Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1901-01-09
"WORSE THAN
CUDAHY CASE"
So Says Uncle George Tillman
of an Incident of Yesterday. ,


the C. &. W. G. train yesterday
afternoon, asked him where he
had been, and he said: Sup at
Clark's Hill taking dinner with
the Hon. Geo. D. Tillman and
family"
GLOW is the Colonel?"
"Very glad to say he is much
better"
"What's the news up there?"
IF you wera't newspaper man
I'd tell you"
"oh, give me an item"
swell, I left here this morning
on the $40 train and when I
arrived at Clark's Hill I was
welcomed by the few people who
happened to be at the depot, and
while exchanging the compliments
of the season I noticed a man
coming out of the telegraph station
with a white boy of about IA years
of age, whom he had double
handcufed. I thought the boy
had had committed some terrible
crime up there, and was about to
be carried to some place in South
Carolina to be either tried for his
offense against the law, or punish
ed in compliance with sentence
already passed upon him. Just
then the train from Anderson
rolled into the depot, coming to
Augusta, and the man pushed the
boy towards it as itslowed up, and
when it stopped he forced him up
on the platform, the boy being so
manacled as to be unable to catch
the iron rail on either side. My
sympathy and curiosity both be-
ing aroused, I made-inquiries and
was told that the boys name was
Willie Peeler, and that he had
escaped from the Richmond county
reformatory about two months ago
and that his step-father was an
employe in the Power House of the
Augusta Railway, and that his
csptor was named Pink Winters.
Further Investigation proved that
no extradition papers were produc-
ed, and a witness to the affair
said, "The boy was attending to
the fire in that office when the man
who took him away came in.
grabbed him by the arms and
clapped the handouts on him" !"
Still further inquiry revealed the
fact that he had been working in
the blacksmith shop of Mr.. Thom-
as Cox for some time. I went to
Mr.. Cox's little house in the woods
and told himself and his wife what
had happened to the boy, hen
Mrs. Cox and little boy commenced
crying, Mrs. Cox saying that
Willie was. just as good as any
boy could be, and that she felt
towards him as her own son, and
that she had just made for him
new pants and q shirt which he was
to have worn to Sunday school.
Mr.. Cox said he was good boy,
'sHe has been with me about seven
weeks and I had grown to like him
80 much that / made no difference
between him and my own child"
"When Col. Tillman heard the
news he said, "why this is nothing
less than an outrage. 1t is much
worse than the Cudahy case.
These written laws are just like
spiders webs; the small and feeble
may be caught and entangled in
them, but the rich aud mighty
force through and despise them,
but I contend there is no law for
such a high-handed violation of
state rights. Just to think, that
boy was handcuffed in this state
by somebody from another state
without even showing any author
ity. Why it's monstrous
highhandsdness. If that be law
why somebody may come here
next Sunday and carry off one of
my grandchildren in irons, and I
tell you, I never saw a better
behaved boy than Willie was here.
1 wish I had been st the depot.
Reformatory people must be them
selves reformed.
Claw when kept is nothing else
but law; whereas law broken is
both law and execution"
Col. Tillman said further.
Governor McSweeney shall know
this, it is my duty to tell him."
Half an hour later quite little