The San Francisco call., 1898-01-30

were sold Into q DOnNdSe WoASS
 than death. and the State or Florida to-day is richer by $2l,OOo.
 To be sure, these poor wretches were convicts, and had broken the laws But they were none the less human beings You might have had some difficulty in realizing this could you have seen them as saw them in all the misery or thelr hopeless, squalid dejection. And they were bought, body and soul, for the period of one year. The State sold them to four contractors. who had made the highest bids Next year they will have other masters.
 They have no penitentiary in Florida. and so the conVicts are sold into slav- cry, To build penitentiaries means the expenditure of money, and this the leg islators are not willing to vote for. even were the property owners willing to be thus taxed. So the State of Florida, instead of providing accommodations for its criminals, derives a pecuniary benefit from a form of traffic which is appalling in this age of civilization and in this land of the free.
 It isn't called slavery in Florida. There is no auctiOneer to cry: How much am I offered for this man?" There is no bidding and raising of bids. The bidding has already been done to the State officials, and the entire lot has been knocked down to the highest bidders. Oh. no, it Is not the selling of slaves. they will tell you. The scene l witnessed was merely the annual division"
 Every year this is done. Albion is the headquarters camp for the State con- victs. and for several years previous of ha lpd wretches had been coming in from the various phosphate mines and turpen- tine camps where they had been slav- ing during the past year. There were 430 of them, all told crowded into the foul. miserable little stockade. And there were still more to come, as the books show that on January l Florida had 6S7 State convicts. The others were to be driven up later-driven is the word, for they are handled like cat tle-and the division" made when con- venient to the parties most interested, which. of course, does not mean the convicts themselves.
 They were a pitiabe lot, as I found them, huddled against the stockade. Some were black and some were white. some men, some women, and few were children. They had been convicted of nearly every crime in the calendar, from petty larceny up to murder, arson
 
 lenses in Florida. These graVer offend CTS had escaped the full penalty of the law, either through some techufcality or the clemency of the Governor. Some of them looked as though they wished the law had taken its natural course.
 They were ranged along the stockade, where they had been huddled together for two days and nights like so many sheep driven to the slaughter pen. They had been crowded together into a Stockade built for less than one-half the number, and fully one hundred of the number had been compelled to sleep on the cold ground, with the frosty air and clear sky for blanket. Still, this may have been better than was the lot of the others, who were wedged into the little building. breath ing the foul and putrid air over and over again.
 The convict clothes were tattered rags. Many of the men were without shoes. All were dirty, and there was not a face in which could be detected the slightest gleam of hope. They knew their fate They knew what the past had taught them. and what the future had in store. The contractors whose leases had just expired had used the greatest efforts to get the most work possible out of their purchases.
 The old leases had expired, and the new ones for the year 1898 had beer negotiated. The new "lessees'' don't like to be called slave drivers are J. A. Cranford. s. L. Varnadoe w N. Camp, and West Brothers. They had decided upon a division of the con- victs, and they actually drew lots tC see who should have the first choice and the Vests and Camps followed il the order named.
 Cranford chose his man, then tho others followed. selecting the stronges of the miserable looking beings arrayeC before them. Of course there is al ways a desire to secure the long-tern men; that is, those who are serving life