Evening star., 1901-04-27
INTERIOR OF A STOCkADE.

then be "nosing around" So the system
grew. The owners We're close-mouthed,
and the negroes were afraid to talk; the
fcrbidding walls We're not attractive to Wis
itors, the labOrers We're closely guarded,
and the outside world was very busy with
other things.
When Exposure Came.
This was the state of affairs in January,
1901. Then, suddenly exposure came, and
under a storm of public indignation the
System went down like a house of cards.
A free laborer from adjoining plantation
was passing one of the stockades on an er-
rand for his employer He was halted by
a guard and bidden to perform some tri-
fling service. Upon his refusal he was
seized. bound and prepared for whipping.
Fortunately his employer appeared at this
juncture and rescued him. but only after
threats of prosecution against the guards.
This and similar occurrences were re-
marked upon by the people generally, and
various vague rumOrs arose, spreading
finally to other counties.
At this time bill was pending before the
state legislature to increase the penalty for
breaches of labor contracts. member OBJ
jected to this bill saying that, according
to general report. the present mild law was
being grossly misapplied in Anderson coun-
ty. Members of the Anderson delegation
made vigorous denial, but the bill was
rejected
In the meantime. at one of the stockades
a poor negro driven to desperation while
engaged at labor. laid his plow aside and
started to leave the field slowly and delib-
erately. A guard halted him.
II might well die by the quick nerve
as the slow fever he said, and stopped to
pick up a stone. The guards rife cracked
the negro plunged forward convulsively,
tiny cloud OF blue smoke drifted away over
the newly turned burrows He had died
''by the quick nerve
A Shocking Case.
AT the same time but on another stock
ade farm, a man and a woman and a
child were living. That man had signed the
stockade owners contract, and for some
unaccOuntabe reason the child's name was
included. They We're not confined at first,
and for a season all went well. Then the
guards grew afraid lest the negro run
away, so they locked him up, and the
child also. The woman had some intelli-
gence, and she wanted her boy. The man
might become a convict-she could under
stand that-but it did not seem right that
an eight-year old child should suffer for it's
fathers sins.
Sometime. somewhere, she had heard
that there was in the capitol of the state a
man called the governor, an all-poWerfuI
man, who perhaps would pardon the child
because he was little and because his
mother wanted him so. She did not know
much, but she could write a little or print
perhaps, with q pencil. So she painfully
printed out an appeal to the governor-and
then forgot to sign her name,
But although the letter bore no SIGNATURE
the governor was interested and directed
the states solicitor to find out If he could
who it was that imprisoned little children;
and from that investigation there came to
the governor a knowledge of the dark
workings of these machines that turn men
into slaves Vengeance was descending
from another direction, too. The February
term of the circuit court was in session at
Anderson Court House, and when the case
against the guard who had killed the es-
Gaping negro came up it was revealed that
the victim was convict but SO-called
contract laborer. The court was aStound-
ed. and the judge, in a ringing charge, of