection of the ninth degree of north latitude with the forty-ninth degree of longitude east of Greenwich, and follows that meridian to the sea. Both governments engage to conform in their respective protectorates to the stipulations of the general act of Berlin and the declaration of Brussels relative to freedom of trade, and in the port of Zeila British and Italian subjects and protected persons will receive equality of treatment in all that relates to their persons or property or the pursuit of trade or industry. By this AFGHANISTAN. protocol Harar, Ogaden, and the peninsula of Medjúrtin remain in the Italian sphere. The French Government formally protested against the arrangement, affirming that Abyssinia is an independent power, and that Harar therefore could not be assigned to Italy by Great Britain. AFGHANISTAN, a monarchy in central Asia. The reigning Ameer is Abdurrahman Khan, born in 1845, who was established on the throne July 22, 1880, under the auspices of the British, after the defeat and flight of Shere Ali and the subsequent deposition of Yakub Khan. The area is about 210,000 square miles. The population exceeds 4,000,000. The Ameer maintains a regular army of about 20,000 men, armed with European rifles and 76 pieces of artillery, the gift of the Indian Government, which pays an annual subsidy of 180,000 rupees, the amount having been increased from 120.000, in 1893, to aid Abdurrahman in maintaining his rule and the integrity of his dominions, so that they shall serve as a buffer state between India and the Russian possessions in central Asia. Besides the regular army there is a militia of 30,000 men, with 47 guns, consisting of the tribal forces of Abdurrahman's vassals. The small commerce of Afghanistan is mostly with Russia. Wool, silk, fruits, sheepskin garments, carpets, felt, and asafœtida are the chief exports, and cotton goods, sugar, and tea are the largest imports. Under the rule of Abdurrahman fanaticism and lawlessness have been discouraged, and the people of Cabul, the capital province, have made a beginning in modern industrial production, taught by Thomas Salter Pyne, an was employed who lish engineer, English by the Ameer to import machinery and set up factories. He established first a saw and planing mill, then a mint, next a cartridge factory, and, when the people had become accustomed to these strange arts, established a foundry, began the manufacture of rifles, set up a forge and steam hammer, by means of which 50 nuzzle- and breech-loading field guns were turned out in 1893, next proceeded to manufacture boots for the army and for sale to the people, introduced the distillation of brandy, imported an enormous plant for rolling cartridge metal, tal, and has built mills at Jelalabad to prepare timber for export to India. Abdurrahman has expended millions of rupees in these works, not with a a ho hope of pecuniary profit, but simply to promote civilization and well-being among his people. The Pamirs. - The Russians in 1894 retained their military positions in the Pamirs, and cultivated friendly relations with the Khirghis inhabitants, who have profited by the improvement of commercial communications, and willingly accept the rule of the Czar. The conquest of Roshan and Shignan by the Afghans caused many families to migrate to Russian territory, where land was allotted to them. The forcible occupation of a large part of the Pamir region by Russian troops in 1892, despite the opposition of the Chinese garrisons, was followed in the summer of 1893 by skirmishes with the Afghan outposts on the lower Murghab, where Capt. Vannovsky compelled the Afghans to fall back. The principal Russian post was Ak Baitral, on the Murghab. The military operations gave place to diplomatic negotiations established at between the Russian Cabinet and a special Chinese envoy, and also with the British Government acting in behalf of Afghanistan. It was suspected that a more direct and secret arrangement, made by the Russian ambassador to Pekin, Count Cassini, preceded the provisional modus vivendi concluded by Ching-Chan, the Chinese minister, at St. Petersburg in April, 1894. By this the Russian Government engaged to make no further encroachment on the territory claimed by China pending the conclusion of a final agreement. Meanwhile the Russians held the largest part of the disputed district. The usual commercial relations between the Chinese merchants of Kashgar and the tribesmen of the plateau were allowed to go on as formerly. In April a party of military engineers went out from Russia to explore and survey the Pamir district. The Russian Government intends to open up these regions to trade and settlement by building a railroad from Samarcand to Mirghilan, the capital of Ferghana, with a branch to Tashkend. The British were debarred from establishing themselves on the Pamirs by the enmity of the Nagar and Hunza tribes. Their subjugation has been completed, and in the summer of 1894, in anticipation of the final acceptance of a common frontier between Russia and British India, they proceeded to fortify the Kilik and Mintaka passes, which give access to Hunza from the Little and the Taghdumbash Pamirs. 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. The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Thomas G. Jones, Democrat; Secretary of State, Joseph D. Barron; Treasurer, J. Craig Smith; Auditor, John Purifoy; Attorney-General, William L. Martin: Superintendent of Public Instruction, John G. Harris; Commissioner of Agriculture, Hector D. Lane: Railroad Commissioners, Henry R. Shorter, Wiley C. Tunstall, J. T. Holtzclaw; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, George W. Stone, who died on March 11 and was succeeded on March 24 by Robert C. Brickell, his immediate predecessor in the same office; Associate Justices, Thomas N. McClellan, Thomas W. Coleman, James B. Head, and Jonathan Haralson. Finances. The statement of receipts and expenditures of the treasury from Sept. 30, 1893, to April 13, 1894, is as follows: Balance on Sept. 30, 1893, $77,023.30; total receipts, exclusive of temporary loans, $1,291,515.08; total payments, exclusive of temporary loans paid, $1,324,869.03; balance on April 13, 1894, $43,669.35. The expenditures embrace the following items: Education, $566,916.23; maimed or disabled soldiers and widows, $124,668.45; convict department, $101,546.70; agricultural department, $17,217.59; interest on public debt, $208,457.85: interest on University fund, $12,000; interest on Agricultural and Mechanical College fund, $15,210; Colleges of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, $16,289.60: institutions for deaf and blind, $34.938.74; Bryce Insane Hospital, $53,690. For 1893 the total assessed valuation of property in the State was $260,172,590.16, on which a tax of 5 mills was levied, yielding a revenue of $1,302,473.96. The valuation for 1892 was $260,926,127.23, on which a 4-mill tax was levied, yielding $1,048,899.36. Education.- "The public schools are at a standstill. The State does not increase its appropriations as fast as the population increases, and there is no prospect that it will." This statement is found in a circular issued this year in behalf of the adoption of a proposed constitutional amendment, giving to local school districts the right to levy a special tax for schools in addition to the State appropriation. amendment failed to secure the approval of the people, and the schools in the rural districts must still remain weak and inefficient, as the State can not well afford to do more for public education than it is now doing. This Penitentiary. A gradual reformation in the methods of prison management is in progress in the State. Under the operation of the act of 1892 the State convicts are being gradually withdrawn from the coal mines and placed under the direct control and supervision of State officials. In order to effect this change it was necessary for the State to secure larger prison accommodations, and for this purpose the board of convict managers in 1893 purchased 4,000 acres of fine woodland on Coosa river, at Speigner, in Elmore County. The land lies on both sides of a creek, and is only nine miles from the old prison at Wetumpka. In October, 1893, a party of 15 convicts from the mines at Birmingham was brought to this wilderness. They camped out in tents and began to fell trees and clear up a place upon which the first temporary stockade could be built. The work rapidly progressed, and in a short time two houses were completed, and these were followed by others, until more convicts could safely be brought down from the mines. The buildings were called Prison No. 2, in contradistinction from "The Walls" at Wetumpka, which is termed Prison No. 1. Work was also begun at clearing up a plat across the creek for what is called Prison No. 3. As soon as a stockade was built more prisoners lers were brought down, and the building operations were pushed with greater rapidity. orators. The sentiment of the convention was strongly expressed in favor of this solution of the negro problem. Pensions. The special State tax levied for the relief of Confederate soldiers and their widows yielded a fund in 1893 amounting to $125,326.95. This was distributed among 5,655 needy soldiers and widows, each receiving $21.95, and among 45 blind soldiers, each of whom received $26.66. The fund for distribution in 1894 was $117,484.78, and the beneficiaries numbered 6,506, of whom 46 were blind soldiers. Labor Troubles.-In April of this year a strike was inaugurated among the coal miners of northern Alabama, which at length attained such serious proportions as to lead Gov. Jones to call upon the militia. The First Regiment of State troops was ordered into camp at Ensley City late in May, whence it was several times called out to prevent threatened trouble. Not until late in June did the Governor deem it safe to dismiss the troops: and his order, dated June 29, directing their dismissal, had scarcely been executed when the railroads at Birmingham and vicinity were tied up by a strike inaugurated as a part of the great Chicago strike. Gov. Jones at once ordered the troops to Birmingham, where the railroad companies were protected in hiring new men and opening their lines to traffic. On July 16 he was compelled to order the troops to Pratt mines, where the striking miners had attacked a company of negroes hired to supply their places, and had killed several. The presence of the militia restored order. They were kept under arms for several weeks and were then dismissed gradually. Negro Persecution. In certain portions of Pike and Crenshaw Counties an organized effort appears to have been made early in the year to rid the locality of its colored people by making it unsafe for them to remain. All sorts of outrages were heaped upon them, and matters had reached such a state in March that Gov. Jones issued his proclamation invoking the aid of the good citizens in those counties in enforcing the law. The local courts had been unable to reach the offenders, owing to the fear of the negroes to testify. This action of the Governor seems to have had the desired effect. Lumber. The following is a summary of the lumber and timber business done in the port of Mobile for the fiscal year 1893-'94, compared with that of 1892-'93, the timber being reduced to superficial feet: ITEMS. Before April of this year a kitchen, dormitory, stable, and 3 other small buildings had been erected at Prison No. 2, where 120 convicts were quartered. Three hundred acres of land adjacent had been cleared and planted with cotton. At Prison No. 3 6 buildings had been erected, and 209 convicts were brought thither from the mines. Here also 300 acres had been cleared and planted. These buildings, which, with the aid of convict labor, were erected at a cost of only about $5,000, are intended merely for temporary use. Substan- Towed to Ship Island. tial brick structures are to be erected forthwith. Good clay for brick is found on the premises, and as early as June of this year preparations had been completed so that a portion of the convicts could be employed in making brick. African Migration.-A State convention of representative colored men met at Birmingham, on March 21, for the purpose of considering and promoting the migration of the race to Africa. Addresses in favor of the movement were delivered by Bishop Turner and by various colored Lumber. Local and rivers.. Timber. Direct to vessels, bewed.. Total superficial feet. In hard woods the exports were 223,192 cubie feet, against 1,320,726 in 1892-'93, and 282,451 in 1891-'92. Exports of staves were 319,262 pieces, value $33,673, against 190,000 pieces, value $25,000, in 1892-'93. Cotton. The receipts of cotton amounted to 215,116 bales, against 182,884 last year, showing an increase of 32,232 bales. ness. Fruit.-Probably the business which flourished most during the year was the fruit busi There were imported during the fruit season 104,810 pineapples, against 87,399 last season; 613,385 loose oranges, against 163,750; 62,718 boxes of oranges, against 48,725; 819 barrels of oranges, against 160; 27,500 lemons, against 2,278; 157,175 plantains, against 75,000; 1,530,344 bunches of bananas, against 365,610; and 5,018,150 cocoanuts, against 2,963,415. There are 15 iron steamships employed in bringing bananas to Mobile. Coal. The receipts of Alabama coal were 111,660 tons, against 86,293 tons last season. Of this amount, 23,539 tons were exported. Political. This year, like 1892, was one of unusual political excitement in the State. The old contest for supremacy between the Kolb faction of the Democratic party and the regular Democratic organization was prosecuted with increased zeal and bitterness. The followers of Mr. Kolb, who styled themselves Jeffersonian Democrats, met in convention at Birmingham on Feb. 8, and nominated a ticket for State officers headed by their leader, Reuben F. Kolb, for Governor, which included the following nominees: J. C. Fonville for Secretary of State, Thomas K. Jones for Treasurer, W. T. B. Lynch for Auditor, Warren S. Reese, Jr., for AttorneyGeneral, J. P. Oliver for Superintendent of Education, and S. M. Adams for Commissioner of Agriculture. This ticket was adopted by the State Convention of the Populist party, which met at Birmingham at the same time. The platform of the Jeffersonian Democrats contained the following declarations: We demand a free vote and an honest count. We demand the passage of a contest law for State officers. We demand the free coinage of gold and silver on the basis of 16 to 1. We demand the expansion of the circulating medium by corporate enterprises. We demand a tariff for revenue, and that the revenue necessary to meet the expenses of the Government be raised so far as possible by a tariff on importations, and that this tariff be so levied as to protect the laborer in the mines, the mills, the shops, and on the farms and their products, against the labor of foreign countries. We demand a national graduated tax on salaries or incomes in excess of reasonable expenditures for the cornforts and necessities of life. We favor more liberal educational facilities for the masses, and a better and more efficient administration of the school laws. We demand that the convicts shall be removed from the mines. We demand that the present lien laws be so amended as to give miners the same benefits accorded to other laborers, and the enactment of such laws as will secure to them payments of wages in lawful moncy semimonthly. The platform of the Populists ratified the national platform of the party, demanded a free bailot and a fair count, opposed State banks, and embraced the following declarations: We denounce the Sayre election law as partisan, and open to the commission of frauds, for which no remedy is provided and no penalty affixed, and we pledge ourselves to repeal or amend it so as to secure fair and honest elections, as soon as we obtain control of the State government. We denounce the extravagant methods of the present de facto State administration by which taxes have been increased and large sums of money borrowed at high rates of interest to defray expenses of the current year. We would discourage the spirit of emigration among the colored people, and encourage them to be honest and industrious, by dealing fairly with them and according to them their rights under the law. We are in favor, however, of having the General Government set apart sufficient territory to constitute a State, given exclusively to the colored race, to which they may voluntarily go, and in which they alone shall be entitled to suffrage and citizenship. The State Convention of the regular Democratic party met at Montgomery on May 22. There had been an ante-convention contest for the gubernatorial nomination between William C. Oates and Hon. Joseph F. Johnston, which resulted in the success of the former at the primaries. When the convention met, Oates was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 272 votes to 232 for Johnston. The remainder of the ticket was completed as follows: For Secretary of State. James Kirkman Jackson; for Treasurer, J. Craig Smith; for Auditor, John Purifoy; for AttorneyGeneral, William C. Fitts; for Superintendent of Education, John O. Turner; for Commissioner of Agriculture, Hector D. Lane. A platform was adopted which is noteworthy for its approval of the national Administration. The convention took this action in spite of the well-known hostility of Senator Morgan to the Administration, and in spite of the fact that he had just entered upon a campaign for re-election by severely attacking the President. Other declarations of the platform were as follow: We pledge to the people of Alabama a continuance of the good government of our State affairs inaugurated by the election of George S. Houston in 1874. The election law enacted at the last session of our General Assembly is in accordance with the principles upon which are based the laws regulating elections in a large majority of the States of this Union, without regard to party, and intend to obtain at the ballot box a full and free expression of the popular will. We believe in giving it a fair trial, and should it fail to accomplish the end which it was intended to effect, we pledge ourselves to make such changes and alterations therein as may be necessary to effect that end. We pledge our party to the maintenance of a system of free public schools, and to increase the appropriations for that purpose whenever the financial condition of the State will permit. On May 31 the Republican State Convention met at Birmingham and adopted the Kolb ticket. All the other political factions in the State were therefore united in opposition to the regular Democracy. An exciting campaign followed, in which money from the North was sent into the State for the purpose of aiding in the overthrow of Democracy; but the result was again in favor of the existing régime. At the August election the entire regular ticket was elected, Oates receiving 110,830 votes for Governor and Kolb 83,309. Two amendments to the State Constitution were submitted to the people at this time, and both were defeated, neither receiving a majority of all the votes cast in the election. One of these was in the interest of public education, permitting school districts to levy and collect special taxes for support of schools. It received 47,732 affirmative and 46,274 negative votes. The other amendment related to the city of Birmingham. Members of the Legislature were chosen at the same time. After the election, as in 1892, Kolb and his followers claimed that the result had been secured by fraud; that he had actually received a majority of the votes cast, but that the regular Democrats, holding control of the election machinery, had falsified the returns. An address was at once issued by his campaign committee, indignantly protesting against these frauds, and calling upon all people who believed in fair elections to meet at their respective county seats on Aug. 23 and organize "honest-election" leagues, whose duty it should be to see that such violations of law were punished and made odious. Meetings were held in many of the counties, resolutions were adopted, and in some cases leagues were formed. Another election was held on Nov. 6 in the several congressional districts of the State, at which 8 Democrats and 1 Populist were chosen, the latter being elected in the seventh district. ALEXANDER III, Emperor of Russia, born March 10, 1845; died at Livadia, in the Crimea, Nov, 1, 1894. He was the second son of the Emperor Alexander II, whose great achievement of giving freedom to the serfs in 1861 placed him historically beside President Lin coln and Dom Pedro II, of Brazil. All three acts of emancipation took place within a period of ten years. The Russian emancipator's eldest son, Nicholas, heir apparent to the throne, died in 1865, and on his deathbed requested his fiancée, Princess Dagmar, of Denmark, to marry his brother Alexander. This marriage took place Nov. 9, 1866, and is said to have been very happy. Five children were born of it, the eldest of whom, born May 18, 1868, has succeeded to the throne. (See NICHOLAS II.) At the time when he became heir to the throne Alexander III was noted for nothing but his immense physical strength. But he had received a military education, and could speak French, and he at once set about fitting himself for the duties that were to devolve upon him some day. He learned to speak English and German, and diligently read history, political economy, and works on civil government, and manifested a deep interest in religious questions and the history of the Greek Church. In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 he took the field as a general of infantry, and in the Danube campaign commanded the two corps on the left of the army. He is said to have been a courageous soldier, going under fire with his troops, so that in one battle a bullet grazed his head. After the war he was made general-in-chief of the forces in the St. Petersburg district. The Nihilists had persistently plotted to murder Alexander II, and the sternest and most thorough measures of repression had been executed against them, while at the same time steps ALEXANDER III. were taken for a commission of the nobility and magistrates to work out a scheme that should grant the people representative government and redress some of their grievances. But the conspirators were embittered by the punishment given to many of their number, and determined to compass the death of the Emperor at all hazards. Their final plot was a scheme by which half a dozen of their number were provided with thick glass bombs filled with dynamite, and stationed at intervals along the route by which the imperial carriage was to return from a review of the Marine Corps. A woman was to give the signal by raising her handkerchief to her face, and if one bomb failed the next was to be thrown. The first struck the ground behind the carriage and wounded two of the guards, and when the Emperor alighted to look after the injured men the second bomb was thrown at his feet. Its explosion mangled him frightfully and killed the Nihilist who threw it. The Emperor was taken to his palace, and died within two hours. Alexander III then became Emperor, March 13, 1881, but his coronation was postponed more than a year. (See "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1881, page 795 et seq.) On ascending the throne, Alexander III set |