SUMMARY.

1. Kansas sympathized with the Cubans and supported the Government of the United States.

2. On the 18th of April a company of eighty-nine men was offered for the war, and the services of the Kansas National Guards were tendered.

3. Enlisting students of the senior classes of the State University, and of the State Normal School were given their diplomas in advance of graduation.

4. Major J. K. Hudson was commissioned a Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers.

5. First Kansas Regiment enrolled for war with Spain was numbered the Twentieth, and commanded by Colonel Fred Funston.

6. The Twenty-First, Colonel Fitch; Twenty-Second, Colonel Lindsey, were mustered.

7. The Twentieth left for San Francisco, the Twenty-First for Camp Thomas, Chickamauga, and the Twenty-Second for Camp Alger.

8. Two battalions of colored troops were raised-designated the Twenty-Third Regiment; under command of LieutenantColonel Beck departed for Santiago.

9. After the signing of the protocol, the Twenty-First, TwentySecond and Twenty-Third were mustered out.

10 In October the Twentieth sailed for Manila. The Twentieth first engaged in the battle of Caloocan-Lieutenant Alford killed.

11. Colonel Funston promoted to be Brigadier-General.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

EVENTS OF 1899.

468. Special Session.-The close of the year 1898, and the opening of 1899, found a special session of the Legislature assembled, which had been convened by Governor Leedy on December 21, 1898, to adopt legislation regulating railroad companies, and for other purposes. There was some discussion in regard to the validity of this special session, which was, however, established by the State Supreme Court in the following February.

469. Inauguration. William E. Stanley was inaugurated Governor of Kansas on the 9th of January, 1899. The retirement of the outgoing State administration was marked by many courtesies extended to their successors.

470. The Legislature of 1899.The Legislature of 1899 met in regular session on the 10th of January, with Lieutenant-Governor Richter as President of the Senate, while Hon. S. J. Osborn was chosen Speaker of the House.

Governor William E. Stanley.

471. Provisions for State Buildings.-The session was largely occupied in the consideration of local measures. The principal public acts were those providing for a tax levy sufficient to complete the State House, which had been

thirty-three years in building, and to build a third State Insane Asylum, and providing a commission to select the site. 472. Traveling Libraries.-The Legislature granted an appropriation of $2,000 to aid, for two years, in the work of the Traveling Libraries, and provided for the appointment of a commission of three persons, who, together with the State Librarian and President of the Kansas State Social Science Federation of Clubs, shall have the management of the traveling library department of the State Library. This commission may send out temporarily, from the State Library, such books as may be selected for the purpose by the directors, and any books given or bought for such traveling libraries, to any library in the State, or to any community or organization not yet having an established library. Under the provisions of the Act, the libraries, averaging fifty books in number, are sent out from the State Library to the communities, neighborhoods and organizations applying for them, and, when read, are returned to be again dispatched. A large number of books have been donated by women's clubs and by individuals.

Mrs. Harriet Cushing.

473. The Federation; Kansas Women.-The Kansas State Social Science Federation of Clubs, with whom originated this plan for the distribution of good literature, was the outgrowth of the Social Science Club of Kansas and western Missouri, the initial meeting of which was held at Leavenworth, May 18, 1881, under the suggestion of the late Mrs. Harriet Cushing, of Leavenworth, and Mrs. Mary T. Gray, of Kansas City, Kan. The women

of Kansas have, from the first, been a power for good in the State, and largely through their organizations they made possible the success of the State at the great expositions at Philadelphia and Chicago. This faculty for organization has given Kansas between three and four hundred women's clubs, devoted to the cultivation and the elevation of women, and the safety, wellbeing and improvement of the State.

474. Enrollment at Kansas University. The Kansas State University, which sent forty-one men to the war, opened its term in February, 1899, with a larger enrollment than ever before. The annual catalogue of 1899, showed an enrollment of 1,044 students.

475. Funeral of Lieutenant Alford.-On the 22d of April occurred, at Lawrence, the funeral of Lieutenant Alford, whose remains were brought from Manila and buried in his native city. He was the first to fall in the Philippine campaign of the Twentieth Kansas Regiment.

476. Kansas Shipment.-In 1898 Kansas shipped corn to California. In 1899 a feature of the State commerce was the shipment of trainloads of cotton from Independence.

477. Colonel Thomas Moonlight.-Colonel Thomas Moonlight died in Leavenworth on the 7th of February, 1899. He was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, and came early in life to the United States. The Civil War found him a disbanded sergeant of the "old regular army," living on a farm near Leavenworth. He entered the Union

volunteer army and raised a battery. He was soon raised to the colonelcy of a regiment, and served through the war with much distinction. In 1868 he was elected Secretary of State of Kansas, and re-elected in 1870. He filled, later in life, the positions of Governor of Wyoming, and United States Minister to Bolivia.

478. Period of Prosperity.-The late spring of 1899, in which this record of the life of Kansas closed, found the State in the midst of war, and yet in the midst of peace. The political contests, which had been sharp and severe for some years, and marked with mutations of fortune, had taught Kansas people that the State was safe in the hands of its honest citizens, without regard to their party designations, and there was prevailing "an era of good feeling." The losses sustained in the collapse following the boom of 1887 had been largely made up. A singular feature of the recovery in the "boom towns," which, in their speculative days, had scattered their houses over a great area, was their practical consolidation. Houses which had stood in empty desolation in the midst of boundless "additions," were removed nearer to the actual center of population, renovated and repaired, and became again places of business and the homes of men.

479.

Payment of Indebtedness.-The discharge of the heavy public and private indebtedness of Kansas was going on at a rate that surprised financial authorities, but the explanation was found in the great natural resources of the State. When asked how Kansas in seven years paid off more than $100,000,000 of debt, it was answered that, in those seven years, Kansas produced four billion dollars' worth of farm products and live stock.