Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-18
BARBARITY.
The Chain Gang a Cruel
Institution.
Fetters in Los Angeles Worse
Than in Siberia.
A Self-Respect-Killing Exposure of
Unfortunate Offenders.
Something which Has No Place in This
Age-A Fine Sight by Which Wis
itors Can Judge Our
Civilization.

Eight unfortunate Migrants were ar
rested yesterday by the police and
carted to the city Jail in the patrol
wagon. AS whole they are not ex-
actly handsome, nor do they look pros
porous, and some of them have even
villainous appearance; but they are all
unmistakably miserable and forlorn.
Some of them will probably be released
and given a chance to leave the city
while walking is good, and others will
be punished for not having visible
means OF support. Whether it is their
fault or not does not enter into the
question. They are vagabonds, tramps,
"hobos," as the latest police slang has
it, and deserve little sympathy. The
chances are, however, that they get
even less than they deserve.
Every evening between 5 and O'Clock
a dirty looking wagon is driven to the
door OF the police station, and dozen
or so of "vags' alight to betake them
selves to the simple cots upon which
they are allowed nightly to rest their
wearied limbs. They descend from the
wagon, not with alacrity, but with
stitfened movements and the clanking
of heavy chains. They are only the
members of the chain gang, says the
matter-of-fact policeman who ushers
them into the musty old station. They
have been carried to the outskirts of the
city where new streets are being graded
and filled, and. fettered in iron anklets,
have been compelled to toll like slaves
all dav, while heavy logging chain six
feet in length, to which is attached an
iron ball as large as a mans head, has
made escape impossible.
The sight of these poor fellows carry
ing the ball and chain to their resting
place after days work is heart-rending
to anv one who still makes claim to
little sensitiveness. The punishment
meted out to these persons is the most
degrading imaginable, and in its refined
cruelty is fit to be inflicted only on the
vilest criminals. Yet, any one can see
any morning or afternoon, young men
of Is or 20, some of them evidently suf-
fering from constitutional illnesses, stag
gering YEARLY over the heartless thresh-
old of the city prison under the load
of the clanking irons which are depriv-
ing them of the last vestige OF their SELF
respect. OF course some OF the chain
gang are of another ilk. Their moral
nature has become stultified and they
90 through their miserable routine with
an air of defiance, or spirit OF bragga-
docio. But even they are to be pitied,
for the disgrace is attached to them and
they are exposed daily to the SCOTS of
an unfeeling populace under eircum-
stances which would drive many man
to a self-inhicted death.
A few weeks ago, George Kennan, the
great Siberian traveller, delivered lee
ture at the opera house on the Russian
convicts, mines OF Kara. His eloquent
description OF human misery is still in
the memories OF his hearers. No one
who attended that lecture can forget,
however, the shudder which passed
the sympathetic audience,
when Mr.. Kennan appeared on the
stage in convict garb, and the horrible
clank of the chains resounded
the auditorium. That was
in the nature Of climax,
and the dreadful music of the irons
caused many a pitying heart to sob.
Yet the chaine displayed by Mr.. Ken
nan as the original article are as toys
to the huge weights which
clank about the heels of miserable
member of thesLos Angeles chain gang.
The great majority of the Russian con-
victs are crimanals of vile type, and de-
serve probably all they get, but it is i'm
probable that even in Russia person
would be treated like one of the local
chain gang, for no worse offense than
having NJ ''visible means of support"
Now that the International Associa-
ton of Press clubs is about to send a
hundred representatives OF the higher
civilization to visit this country, it
might be well to include in the pro-
gramme of entertainment an exhibition
Of the chain gang as fine relic OF the
barbarous past.