The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-12
TIE PEN1rExrIARY SENSATION

s,rariptendent John X Smith Was Here
Yesterday Eating New Eiver Oysters and
Lookin. screne-Be Says The Report Tha
There is Trouble Between Him ana inc
Peuitentiary Directors is News to Him
The Messengers Raleigh special in
yesterdays p That
there is a fresh sensation regarding
the penitentiary;" that "the relations
between the governor and Superintend-
ent Smith are greatly strained" n
that there is trouble between the su-
perintendent and the board Of direc-
tors of the penitentiary, and cit looks
ike he will nave to GO"
No less a person thai superintendent
Smith arrived in Wilmington yesterday.
He came in at 1905 p. m. on the Sea-
board Air Line. and was the guest
Yesterday of MI. Vim. H.. Chadbourn,
a member of the penitentiary board
and chairman of the finance committee
of the board.
A Messenger representative yester-
day afternoon met superintendent
Smith standing on the corner OF Front
and Princess streets, in company with
Heenan Hughes, Esq, a lawyer from
Graham, n. c., and who is himself a
member Of the board Of penftentiary
directors. Major McIver, who Is in
charge of the convict gang that is here
building the Atlantic Coast Lines link
road, was also in the party.
Superintendent Smith said to The
Messenger representative that the dis
patch from Raleigh was news to him.
but he said he had nothing to say
about it, one way or the other. He
laughed about the statement that there
was trouble between him and the board
of directors, and he and Director
Hughes both said they did not know
of any trouble. On the contrary, Su-
perintendent Smith added that he de-
pended on the board in the manage
ment of the penitentiary. He was look
ing serene. and later when the Mes
senger representative saw him he was
getting away with some New River
oysters on the half she'll. Mr.. George
III. Cannon, of Brunswick county, an
other Of the members of the peniten-
tiary board, was also in the city yes
terday.
Superintendent Smith came here
from the state convict farm at Wades-
boro, where he had been looking after
affairs. He says while in WadesDOrO
he sold to a buyer there 100 bales of
cotton from the state farm. The crop
on the farm consists Of 1000 acres of
cotton and $50 acres Of corn. There
are $50 convicts there, and most OF
them are kept hard at work picking
cotton. The two new gins and the grist
and saw mills recently constructed at
the farm are in full operation.
The state also has three more farms
the big Caledonia farm on the Roam
oke in Halifax county, the farm known
as the Halifax farm, in the same coun-
ty, and the farm in Northampton cOun-
ty. We learn that the crop at the Gale
donna farm consists of 1000 acres in
cotton and $500 acres in corn. There
are 300 convicts there, and they are
employed in the effort to pick out the
big cotton crop.
At the Halifax farm there are 500
acres in cotton and 1000 acres in corn.
There are 100 convicts there and they
are also up to their eyes picking cot
ton.
AT the Northampton farm there are
1000 acres in cotton and 1900 acres in
corn. There are 16O convicts there
helping to get out the cotton.
Superintendent Smith says he is MAX
ing a great effort to saw the cotton
crop and In consequence the peniten-
tiary has been stripped of able-bodied
men, even Of the life term prisoners,
and that only those remain at the pen-
itentiary who are in the hospital. There
are 100 convicts at work on the states
four fans and they are picking about
sixty bales Of cotton per day.
Superintendent Smith left here last
night for Raleigh and will go from
there to the farms in Northampton
and Halifax counties.