The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-06-21
l'ILLNAN'S REPLY
To the Penitensiary Investigating
Committee.
LATlMER ALSO MAKES REPLY
A New Light Thrown on Some of
the Things Brought Out
Before the Com

the Things Brought Out
Before the Com
mittee.
The investigation Of the management
Of the affairs OF the State penitentiary
by former Superintendent W. \. Neal
was resumed in Columbia on Tuesday
of last week. There were only three
members Of the committee on hand
Chairman Stevenson and Senators Liv-
ingston and Hay. Mr.. Patton was ex-
pected in the afternoon. The other
members was kept away by sickness.
The committee went TO work at lively
pace and some facts bout $500 worth
Of cotton seed meal and the hosiery
mill contracts We're developed. The
witnesses examined were exCapt. Of
the Guard Westfeld and ex- Bookkeeper
Burriss. The feature Of the day was
the introduction of letters written BY
the chairman to prominent men whose
names had been connected with the in
vestigation, aud the replies thereto sent
by Senator Tillman. 1t was also de-
veloped that Representative John Ash
ley Of Anderson had stabbed his horse at
the penitentiary during the 1898 session
of the legislature free Of charge.
Col. Neal was not present, but his
attorneys, Col. P. H. Nelson and Julius
E. Boegs, Esq, were there to look out
after his interests. Penitentiary Di.
rectcrs Cunningham, Tatum and Sand
ers were present also.
The committee got to work in the
supreme court room, it being more
spacious and cooler than the COM
mittee room upstairs heretofore used.
After preliminary conference in pri-
vate the body was publicly called to or
der by Chairman Stevenson at about
1870 o'clock.
Capt. Westfeld was sworn as the first
witness and asked by Mr.. Stevenson if
he knew whether one of the members
of the legislature during the session Of
1898 had not had his horse stabbed at
the penitentialy. He said Joshua
Ashley Of Anderson had brought his
horse there and kept it there. He
would say, in justice to Mr.. Ashley,
that that gentleman had frequently fur
nished the penitentiary with teams to
and from the convict camp in his coun
ty, and had saved the State prison much
more than the cost Of the feed and care
Of his horse.
SENATOR TILLMAS $ REPLY.
Mr.. Stevenson here explained that
lie had written letters to the several
prominent men whose names had been
connected with penitentiary transac-
tions. He read this letter to Senator
Tillman.
Cheraw, May 20, 1899
Hon. B. R. Tillman.
Dear Sir:-In the investigation Of
the penitentiary management there ap
pears on the brick book one carload Of
brick charged to you and on the com
missary book certain grocery accounts
for 1894, and il is charged by the Off
GERS that you ran farm while governor
with convicts, and the pepitentiary got
no benefit from it, and also that certain
furniture was presented to you by the
management. The committees expert
ence in the past in finding receipts for
accounts, etc, which appear to be uu-
paid and are not so entered, requires
that we give every party against whom
such charges and insinuatiors are made
an opportunity to be heard, and | write
to say that we will meet at the State
house in Columbia June l3, 1899, at y
o'clock. m, and will be glad to have
your statements as to these matters if
YOU desire to be heard.
Very truly yours,
". +. Stevenson,
Chairman Investigating Com.
The reply of the senior member was
read as follows:
Trenton, S. c., May 26, 1899.
Hon. ". T. Stevenson, Cheraw, 5. G.
Dear Sir:-I have your letter Of May
10Th. hardly think it worth my while
to appear before your committee to au-
swer the trivial matters brought out IN
the Neal investigation. do not see in
what way Col. Meals dcreliction or
misconduct, or his transactions in re-
gard to the bricks and bookcase, etc,
effect me. | am IN the dark as to the
exact nature Of one Of these matters, to
VIII: The account on the commissary
book" and would be glad to know the
nature Of that account, items and dates.
| will state for your information that
| have no recollection whatever Of ever
having obtained any groceries or any
thing else that could be charged on a
book Of that kind from the peniten-
tiary, except an occasional mess OF
vegetables, which were sent to me by
Col. Neal as a compliment, I suppose,
and l am sure | paid for anything else
| got.
In regard to my running farm with
convicts, l Will state that | never ran a
farm while in Columbia at all, in the
common sense of the term. | rented
FIVE or six acres Of land which sowed
in oats in the fall with my carriage
horses and then sowed in peas after the
oats we're cut for pea hay. There was
a little patch at the executive mansion
which was similarly treated, and the
convicts who kept the yard and grounds
clean helped to gather in this hay as
we'll as that out on the rented land the
last year | was at the mansion, and Col.
Neal would never take any pay. The
labor Of curing and hauling five acres Of
oats and pea hay one year you can estl.
mate so as to see about the extent Of
the account, if it is still open. The
matter was so trivial l attached no i'm
portance to it then or now. You may
consider it in different light.