Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1884-05-21
Citizens Of Washington Aroused Con-
corning the InhUman Treatment
OF N0rkhouse C0nViets.
Prisoners Tortured In the Public Streets
"A Repugnant and Disgusting
Spectacle.
Proceedings in COngress-Nr. Hewitt
Makes Personal Explanation Re-
esr6lng His Tariff Bill.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
T-e=fmsnf OF work hcuse ConViets-TwO
Crushed So uIIs-

looKEEsP0SDEScE on TEE APPEAL.i
WASHINGTON, May lS.-The citizens of
~ ashincton are aroused concerning the
treatment OF WoTkhouse conyicts in this
sl-y. and II IS probable thst some reform
at0ry legislation viii BE asked ct the hands
oi Congress. Workhouse convic:s n the
IistrIot are made I'D OF vagra-ta and other
persons not guilty Of serious crimes, who
are sent 10 prison on fines Burglars,
t4s1eFes an1-ucher hardened crirrinels Is are
kePt in the District iail. Tic workhouse
oouvlets are genersiiy employed az work
on the stTees, and narrowing tales are
t5lc concerning the indignities to which
tkeg are frequently subjected. Last Sat
arday q gang, IN charge OF a negro boss
v-as al y'Ork Al the corner of Fourth and
NJ streets. Southeast. A white boy, six
teen years Si age, one of the conyicts,
gave an impudent answer TO some ques-
uOn. whereUpon the negro boss, burly
brute, r1shed Epon him, threw him down,
strapped his hands, and suspended him to
an adjacent lamp post, where he remained
SUSPENDED nearly an hour, his feet barely
touching the g-OGnd, when courageous
citizen cat hin down. On the day previ-
ous 8 negro convict had beer likewise
tieo 70 a lamp post Al the corner OF Third
and NJ streets.
Extraordinary as il may seem, it is said
thEt these sPsctacles are not rare in Wash
lngtOn, crowds OF citizens sometimes col
lectIng and gazing on the writhing victim.
A convict Was tied 70 la1p-pOst on one
OF the coolest DAYS last winter and one of
ans hands became so badly frozen that am
putauOn was necessary. Other and nu-
merous outrages have been reported from
time 10 time. One convict, for an imagi-
mary oHensc, wss knocked down with a
club and beaten until he was insensible
Another was struck in the face with a rock
and ms counfenance badly disfgured.
There -, besides, general complaint
against The wOrkhouse system in Vogue
fisre- The cOnvicts are clothed in dirty,
greasy penitentiaTy stripes, with their
ankles cfsitssd together. Marched along
the streets, with their chains clankinc, fol-
lowed by brutal bosses carrying huge
clubs, they present a spectacle reVolting 10
the sight, and bad in the moral effect on
al people who see them. Citizens protest
that tins is q repugnaE. and disgusting ex-
h1bIrl0n TO which their wives and children
. should not be subjected, and they propose
20 IRaRgurate an effective movement for
reform.
Two CRUSHED SKULLS
ON exhibition at the National Medical
Museam, attracted much attention from
the Medical Convention which recently
assembled here. They are the skulls Of
Sandy Williams and Henry Peacock, two
young cOlOred men who lived in Norfolk,
Va They were both paying attention 10
the same girl, and becoming involved in
quarrel over their respective claims agreed
10 decide who should have the girl by the
result OF q butting match. They were
both large, powerful men. They stood
twenty PAGES apart and ran head down
WARD agaInst each other with full force
The tops OF their heads came together
with such tremendous violence that the
skull OF each was crushed like an egg
shell The medical authorities at the mu-
scum regard the skulls as curious speci-
mems, a the cranium OF the negro has
generally seen considered too thick ana
hard % BE- mashed in huttiur cnntest.