The record-union., 1897-09-13

InOmaS IN his Dena1I- IL the story
is not made out of whole cloth, later
details will probably put the matter in
a different light. The probability is
that the gateman was insolent, and
that he lost his place by his own fault.
While the majority Of railroad en-
ployes are attentive and courteous TO
travellers, there are some who are gruff,
rude and overbearing, and if Mr.. Ho-
bart, who was travelling as private
citizen saw fit to report the man, he
did both the travelling public and the
company a service. No sensible per-
son will believe that the Vice-President
had the man discharged because he did
his duty, if he had him discharged at
ALL
HELLS ON EARTH.
Stockton Mail: Governor Atkinson,
so the dispatches say. has threatened
| to pardon in a body the 2,000 convicts
now in Georgia prison camps. The
! Governor of Georgia is a man of un-
| flinching determination. His communi-
cation is yea, yea, and nay, nay. When
/ his mind is made up, nothing can
swerve him from his purpose. We hope
the report is true. We hope the Gov
ernor will turn these men loose. 1t is
a heroic remedy, but heroic remedy
is required.
We have always been swift to defend
the South against the assaults of ig-
norance and prejudice. We will be
more readily believed, perhaps on this
account, when we declare that the con-
Wet camps of Georgia, Alabama, MIS-
| issippi and Tennessee are the most
dreadful hells of cruelty that can be
| conceived. In these Internal torture
pens are enacted, day after day, scenes
! of horrible cruelty which would put
| savage to the blush. The accounts OF
! Siberian prisons, furnished by Mr..
| KEENAN, shocked the readers of the
| Century" magazine. But the worst
Russian dungeon described by Mr..
! Kennan would be welcomed as haven
! of blessed rest by the miserable wretch
es who groan in these awful American
prison camps We speak now of those
things which we have seen and heard
with our own eyes and ears In the
| States we have mentioned 1t is the
practice to sell convicts to the highest
bidder. The convicts are purchased by
contractors, to whom they belong, BODY
and SOUL during the term of their pun
| ishment The buyers of these con-
victs take them in gangs and employ
them in coal mining, iron mining, in
| mbering and in work on great plan
! tations The contractor has over his
chattels absolute power He can whip
| them-and the whip is seldom idle He
can kill one if he likes, and there IS
none to stay his hand. The convictS
are slaves, with the difference that the
master has no pecuniary interest in
keeping the slave alive. If one dies,
another is hired from the State. The
/ contractors sole idea is to get from
his human chattel every ounce of mus
| Gle and labor of which he is capable
| day by day. The poor wretches are
whipped to almost superhuman toll un-
| till they fall in their tracks. If one is
sick he is left to die If he rebels he
| is whipped till the blood runs If he
resists. he is shot as a warning to the
others, and in more than one instance
a rebellious convict has been tortured
to death as a lesson to his comrades in
chains When the convict is handed
| over to the contractor he is at once
ironed. Shackles are riveted to his leg,
| there to stay for months, until often
the iron cuts through the flesh to the
| DOIe. Al nlSul the WIelCIeS al uliN CA
to the stockades, built of logs driven
| into the ground, and often with no
| roof to shelter the sleepers from the
rains and suns Armed guards patrol
| the outside of this stockade and a pack
of bloodhounds is a regular part of the
equipment A guard loses one-third of
months pay if he fails to stop an
escaping prisoner. This is calculated to
make him aim straight and shoot on
slight pretext. Such is a Southern
convict camp.
A BREACH IN TT.
Alameda Argus: There is no prob
ability of any murderer in all the
broad land being hanged until Congress
can meet and so revise the United
States statutes that there will not be
breach in national law through which
can be driven a coach and four. From
all sections of the country come re-
ports of murderers being reprieved
through appeals to the Supreme Court
of the United States. Durrant led off
and a string of capital criminals of less
renown have followed. The chances of
a murderer meeting his deserts was
very small before; now the remote pos
sibility of his conviction by State trial
courts and the confirmation of the
sentence by the State Supreme Court
is supplemented by the interference of
the Federal tribunals. There must be
halt in such defeat of justice. The
Federal courts must be made to feel
their limitations in several directions.