Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-15
ATROCIOUS CRUELTY TO CON
VICTS.


From the convict camp st Coal Hill,
Ark, comes 8 report CT brutal atrocities
that are horriiying. The convicts are
worked in the coal mines at that place,
and quartered in stockade to which no
outsider is admitted. Recently il csme to
the ears OF the coroner that convict had
died in the stockade, and he went with 4
jury TO examine into the cause OF his
death. 1t wss found that instead of one
death in the stocksde there hsd been
many, some OF them brought about by
the most hendish brutality on the part of
the keepers. Here is one csse, as de-
tailed by 8 reporter OF the Little Rock
Gazette:
"The coroner's Jury examined it (the
body OF a dead couvIct) and then exam
ined number OF witnesses and brought
out .he fact that the negro's name was
Nose Harvey aud that he had been killed
by another convict named Mat Bailey.
The former was small man and the
latter large and burIy. Gsford had made
them fight, and Bailey soon killed
his man. Upon an examination of
the body 1t was found that the end Of the
spinal column had been kicked ana
broken. of. The genital organs had
been kicked off or stamped of with
shoe heel; the stomach had been kicked
to pieces. Altogether there were forty
distinct severe kicks and bruises, any one
of which might have produced death. The
head had been punched all out Of shape
and was unrecogn.zsble. The eyes had
been burst from the sockets and hung
down over the face, looking like q black
culp or some raw spoiled Oeet."
The Gaftord referred to above Was the
warden, and other evidence taken showed
that making two cOnYicIs fight until one
had disabled the other was q fayorite
amusement Of his. He was finally dis
charged by the lessees-for drunkenness,
not cruelty-aud is now fugitive from
justice with reward get upon his head.
Another case uuesrthed by the Coro-
neT (hterAlly unearthed, for the victim
lhsd been buried was that OF man who,
because he could not DO IS much work as
the convict with whom he labored, was
chsined to the whipping post, stripped,
snd during the day received 400 lashes,
he wss put in the hospital, ChaiGed hand
and foot, and died the next dsy. Every
particle of flesh had been whipped eff his
back from the shoulders down, his skull
had been fractured, and hole had been
kicked in his right side, Just above the
Kidneys, Oher conVicts had been beaten
so that they died from the effects.
These and other cruelties which the
investigation brought to light have SO
shocked the people of Arkansas that the
abolition of the convict lease system is
very likely to be the result. 1t is said that
the lessees knew nothing Of these atrcci-
ties, and that they will assist in bringing
to justice the guilty parties. That can
not be. They knew that the history Of
the convict lease system everywhere else
has been history Of cruelty. and they
should have seen to 1t that the men whom
they employed as guards should not NAL
treat the poor devils placed in their care
And there is another responsible party
It is the stste of Arkansas, which, by sell
ing these convicts into slavery, has made
such acts Of cruelty possible. The only
remedy lies in the abolition OF the sys
TEN, and the sooner that is done the fewer
the atrocities for which the state Is re-
sponsible.
And these general remarks apply IS
well to Texas as to Arkansas. 1t may BIZ
that no convicts in Texas have ever suf-
fered such cruelties as those mentioned
above. But Just so surely as the lease
system is continued just so surely will
the dsy come when lot of Texas con-
victs will fall into the hands Of some such
brute IS Gsfford, and then in tears and
cries and blood will tale Of horror be
told which will be 8 lasting disgrace to
the state.
The only wsy to avoid it is to abolish
the system.I
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