Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-05-27
THE CRUEL LASH.
Terrible Treatment Received by the Con.
victs of the State of kentucky.
rl,inn innati z

Terrible Treatment Received by the Con.
victs of the State of Kentucky.
ICinc innati Enduirer.l
The committee appointed to examine
Into the affairs of the Kentucky coal mines
in regard to working convicts have filed
their report. The committee first visited
the Greenwood mines, in Pulaski County.
At this mine the convicts were compelled
to work in water several inches deep. and
often compelled to lie down and
work in the water in order to complete
their task. The committee say that the
State Inspector, who was compelled to
look after the welfare of the convicts, has
in great measure failed to discharge his
duties.
The prison in which the convicts at
Greenwood are confined is log building
twenty EIGHT by forty feet, and the other
is box house, and there is no way to heat
them. The ventilation is bad in the
rooms where the convicts sleep. They are
compelled to sleep on straw beds, laid on
q plank, two convicts to each bed, and the
bedding exceedingly dirty. The bedding
has not been washed for several months,
and the blankets and bedding were in
tested with vermin. About six O'Clock in
the morning the convicts are brought into
a shed-room with dirt floor without hav-
ing an opportunity to wash their hands,
and hastily down breakfast of coffee,
wheat bread, fat bacon, all cooked on the
preceding day, the meat sometimes being
frozen. After breakfast they are sent to
the mines with piece of corn bread and
bacon for their dinner. The clothing fur
nished the convicts consists Of a suit of
wool goods. They are confined all day
Sunday, and have no religious teaching.
The hospital is log house, with mean
ventilation. Many of the convicts COM
planned of not getting enough to eat at
times. The clothing might have been suf-
fcient for mild weather, but for the wealth
er of last winter it was insufficient.
As to the punishment, that was accord
ing to the discretion of the warden and
mine bosses, whose positions and wages
depended to a great extent on the guam
tity of coal they can, under the dread and
terror of the strap, compel the convicts to
get out daily. The punishment inflicted
was with a strap of heavy leather two feet
long, and varies in number from two to
fifty lashes, and the lash was often ap-
piled to the convicts for trivial offenses,
such as taking bread left at the breakfast
table and talking at night after they had
| gone to bed.
| The majority of the punishment was,
! however, inflicted for failure to COM
| plete their task, which was in many in
stances a physical impossibility. The
! highest number of lashes given to one
convict was fifty to Jesse Williams for at
| tempting to escape. From the 9th to the
| 18th of March, 1886, over forty whippings
| occurred, and the lashes administered ag-
| gregatcd over three hundred. The backs
| of some of the convicts showed the marks
several weeks after they had been whip
| ped. A convict named Henry Solomon
complained of being sick and was sent out
| to the warden. After being struck ON the
| head with whip stock he was sent back
| into the mines bleeding to work. Another
| convict named Allensworth was whipped
before and after going to bed for talking
| about escaping.
The committee also visited the Pensee
Mines, in Whitley County. AT this place
there were ffty-one whippings from Jam
uary to March Il, 1856, aggregating 413
| lashes. The tasks here are entirely too
| great for the men.