News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-08-30


An Atlanta, Ga, correspondent says:
COnvicts are let out to serve the will OF
the highest bidder, and the time when
the pOwerless slave stood upon the auc-
ton block finds its counterpart in to-day,
when a thousand miserable wretches are
| bought by men who force from them la
Dor through the ignoninies of torture,
and bring the sweat trickIing down
| their bodies beneaththe sickening slash
ing of the lash, accompanied by the dis
NAL baying of the bloodhound. Chill
| dren are taught the science of civic law
on the one hand, only to learn the bar
barous edicts of new slavery on the
other. No words can portray the mis-
cries of the chain gang, which a few
months ago came clanking past my door.
Two white men acted as guards. They
guided thirty swarthy negroes and two
white men to their work of grading r
neighboring street. As they passed,
one poor fellow, more daring than the
rest, family called to me and begged
piece of tobacco. I went out and gave
him all had. He took it humbly and
the guard said:
"Here, you if you speak to another
white man I'll brain you %
The procession moved on. Soon
heard cry of pain above the clatter of
shovels aud the dull thud of picks. Curl
Osity led me to step to my side
gate to see the cause. One Of
the cart boys had run over a shackled
prisoner; he was ON the ground writhing
in pain, for the cart was loaded with
dirt The guard walkedup to the fallen
man, and drawing from the waistband of
his trousers a heavy leather strap two
feet long, the end of a stout harness
trace, said:
"There, take that for your blindness 7"
and at once struck dozen heavy blows
across the convict's body.
The latter seemed unmindful of the
beating, and could not rise, but only
groaned. Then the guard grew white
with rage; the convict lay with his face
in the dirt.
''Here, you dirty scoundrel, If you
don't get up from there I'll kill you !
and with that his foot was struck with a
thud into the cOnvict's side.
Still he did not move, and two men
with legs chained together had to drag
him to one side, where he was stretched
out almost dead. Directly he revived,
and the guard called to him: "Here,
say YOU. come to work p The prisoner
tried to rise and fell back exhausted.
The guard, still uttering the foulest
oaths, walked up to the PROSTATE man,
took him by the collar, and said: "Iou
amt hurt, get up from here at once J"
The convict slowly obeyed, and could
walk. He was using pick,
and it would not enter the ground an
inch from his efforts. The convict was
a white man. But the negroes fare
even worse.
The other day [ had long talk with
one of the guards. 1 asked him If he
didn't show the W bite men in the gang
little partiality. "Well, )" he said, ''you
know how that is, but don't give it away;
of course, the niggers are hard set, and
won't behave" And no wonder. The
life of slave during the worst days OF
slavery was a paradise compared to this
present chain-gang system. From this
guard [ learned that there were negroes
in his gang who had no earthly business
there; some were sent up for drunken
ness, some for petty thieving, others for
! almost nothing - merely quarrelmg,
whore not q blow had hean struck