Richmond planet., 1898-08-27

ed on March 1st and he lived and suf-
fered until March Sth His only fault
was that he was unsble to .sccomplith h
his task which exssperated che drunk
en- warden. The name OF this convict
was Nose Harvey.
CHAINED TO THE WHIPPING POST.
On February 22nd J. A. Gafford. the
warden. whipped Charles Williams,
colored convict, who ran away and hid
in the mines. He was found by the
guard and brought out one morning at
breakfast time He was stripped ak
ed and chained to the whipping post
and during the day had four hundred
lashes laid on his bare back that nigh,
he was taken TO the hospital, chained
hand and foot and died the next day
When the body was exhumed it was
found in pine box filed with water
and mud, and was wrapped in q piece
of old blanket Every particle of flesh
had been whipped of his back from
the shoulders down. The right tenn
pie of the skull W as fractured by lick
from q pick-axe. On the right side
just over the kidney was a hole six in
ches square which had been kicked in
there.
KNEW NOTHING ABOUT 1T.
The guards pretended TO know moth
ing of the whipping except that they
heard his pitiful shrieks. 1.-The doc
tor reported that the convict died of
congestive chills
Another colored convict by the name
Andrew Fry was given Zip licks, kept
chained up all night, hit 96 licks in the
morning. and within an hour the Negro
was dead"
Nose Tate was unable to get out his
coal. was chained and whipped until
he died"
j. B Scott, who was warden 8 few
months previous to January, 1883.
"was drunk half the time. One
night he whipped seventy-five men un-
til the blood ran In streams from their
bodies.
could give other instances of con-
victs being "aayed alive" but enough
is already given to show why seventy
fresh graves" were found during one
investigation Of '-the hell in Arkansas "
John c. Carol, inspector of convicts,
declared that convicts were just as
badly treated on farms and railroad
construction and other places, as those
| worked in the mines at Coal Hill, Con-
vict farms were declared to be "bru-
, talizing hells on earth"
NO PUNIsHMENT FOR THE MURDERER.
And what was the penalty for the
warden or guard who was found guilty
of this wholesale murder of these half
starved manAcled slaves? Under the
law q warden could whip convict ev-
er so brutally, and the only offence he
could be convicted of was assault and
battery for which he paid q nominal
hne."
One of the worst features of the
Southern prison system, whether the
convicts be turned over body and soul
to contractors, or are work by the
State is, that thousands of youths
some of them mere children, are being
educated in these ''vast schools Of
crime" Every year each state turns
out her graduates t9 instruct the limo.
cent in crime. It may he gambling ol
it may be sodomy for both are prac
ticed in some of the camps. Guards
gamble with the convicts.
INNOCENT MEN SUFFER-.
Innocent men are sometimes kid
mapped and taken to work in convict
mines. L white minister living neal
Philad elphia mysteriously disappeared
during the early part of last year. He
returned to his family after an absenc'
OF several months, when it was Learned
that he had been drugged and carried
to phosphite mine, probably in Geor
! gia. He wss assisted to escape but hi
! sufferings while at the mine complete
ly undermined his health and he i
now . physical wreck.
DRoPPEE IN NAME ONLY.
: Since the lease system has beer
dropped Gin name at least) in some o
the States, it has been said that Their
is something Of q reform in the man
agement OF cOnvicts. Never will Their
be any real reform so long as the pris
on system is part of the political ma
chinery Of the State, apart Of the spoil