The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-06-27
Kate SOuthern's Camp.

Mrs Kate Southern, husband and
child have gone into quarters in the
Georgia penitentiary. On the way
south from the mountains of Pickens
county to Mac9n they were greeted with
great popular demonstrations. It was a
triumphal train that carried them. At
Atlanta, especially, the curiosity was
intense enough to keep the city awake
all night waiting for the train to arrive.
The people assembled in and around the
depot as thick as they could stand, and
as far as they could see the building.
Kate Southern was quiet, melancholy
and interesting. Her husband was at
her side, and the baby smiling in her
arms She was surprised at the popular
stir her case had made, and was little
inclined to be communicative. The
penitentiary convicts of Georgia are
divided into three or four companies, or
colonies, in different parts of the state,
aud are hired out for labor under guard.
They are employed on railroads and
ether pubic works, on farms, etc, and
the women are placed at domestic
service. Kate Southern has been as
signed to Captain Jack Smiths camp, in
Baldwin county. and it is stated that
the popular sympathy for her has ex-
tended to her jailer. She is permitted
to have her child with her. and will be
favored with light duties. Bob Southern,
her husband, who appears to have been
made a man by the terrible family
troubles and the ordeal through which
the wife has passed, from the scafoid to
his ten years i'm prisonment cemmutation,
will get work somewhere near his wife,
and has obtained permission to live with
her during the term of her imprison>
ment. This is an ususual privilege, and
Kate Southern is happy Her sister,
Amorelli Hombrick, who was convicted
as as an accomplice in the killing, is also
in Captain Smiths convict brigade. So
there is happy family party in this
penitentiaTy camp. Bob Southern is
also under Indictment for participation
in the crime, if crime it was, but as he
has gone int voluntary exile with his
wife and child, it is thought there will
be no prosecution of his case. The lam
lily were reduced to poverty by their
troubles at law, and this fact becoming
known, liberal subscriptions of money
were made for Kate at different points on
the way to the camp. The representa-
tive people and the papers are full of ex-
ppessions of sympathy. One writes,
raigns Governor Colquitt before the bar
of public opinion for "condemning this
noble woman to a punishment that is
worse than death" He demands for her
full pardon. Another says: every
true husband in Georgia should admire
Mrs. Kate Southern-the woman who
knew her rights and had the courage to
maintain them" Some go so far as to
say that Kate Southern's crime would
have made hero of a man, and cite in.
stances which substantaite the assertion
This sentiment is becoming widespread
in the State, and the ladies in all the
cities are taking the lesd in circulating
petitions for full pardon. aud are giving
the case this color-that the law has un
reasonably punished a woman when 6
man would have come out of a similar
trouble with freedom and eclat. Under
pressure of the continued, and still In
creasing excitement, it is confdentially
expected that the governor will sOou
extend to Kate Southern a full pardon
and release. Then, and not till then
will the moral sense of Georgia be salts
fed