The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-01-09

to Edgefield County to inspect Tho condition
Of the convicts at work on the Greenwood
and Augusta Railroad.
reached the steckade on Monday after
noon, the 25th, and immediately proceeded
to the said inspection. found in the log
pen, which is called the hospital, three con.
victs lying on shelf made Of poles and
clapboard and covered about two inches with
straw. Two of said conyicts we're colored
aud one white. One of the convicts, Jno.
Aord, was in the last stages of exhaustion,
ana had on nothing but his shackles and n
pair OF pants-the rest of his body being
covered with flies. The other colored con.
vict had general dropsy. y
McGarvey, the Shito convict, was so weak
aud emaoiated that he was unable to leave
the shelf, aud the straw was SO full of ver-
min that could not make satisfactory ex.
animation of him. The English language
does not possess words sufficiently strong to
express the stencil that arose from tho place.
The quarters in which the laboring con-
victs are consist of two log pens, twenty by
thirty feet, separated by an alley way of
eight or ten feet. Iu this space found
eighteen other convicts lying on the naked
earth, their diseases being principally ex-
haustion and dropsios.
The same style of sleeping accommoda-
:ions prevails in these r"ns as do ih the hos
pital, with the exception that on somo Of the
shelves there is no straw ut all, and from
the polished appearance Of the clapboards,
there has been none since they have been
occupied.
saw neither trace or sign Of covering Of
any kind-blanket or aught else. The
stencil arising from these quarters was sick
ening to the uttermost extent.
The cooking is done in six or eight round
iron ovens in the opon air, tho bread which
L examined being burnt on top and raw
throughout the balance. saw no arrange.
ment for boiling, &c.
From the stockade went to whore the
convicts were at work, and inspected each
convict separately. With the exception of
nine, found them all, more or less, infec.
ted with scurvy, and with an eruption which
was evidently caused by tho vermin on their
persons. There wcro two who were so swol-
len with dropsy of the extremities that re-
marked that they should have been in the
hospital, and was told that they were there
on light work, just to do what they pleased
None of them possessed change of cloth
ing, and their persons, though evidently
having been washed the preceding Sunday,
were offensive on account of the stencil from
the filthy clothing.
In conversation with DR.. Il. J. McKie,
an excellent gentleman as well as physioian,
found that he had refused to attend fur
ther on these convicts, as he could be of no
possible selyico ,lader such condition Of
thiuSo 40 prevailed; anu Mr. IwIggs, the
associate engineer of the railroad, with the
Georgia branch, informs me that he has re-
monstratcd time and again, but to no effect,
and that out of one hundred and ninety-one
convicts, on the Georgia side, since the
22d day of May he has had no sickness
whatever.
The mortality above is sufficient to prove
what their treatment has been.
As the cool weather comes on, with the
system of the convicts SO enteebled by their
scurvied conditions, | am afraid there will
be still greater mortality.
l have the honor to be, with much re-
spect, your obedicnt servant,
G. S. IRRELEVANT, M. d.,
Surgeon Pcnitcntiary.
L. 81 would respectfully report since
your inspection that S pcnccr Bradford had
died. or all the cases inspected | did not
see but one case Of we'll marked syphilis
There wore three others that 1 did not
sec.