The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-21
PENITENTIARY DEBTS.
All Warrants for Old Debts Signed.
This Years Debts, to BE Paid Out of
Receipts-Tobacco Exhikit for Paris
Exposition.
Messenger Bureau.
Raleigh, N. c., November Il

Raleigh, N. c., November Is.
Today the warrants were signed by
the p~enitentiary executive board IN
pay all the debts up to December 31st
last. The warrants aggregate some
$4,000. Chairman Travis. of the hoard
said:
w expect to pay all the debts in
CURED since December 31st out of our
this year. This does not
mean that we will pay back the $50. 900
which the legislature appropriated for
the uppOrt OF the p~enitentiary this
year. In all, we spent about $25, 900 OF
TINS 100000 to put the p~enitentiary IN
shape. We had to spend $40, O0O for
mules alone, for instance. The debts
incurred between December 31sr and
the adjournment of the legislature were
$l6,OOO, and it is these | refer to above
as to be paid out Of the sale of our
crops, etc. We have sold only 100 bales
of cotton. l calculate we will have
2,4OO bales more. L really believe the
penitentiary will this year be self-sus-
tanning; that is, that it's earnings will
equal its expense, leaving out, of
course, the $685. 900 special appropriation.
We a to buy nearly everything new
when we went in, or else the peniten-
tlary would, / think, have been truly
self-sustaining. We nave done a great
deal Of work and utilized the labor as
we'll as it has ever been utilized, | am
sure. Our cotton is about three-ifths
picked. On the strong bottom lands of
the Roanoke it grows longer than else
where; in fact, it did not stop growing
until the last heavy frost, only a few
days ago. Much of it is yet to open.
We will give up the Tillery farm if we
can do so; that is, if the owner agrees,
but we will not arbitrarily violate the
lease contract, which has two years to
run. You speak of a proposition to
take the penitentiary for a term Of
years, guaranteeing that it will not
cost the state a penny. l know half a
dozen men who will gladly take it OF
those terms. 1t can be so taken by
people with and made to pay.
l WOuld like to be a member of a COM
pany to take it,"
The fact is, that first of all the peni-
tertiary ought to be taken entirely out
Of politics; it's control should be vest
ed in a board of, say, three members,
for five to ten years. Now there are
too many heads" This is the cause
Of the trouble.
Revenue officers made a lively raid
in Franklin county last night and cap
tured a couple of distilleries, but the
mOOnshiners got away.
DR.. Scruggs, cOlored, of Raleigh, who
is the promoter of the plan for a home
for negro cOnSumptiveS at Southern
Pines, says that thirty-siX will be cared
for this winter, and that there are
ninety applications on file, from seven
states. No incurables will be taken.
About the end of this mOnth the Hub
bard" building, the gift of a Rhode
Island woman, will be dedicated.
a particularly fine and complete col
lection of North Carolina tobacco is be-
ing made for the Paris exposition. 1t
is, in fact, nearly completed.
A.. G. Flynn, a white man from Rock
ingham county, was placed in the peni-
tertiary today, to serve seventeen
years, for the murder of his brother.
The insurance commissioner has
licensed the Home Protective Fire In
ran Company, of Charlotte. It's
business will be insuring cotton mills.
The preparations for the taking of
oysters in eastern North Carolina are
the most extensive and expensive ever
made, yet the crop" appears to be
small.
The superior cOurt here granted eleV-
en- divorces at it's last term.