The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-19
BABE FAREWELL TO SWEAT.
TOM M'GARVEY PARTED RELIC
TANTLY WITH JAIL FRIENDS.

Harry Sweat Receives the Farewells
of the Old sinner with DebOnair
Indfmerence-Deputy Warden Ala
good, of the Prison Farm at MIL
IedgeviIIe, Took MeGarvey-He
Went to Prison Dressed in the Uni
form of His Country and Not Great
Iy Impressed with the Dreary
Prospects That He Faced.
Old Tom McGarvey, sentenced to life
imprisonment in the penitentiary for the
murder Of George Hawkins, his drunken
crony June Is, left last night for the
prison farm at Milledgeville. He was
guarded by Deputy Warden F. NJ Ala
good, who came TO Savannah for his pris-
oner
McGarvey went away in a cheerful mood
ana without seeming greatly to dread the
prospect Of Imprisonment for the remain
der of his days on earth. Possibly it is
the assurance that only a few more years
will be vouchsafed to him at any rate
that Brings the consolation and strength
ems and upholds him in the hour when he
bids fairwal to all that is sweet Ia life
or possibly it is the old feeling Of abso-
Lutte recklessness, by which his actions
in the past have been characterized that
renders him Indifferent to any fate that
can overtake him and willing to accept
with an equal composure anything that
comes that he feels he must endure.
When the Old fellow left the jail he was
attired in his best. He wore the uniform
IN which he had seen service in Cuba and
was as carefully groomed as circumstances
permitted in honor of this last journey that
he VIII take before the one that is the last
Indeed. His two months confinement in
jail has materially improved his appear
ance and driven away many of the marks
of dissipation which he had worn for
years almost innumerable and bore at the
time of mis- arrest for the murder of Haw-
kins..
When Jailer Strickland notified McGar-
vey that the warden had come for him
ana that il was time for him TO go, he
asked permission to bid farewell to Harry
Sweat, who occupies cell on the third
floor of the jail. The permission was
granted and McGarvey unaccompanied by
any one else, assembled. He babe Sweat
goodbye in affcctionate terms and seemed
moved that he was seeing the boy. who
had become his friend, for the last time
on earth,
The picture that the two presented as
they stood side by side in the Jail was
one for the pencil of the painter or the
pen of the mOrdiist McGarVey, hoary
with years and STEPPED in crime; Sweat
a boy in years but under sentence of
death for that crime that the law most
a0hOrs. The one, lettering along
towards the end of "a life
that had been thrown away;
the other, doomed to pay with his own
life the inevitable penalty of degrading
sin. Around them the dusky faces of
hundred negro criminals, and back of all
the barred cells of the prison place.
Sweat received McGarVey's adieus with
the most debonair Indifference and an
airy Goodbye Tom! Take care of your
self" They pressed each others hand
and McGarvey came back down stairs
As he descended the negroes in the Jail
pressed their faces against the bars of
the cage and told him goodbye, and Nc
Garvev shook hands with each. Then
the cuffs were snapped upon his wrists
and he came outside and walked away
with his keeper Warden Allagood left
with McGarvey on the Central train a
10 o'clock.
The prison farm, at Mlledgeville, to
which the man has been sent is the first
effort of the state towards establishing
a refOrmatory, and the criminals that are
received there are either very old or very
young or very decrepit. There are 1000
acres of land. in the farm, and this large
area is cultivated by the prisoners eX-
clusiVely. Criminals who are in their
prime and prone to commit greater crimes
or to debase and degrade further the
minds Of the younger inmates are rgOr-
ously excluded. and it is contended by
the officers of the farm that 1t Us accom-
plishing a vast deal of good or, at least,
preventing a vast deal of harm.
The prisoners are not compelled to asso-
ciate with the West Of their class nor TO
spend the years designed for punishment,
and which it is hoped win better and i'm
prove their natures in an atmosphere that
can but make them worse. They are Civ
en- work in the open air, and enough of II
10 occupy their minds. They are treated
kindly and humaney, and the effort is
made 10 send them forth after their terms
of Imprisonment have expired better men
and women than they We're when they en-
tered the doors of the institution.
If he is to be confined at all McGarvey
could not have selected a place to spend
his declining years where he could feel
more assured that his decrep,tude would
be understood and allowance made for it,
and where he can live and die in such
peace as is permitted to the man upon
whose brow has been sci the mark of
Cain