The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-12

Washington, May s.-The Evening
Star publishes today a complaint from
a number Of federal prisoners a
cerated in the state peniten1ary at Raj
eigh. n. c. The prisoners were ordered
to work at some brickyards eight miles
from the prison and refused TO comply,
claiming immunity under the law from
labor outside the PRISON walls. where
upon they yer fiogged for insubordi-
nation.
The complaint vas submitted 10 the
has been ordered.
One OF h communications received
by The Star is as follows:
We, the undersigned. United States
prisoners, wish 20 call your
TO the treatment and punishment We
received here on Tuesday, the 18th OF
this month. We Were formed in line
and told we were 10 be taken eight
miles outside of the walls 20 dig clay
70 De used TO make brick. We told the
officers here that We were all willing
10 work, but that the law did not re-
quire or permit Us 10 be taken outside
OF the walls. The brick yard also here
completes with the outside iabor and
OA I'm sd40S III lie vicinity. 1HANN OF
more United States prisoners went,
and are still going every day. the eight
miles TO the clay hole for fear of the
inhuman and corpora punishment We
received. The authorities had us singled
out, and calling us Yankees, took US
in the cell block. We We're handcuffed,
and tied with a rope from overhead
and pulled up by our wrists until our
toes just touched. Our trousers were
pulled down, and we We're dashed on
our bare backs, one man was given
twenty lashes, n when taken down
was unable to StandHe was taken down
to the hospital The others Of us had
from eleven lashes down to three. Two
other United States prisoners have been
whipped since. The authorities here
claim they a permission from
Washington to whip, and do, and take
amy of the United States prisoners out
side Of the walls and work. us any
! where they see fit. They say they soon
expect to get permission 10 take US
prisoners to work on farms throughout
the state.
None of the United States prisoners
refuse to work inside of the walls, and
God knows we are fed improperly and
bad enough. The food causes weakly
| men and sickness, and when sick. be-
fore God, they don't furnish medicine;
neither do they have the medicine on
hand. Our working hours here are
from sunup to shutdown. We get fresh
meat once a week, boiled. Will you in
vestigate this inhuman and outrageous
treatment? If this is law We are the
only United States prisoners in this
great free country lat must submit
to this brutal abuse. We hope that
o will investigate this shameless and
slavery treatment, and We expect to
! get redress"
The other communication is similar.
4 II wv HI1% %hA
Of the cOnvictS a the fingers of both
hands frozen off by being made to work
in the cold. 1t goes on to say hat n
Of the five men so terribly dashed is in
a bad way.
WHAT THE PENITETIARY AU-
THORITIES SAY.
Raleigh, N. c., May S.-The peniten-
tiary authorities make no denial Of the
alleged f1ogging of federal prisoners
confined in the states prison here.
They deny, however, that it was ex-
cessive. superintendent Day says the
prisoners became unruly and he could
manage them in no other way. He had
five of them whipped, some quite Sc
verely, he says, and others lightly.
A first I thought the law prohib-
tied their being whipped" he added,
and they thought so too, and that's
what made them so troublesome; but
[ looked into the matter carefully and
l found that there was a law allowing
it, that has never been repealed. Since
l had these men flogged they have
given no trouble"
During Superintendent Mewboorne's
administration in 1898, the federal pris-
OnerS gave the authorities much trou-
bic. More than once they mutinied and
refused to work, but they were never
fogged.