sable to the storm - warning and weatherprediction work of the Washington authorities. But, apart from the meteorological value of such a Coast Signal Service, its incidental contributions to the life-saving stations have already proved of the greatest assistance. On the 221 of March, 1877, after a severe storm on the middle Atlantic coast, Sergeant William Stein of the Signal Service, in charge of the Cape Henry station, discovered before dawn a large vessel stranded on a shoal off that station, and summoned the wreckers at Norfolk to come to the rescue. With the earliest light the Sergeant displayed the "attention-flags of the international code, with which every seacoast signal station is supplied; and, receiving answer that she was the Winchester of Liverpool, with request for two steam-tugs to be sent to the vessel, he telegraphed at once to Norfolk for wrecking-steamers. Before sundown active efforts were made to save the stranded vessel. She was gotten off the shoal

after some days' labor; but meantime three other vessels, in a second storm (of the 25th), were stranded within a mile of her. Sergeant Stein again telegraphed the wreckers at Norfolk for aid. He ascertained the name of the bark in greatest peril to be the Pantzer, a Norwegian vessel, and the crew of the Life-Saving Service a little later succeeded in firing a lifeline over her deck. The Norwegians did not comprehend its use; but after some effort the Signal Service officer, by means of international signals, instructed her crew to "haul in on the line," and by nine o'clock all the crew of the Pantzer were safely landed. In the wrecks of the steamships L'Amérique, Rusland, and Huron (of the United States Navy), the first tidings were conveyed by the Signal Service wires, and through them succor was speedily summoned. In the case of the Huron, drifted ashore near Kittyhawk, a private of the Signal Service, A. T. Sherwood, stationed at that place, received the first intelligence November

23d, and, after telegraphing to Washington, hastened to the awful scene, walking sixteen miles through the sand, and brought full reports of the situation to his station, which were instantly telegraphed to the Chief Signal Officer. The War and Navy Departments and the Life-Saving Service were thus notified, and by them steamers of the navy and wrecking companies were started to the fatal point of the shore on which the Huron had gone to pieces. The Kittyhawk observer, immediately on receiving orders from the Chief Signal Officer, opened a "wreck-station" abreast of the foundered vessel before daylight of the 25th, connecting it by a temporary telegraphwire with his station, and, working this improvised station on the open beach, while the gale was yet raging, drew toward the spot the whole organized relief force of the Government. A similar service was performed on the

stormy night of January 31, 1878, by another private soldier of the Signal Corps, William Davis, when the steamship Metropolis, with 248 souls on board, became a total wreck twenty miles from Kittyhawk station. At 6.55 P. M. On that night intelligence of the disaster reached Kittyhawk, and in less than fifteen minutes private Davis, carrying telegraphic and signal apparatus, was riding through the night and storm to the scene. By 4 A. M. he had reached the vessel, established his telegraph station abreast of her, opened communication, and forwarded a report to the Chief Signal Office at Washington, and was putting in motion all the machinery of relief and succor which the country could command. The observers of the coast signal stations, whenever it is practicable, board vessels that have gone ashore, and open communication with the land. An instance of this may be cited from the action of private Harrison of

the Signal Corps, at Cape Henry, when the bark Giuseppe Massonue was wrecked near that station, February 10, 1878. His presence prevented the crew from deserting their ship, which, by the aid of powerful wrecking steamers, was subsequently saved. Other instances of boarding vessels could be cited, as those of the Italian bark Francesco Bellagamba and the British steamship Antonio, both boarded by Signal Service men who afterward kept up signal conversation with the shore until the ships were saved. But these cases will suffice to show the immense share the Coast Signal Service has in the results announced by the Life-Saving Service. Without the Signal Service cooperation, the latter would often, in emergencies that arise, be powerless to command the needed help, as well as to communicate with stranded vessels. For the latter service, only men drilled in signaling can avail.

So arranged is the Coast Signal Service, that not only are its storm-flags and danger-warnings visible by vessels moving off the coast, but even a vessel en voyage (say one which is bound from the equator to New York), as she

passes Cape Henlopen, may inquire by signals whether any hurricane is impending; if so, whether she has time to reach Sandy Hook before its arrival, or must take shelter behind the Delaware Breakwater. Or, a vessel bound from New York or any northern port southward, on reaching the Capes of the Delaware, can make inquiry as to whether any storm is likely to strike her before she can pass Cape Hatteras, and receive full advice by telegraph from the Chief Signal Office at Washington, in a very brief time. With adequate appropriations, this Coast Signal Service could easily be made of far greater value to all the shipping and mercantile interests. As the Chief Signal Officer has said, "The time is not far distant when the possession of a coast not covered by seacoast storm-signal and Signal Service stations, watching as sentinels each its own beat of sea and shore, and ready to summon aid by electric wires, will be held as much an evidence of semi-barbarism, as is now among civilized nations the holding of any national coast without a system of lighthouse lights." In the event of war, with a completed chain of coast

CAPE MAY DEL. BREAKWATER

OCEAN CITY

CHINCOTEAGUE

CAPE HENRY

FALSE CAPE

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signal stations, no part of our exposed sea-front could be threatened without immediate intelligence of the fact being flashed to the Washington office and all along the coast, and the defensive power of the Government concentrated at the point endangered. The chain of telegraphic seacoast stations at present is 610 miles long, stretching from Sandy Hook to the mouth of Cape Fear River.

The Signal Service Telegraph System, constructed, owned, and operated by the Signal Service, covers, however, a much larger area than the seacoast mentioned. In pursuance of acts of Congress, this service has now completed in the interior and upon the frontier an extensive network of telegraphic lines for connecting military posts, with a view to the protection of the population from Indian depredations, and the rendition of meteorological, military, and other reports to the Government. A total length of 4,000 miles of frontier line is now operated and maintained by the Signal Corps. This connected system of telegraph-lines is one of the most ef fective safeguards against Indian raids and warlike movements, since it en ables the scattered military forces of the United States to obtain timely notice of such movements, and to concentrate quickly at any threatened point to repel attack. The Indian strategy is to pass between the Government army posts unobserved, so that their plans may not be reported - a very difficult thing in a region traversed by electric wires. To break them is to announce their purpose and betray themselves. alarming the posts and settlements on

both sides of the break, and evoking spirited pursuit and severe punishment by the troops. As an engine of civilization the frontier telegraph rivals the railway, enabling the Government to throw an ægis of protection over the rapidly expanding wave of Western emigration, and thus facilitating no doubt the sale and settlement, as well as the material development, of the public lands. These Signal Service lines are in part self-supporting, as they transmit not only Government but private telegrams of the civilian population, and save the expense of telegraphing by other lines the meteorological reports necessary for the weather - work at Washington, besides serving to convey a great number of official dispatches and correspondence for various departments of the Government, that would otherwise have to be transmitted at considerable cost on non-governmental lines or sent by couriers.

But, apart from all the incidental benefits and economies wrought by this frontier telegraph system, its value in the scientific work of the Weather Bureau proper is felt to be the greatest. The lines in Texas have made it possible to furnish weather-reports daily on the coast of that State; and those in the Northwest permit a series of observations and reports not otherwise attainable, which are of the first importance for all purposes of weather-prediction throughout the United States. Meager as the data now obtainable from the Northwest are, they are indispensable for the processes of weather-telegraphy in the Mississippi Valley and lake region. To study these momentous meteorological agencies, and to receive timely notice of their arrival on the extreme northwestern frontier, is perhaps the most important task, so far as weather-prognostication goes, that the Signal Service could pursue. The extension of its telegraphic and observational stations in this direction would immensely enhance its general effectiveness, and give a fresh stimulus to almost every meteorological investigation which the Service is now pushing.

The length of Signal Service telegraph-lines in the interior and on the frontier at present is as follows: Arizona Division, 934 miles, with 17 stations, from 12 of which weather-reports are received at Washington; New Mexico Division, 486 miles, with 12 stations, from 6 of which reports are daily received; Texas Division, 1,590 miles, with 28 stations, 25 of which telegraph full meteorological reports; the Northwestern Division, 921 miles, with 18 stations; and the Washington Territory Division, 69 miles, with 2 stations; total, 4,000 miles, with 77 stations.

In concluding this necessarily much condensed sketch of the national weather service, its pressing wants should not be overlooked. No other service appeals so strongly to the interests which it daily subserves for intelligent cooperation. The public press can do much to advance its development by systematic republication and explanation of its observations and

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deductions, and especially by reproducing the data furnished in its "Monthly Weather Review," and in the daily telegraphic "Synopsis." Time and toil are necessary to harvest the fruit of seeds sown; but, as the President of the American Geographical Society, Chief Justice Daly, has said, "Nothing in the nature of scientific investigation by the national Government has proved so acceptable to the people, or has been productive in so short a time of such important results, as the establishment of the Signal Service Bureau." Like a little army, however, which has fought its way to a commanding yet difficult position, its ranks must be recruited and its resources be augmented before it can push its conquests forward or reap what it has sown.

SOUTH CAROLINA. By a letter dated February 24, 1879, addressed to LieutenantGovernor Simpson as acting Governor, Wade Hampton resigned his office of Governor of South Carolina. On the 26th W. D. Simpson was formally sworn in and installed as Governor of the State. On the same day Governor Simpson commissioned Mr. Hampton as United States Senator from South Carolina, to which office the two Houses of the Legislature at the November session of 1878 had elected him by a unanimous vote.

For the regular session of 1879, the Legislature met at Columbia on November 25th.

On December 10th the two Houses convened in joint assembly to elect an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the place of A. C. Haskell, who at the beginning of that month had resigned. The candidates were Samuel McGowan of Abbeville and W. D. Wallace of Union. Mr. McGowan was elected by a majority of three, the vote having stood 76 and 73 respectively. The joint convention then proceeded to ballot for the election of a Chief Justice of that Court for six years. Henry McIver, one of the two Associate Justices, was unanimously elected, having received all of the 146 votes then cast. On December 15th Judge McIver declined the office, and the two Houses met together again on the 18th. Governor Simpson received 131 votes, the whole number cast, and was elected. In regard to the vacancy of this seat as occurring in 1880, there is a decided disagreement between its present occupant, Chief Justice Willard, and the State Legislature. He was elected by the Legislature of 1877 upon the office becoming vacant by the death of Judge Moses; and while the Legislature of 1879 was formally electing his successor, he plainly declared, as he has also done since, that no vacancy of his office is to occur in 1880; that he was elected in 1877 for the full term of six years; that the Legislature, according to the State Constitution, has no legal power to elect his successor before the expiration of his sexennial term; and that he is determined to keep his seat after August 1, 1880, leaving to the now elected Chief Justice the task of dispossessing him of it on a writ of

ples laid down by the Supreme Court of the State in the decision of the cases referred to by the act, and, if any obligations are found partially invalid, to ascertain the exact amount of their valid portion, and compute the interest accrued on it up to July 1, 1878; to report monthly to the Treasurer the State obligations so investigated and ascertained, specifying their respective denominations and numbers, with the amounts of the valid and invalid portions of each, and the amount of interest accrued on the valid portion to July 1, 1878; and so continue until he shall have examined and reported on the entire consolidated debt. The act gives the holder of State obligations so investigated and reported upon the right to surrender them to the State Treasurer for cancellation, and anthorizes the Treasurer to issue and hand to the holder a new bond or certificate of stock equal in amount to the valid portion of the bond, certificate of stock, coupon, or interest order so surrendered and canceled. The new bond so issued "is to have the same benefits and privileges as those provided for in the act approved December 22, 1873, entitled 'An act to reduce the volume of the public debt of the State, and provide for the payment of the same." The maturity of the first coupon or interest due on these new bonds is fixed by the act on January 1, 1879.

A bill to redistrict the State, increasing the number of her Congressional districts from four to five, was introduced in the Lower House, and, after debate, indefinitely postponed by a vote of 55 to 40. It is stated that the passage of this bill would have secured a Republican Congressman for Charleston for ever, as the election in that district would have been then controlled by the colored vote.

A registration bill requiring all voters to be able to write their names, and several bills prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons, were voted down or indefinitely postponed.

A joint resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention was introduced in the Lower House, and, on motion, tabled unanimously without debate.

The State finances appear to be in a satisfactory condition, and the administration of the government commendably economical. The aggregate expenditures for the legislative, executive, and judicial departments during the fiscal year ended October 31, 1879, amounted to $124,895. For the year ending October 31, 1880, the State and ordinary county taxes to be levied are as follows: A general State tax of 43 mills on the dollar, with two mills additional for the public schools, and a county tax of 3 mills for ordinary purposes. The 4 mills of State tax, reckoning the aggregate value of taxable property in South Carolina at $135, 000,000, are expected to yield $100,000 each mill, in all $475,000. Of this amount, $344,372 is appropriated to pay the interest on the consolidated debt for 1880, and $34,000 to pay the deficiency bonds of the State. To com

plete the payment of the interest due on the consolidated debt for 1879, the sum of $144,375 was appropriated out of the $175,000 collected in the two previous years for that purpose, and lying still in the Treasury. The remaining $117,000 out of the $475,000 of the State tax, and the royalty to be collected on phosphates, are considered sufficient to cover all the ordinary expenditures for the new year. The $200,000 yielded by the two additional mills of State tax, and the entire poll-tax, amounting to $100,000, are applied exclusively to the public schools.

The schools were attended in 1879 by 58,368 white pupils and 64,095 colored-in all, 122,463, which is the largest number on record for any one year in South Carolina. The average number of colored children in the public schools in 1879 was about 45 per cent. greater than in any preceding year. The newly erected lyceum for colored students in Charleston was dedicated on September 2d.

From the reports made by circuit judges and solicitors, after due inquiries instituted in their respective sections, it appears that crime in South Carolina has decreased at least one third since 1877. The number of convicts committed to the State Prison from November 1, 1878, to the latter part of November, 1879, was 1,017. Nearly three fourths of that number had been leased out by the Board of Directors of the Penitentiary, as authorized by law, to nine different parties, among them four railway companies, to be kept at the places of their several works, and under their charge. The applicant for convict-labor, after his application has been approved, is required by the Board of Directors to sign a contract embodying the terms of the lease, and give a sufficient bond for its faithful execution; the terms usually being that the lessee shall feed, clothe, and guard the prisoners intrusted to him, provide them with medical attendance, and in addition pay to the State a stipulated monthly rate for each convict during the time he has worked. The prisoners thus leased out up to the close of November, 1879, numbered 727, of whom 157 had died, 77 had escaped, and some had been killed. Among the prisoners remaining in the penitentiary itself, their average monthly number being 290, there were from November 1, 1878, to the latter part of November, 1879, 33 deaths, 8 escapes, and 1 killed. Since January 1, 1879, ten months, the deaths of the convicts at the State Prison numbered 13, including 5 returned thither from the places of their work outside in a dying condition. The Greenwood and Augusta Railway Company, to whom the largest number of convicts have been leased, is charged with having violated the terms of its contract in all points respecting their treatment. Out of the 285 prisoners sent to this company, 128 had died, a rate of mortality exceeding 40 per cent., and 37 had escaped. On complaints made during the summer, the Board of Directors sent three physi