mony, copper, nickel, fire-clay, slate, and even silver and gold are met. The output of coal, for 1877, is stated at 1,000,000 tons: the make of pig-iron for the same year was about 35,000 tons. The manufactories of this State are unimportant when considered in the light of its resources, and the advantages for transportation. They are confined to grist and saw mills, machine shops, tanneries, woollen mills, tobacco factories, etc. In 1870 there were 2,444 establishments, employing 11,672 hands, and a capital of $11,084,520, paying $4,322,164 wages, and turning out products to the value of $24,102,201 per annum. West Virginia is divided into 54 counties, as follows: Barbour (pop.), 11,870; Berkeley, 17,380; Boone, 5824; Braxton, 9787; Brooke, 6013; Cabell, 13,746; Calhoun, 6074; Clay, 3460; Doddridge, 10,552; Fayette, 11,560; Gilmer, 7108; Grant, 5542; Greenbrier, 15,060; Hampshire, 10,366; Hancock, 4880; Hardy, 6794; Harrison, 20,171; Jackson, 16,312; Jefferson, 15,005; Kanawha, 32, 466; Lewis, 13,270; Lincoln, 8739: Logan, 7329; McDowell, 3074; Marion, 17,198; Marshall, 18,840; Mason, 22,293; Mercer, 7467; Mineral, 8629; Monongalia, 14,985; Monroe, 11,501; Morgan, 5777; Nicholas, 7223; Ohio, 37,457; Pendleton, 8022; Pleasants, 6255; Pocahontas, 5591; Preston, 19,040; Putnam, 11,376; Raleigh, 7367; Randolph, 8102; Ritchie, 13,474; Roane, 12,184; Summers, 8832; Taylor, 11,454; Tucker, 3151; Tyler, 11,072; Upshur, 10,249; Wayne, 14,737; Webster, 3207; Wetzel, 13,896; Wirt, 7104; Wood, 25,006; Wyoming, 4322. Wheeling, on the Ohio River, in the northern extremity of the State, is the capital. The other growing towns are Parkersburg, Pleasant, Charleston, etc. ป The religious denominations are Wesleyans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Episcopalians, who are fairly supplied with churches. There are 4 colleges in the State; and during the year 1878, $687,275 were expended upon the public schools. Eighty-eight periodicals were published in the State in 1879. Not a single library is reported from the State; surely this must be an omission. West Virginia has no State debt, unless it will share that of the mother State, Virginia. Amount of taxable property-real, $95,079,808; personal, $33,480,119. State tax on $100, 13 cents. Legal rate of interest, 5 per cent. The wages of labor are extremely low in West Virginia, especially for farm hands, whose monthly pay, with board and lodgings, ranges from $10 to $16. Female servants get $6 per month-less, in both instances, than the wages paid in the North of England. This condition of things clearly indicates that capital and enterprise, rather than ordinary workmen, are required for the development and improvement of this excellent little Commonwealth. Skilled workmen and mechanics can generally find employment at Wheeling and elsewhere, at wages lower than those prevailing at New York and Chicago. The price of working oxen is $91 per pair; horses, $132; mules, $150; milch cows, $37; and sheep $3 each, in this State. Fare from a port in Great Britain to Parkersburg :Steerage and emigrant train, £8; steerage and first-class train, about £10. CHAPTER XXXVIII. WISCONSIN. Area, 53,924 square miles. Population, 1,315,486. THE friend of civilization and progress, grown weary and disheartened over the cataleptic condition of Eastern Europe, may turn for solace and comfort from the shores of Marmora, and the Danube River, to the inland seas of Superior and Michigan-the region washed by their refreshing waters, and drained by the Mississippi and its countless tributaries. Praiseworthy as are the achievements of many States of the American Union in educational and philanthropic works, no community has done better in this field than the young Commonwealth of Wisconsin. Admitted into the Union in 1848, the State is but in her 33rd year; and yet her public institutions, in the magnificence of their elevation, in the variety of their mission, in their number, endowment, and management are objects of pride to her people, and worthy of imitation by older and richer States and countries. There are 5,964 common schools scattered over the State, maintained by the public purse, at a cost of $2,166,568.43 per annum, and controlled by an officer of the State elected by the people. State Normal schools are also established at the towns of Whitewater, Plattsville, Oshkosh, and River Falls. The purpose of these schools is the instructing and training of persons, both male and female, in the theory and art of teaching, and in all the branches of a sound common school education; and to give instruction in physical sciences, and in the laws of the State, and of the United States. Admission to these institutions is by nomination from school superintendents; and each Assembly district is entitled to have six representatives in the Normal schools. Tuition is free; but the pupil must pay about $3 per week for board. There are fifteen colleges in different towns; and a State University. This is a handsome establishment, pleasantly situated in extensive and richly-wooded grounds, adjacent to Madison, the capital of the State. The main buildings will accommodate 140 men: a separate building within the grounds has rooms for 80 women. Candidates must be fifteen years of age to enter the Freshman class; and to join the College of Arts they must pass a satisfactory examination in Arithmetic, Elementary Algebra, Plane Geometry, Physical Geography, English Grammar, the History of the United States and England, and Modern History. To enter the College of Letters they must pass examination in Latin Grammar, Reader, Composition, and the Four Orations of Cicero, or their equivalent; and in Greek Grammar, Reader, the History of Greece and Rome, Classical Geography, and Antiquities. Students designing to enter the Department of Mining and Metallurgy, or of Engineering, will be required to pass an examination equivalent to that required for entering the Junior class. No examination is required to enter the Law School; but students not college graduates must be twenty years old. Young men or women, residents of the State, can receive instruction in all departments of the State University without payment of tuition fees, except in the Law School, where they pay $50 per annum. There are 110 high schools, free to the children of the State, where they are fitted for business, or to enter some College or University. State institutions are provided for the care and education of the blind, and the deaf and dumb; industrial schools, where neglected boys are taught morality and a trade, and where girls, homeless and unprotected, are led into paths of virtue and usefulness; a National asylum for disabled soldiers of the late war; a State prison, and asylums for the insane. Every shade of religious faith and opinion is represented. Methodists are the most numerous; Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians are strong, and relatively so in the order given; and the chimes of Sabbath morning resound from hill to hill, from lake to river. The periodicals published in Wisconsin number 307: many of them are conducted with ability, enterprise, and a devotion to the public good. Many towns have their libraries; the number of volumes scattered over the State through these institutions, in 1872, according to the Immigration Commissioner's Report, was 880,508. The orders of Freemasonry, Oddfellows, and other societies banded together for charitable purposes, are everywhere represented. The centres of population have their musical and literary societies; and Milwaukee is within the cycle of the "stars." Wisconsin is a gently undulating country, from 600 to 1,200 feet above the sea level. There are no mountains upon its surface; but mounds occasionally rise in the western belt of the State to the altitude of 1,700 feet above tide water. And again on the "divide," in the northern counties, where the head waters of the Chippewa and Montreal rivers separate the former to join the Mississippi, and the latter to flow northward into Lake Superior-the country attains, by gradual ascent, an elevation of about 1,700 feet. |