Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-06-03
THE PENITENTIARY.
Captain johnson yentilates the Contro-
versy With the Contractors,
MoUNDsvILLE, June 2.

VI bAAC
and his suboIdinates, and
which appeared in the IatelEgencer Of the
Both ultimo, supplemented by an editorial,
doubtless the lucubration Of the fertile
brain of said contractors, singly or as a
whole, has fallen stillborn. The article
referred to, while enticipg to the casual
reader, is fallacious in reasoning and prin-
ciple, and is wholly unwaranted by the
facts The authors, with fiendish, coward
IL malignity, kaye travelled outside OF the
record, and make a gratutious attack on
me, wherein they state that convicts cay
upon returning to the shops, from Police
Court, mo use for you to report me,
Captain johnson don't like you no how"
when the truth is, that rarely, if ever,
hold such Court, and that only in the abb
ssnce of the Superintendent. In the con-
troversy between these contractors and the
have remained passive.
Simply because enjoy the confidence oil
Col. Robertson, I am made target for the
abuse of the contractors, whom l have al
ways endeavored to treat with that re-
suect accorded by one gentleman to an
other, but it seems l have been mistaken
in the character of the gentlemen alluded
10. As / understand the duties Of a
quad, it is to stand between the rapacity
of contractors in their encroachments
against the State and their violation
of tue rights of eopvicts. Actingas l have
in that position for number OF years, l
have been quiet observer Of the malignity
with which contractors pursue the unfort'
innate beings herein confined, and the en-
ticing alluremehts held out to guards to
make a mistake in the computation oil
time of convict laborers, in the interest Of
said contractors and to the detriment oil
the State. Because of the fact that would
not Weld obedience to their Infamous
schemes, being faithful to the interests Of
the State, and welfare Of the conSiets in
trusted to my keeping, ] am pursued be-
yond the pale of truth by these task
masters. who, had they lived in the histor-
ic DAYS Of Rameses, would have occupied a
high niche in that temple upon the banks
of tine Nile devoted to the dedication OF
Egyptian barbarians. The allusion about
convicts returning from police court, &c.,
and above alluded to, is lie out of the
whole cloth, and yard wide. The
authors of the base calumuy, when re-
quested to name or point out a single con-
vict who had given utterance to such a
remark, were confused, dumbfonnded,
and by their equivccstions, manifested to
an o6seryant mind that they had simply
lied. The convict who used the express
ion must have long since gone over the
wall or exists only as 3 Pigment Of the i'm
agination in the diseased brains OF these
virtuous (?), high-toned (?) and self-sacri-
fcing (?) contractors.
Now for the facts. challenge compari-
son with discipline as now enforced with
any former administration. Any unpreju.
diced person can perceive, by an examina-
ton of the police court records end from
observation of the men at work in the
shops, that discipline is far better now
than formerly.
Let any impartial person investigate the
matter aud they will very easily learn
that Peck was but as plastic clay in the
hands and under the manipulations OF
Messrs. Weaver, Bardall, Humphreys and
Hodgman, the present contractors. His
rule was to 20 to the shops, single out con-
victs, drive them like sheep to the sham
bles, to the cellars where repOss his instru-
ments of torture, there to receive condign
az well as SYNONYMOUS punishment, at the
nod and wink of contractors. We defy
any one to produce or complete records Of
these punishments. They have been either
mutilated or spirited away il any such
were ever kept, which is open to grave
doubt, yet the facts are well known to the
Guards. The giSt of the matter now is,
that the contractors cannot run the Pen as
they did under Peck's management. This
sad and pitiabls state of affairs does not
now exist, thanks TO the wise, economic
and benefieent administration of Colonel
Robertson, the present efficient Superin-
tendent. Compare the Police Court record
now with that of Peck's, in the first fifteen
days of January, 1887, wherein it will be
seen that Humphreys, foreman Of the
broom shop, and not contractor, as he
would have the outside world believe,
reported 127 cOarictS for trivial or imagin-
airy violations of the rules, when it is ex-
pressly provided for in said rules that a
contractor or foreman cannot make such
reports, only through the guard placed
there by the State. During the admins
tration of Robertson's predecessor the con-
tractors and foremen were accorded such
privileges, iu direct contravention of the
letter and spirit Of the rules formulated
for the government Of the Pen. They
tried it on Colonel Robertson, who held
them down to said rules. Hence these
tears. / assert unhesitatipgly, une-
quivocally and without fear Of
successful contradiction, that the
discipline is far better now than ever
in the history of the Pen, and will cite
as authority the records of the Police Court
from which it will be seen that all men re-
ported for serious violations, are melted ont
such punishment commensurate with the
offense committed. The records are open
for the inspection of any and all iuquirers
after the truth at any and all times. The
allusion in the article referred to, as to the
of the guards is far fetched and re-
mote from the truth. The gentlemen COM
posing the guard force here, will compare
fsyorably with those of similar institutions
continuously OF remotely situated. The
facts will warrant me in saying that two
of the guards formerly in the employ of the
State, seeing the handwriting on the wall,
OF trust and confidence violated, tender
ed their designations which were duly &C.
cspted, -snd as reward for their deyo-
ton and loyalty to the interests OF these
much abused (?) contractors, were taken
in their employment, aud are now engaged
as floor walkers in two of the shops within
these walls, supervising work, about
which they know as much as a kstydid
does of picnic exclusion to the Adiron-
dacks.
As to the waste of material in the black
smith shop, it is simply an untruth, and
not warranted by the facts. Convict VIM.
Smith was the most efficient man in his
line of work in the employment OF the
Webster Wagon Co, and the same can be
said of convict Thomas, who preceded him.
refer the impartial observer of facts to the
candid and frank statement of Mr.. Adams,
of the paint shop, who stands pre-sminent
in his sphere of work, and who has been
identified closely with the Webster Wagon
Co since its advent in the State, as con-
tractor, and who has in his long and conf
Dental relations with that company, never
violated trust or betrayed q confidence.
Ry Mr.. Adams statement | will stand or