Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1902-03-27
VOMANS CLUB COLUMN.
THIS ORGANIZATION AID
DRESSES ITSELF TO
ABUSES AT THE
JAIL.

most influential citizens this week.
The chairman, accompanied by one
of the club members, at once visited
the jail and found it in a most de-
plorable condition. In order to APP
preciate the degree of uncleanness,
one would have to see, not read
about it.
The object of this article is to call
the attention of every man and wo-
man in GoIdsboro to the fact that we
have a pest-hole in our midst.
There are sever strong, able-bodied
men imprisoned, awaiting trial at
the April court. Some of them may
be innocent men, and yet, there they
must stay until they are tried, with
surroundings that would make them
criminals if they were not already
so, for there is nothing more degrad-
ing, more demoralizing than filth.
These prisoners were so dirty and
unkemptt that theinquiry was made if
they were not supplied with soap,
water and towels. They said they
had plenty of water and usually had
soap, but had not had any for two
days, and had no towels. Their
clothing, what there was of it, was
Wiley dirty and mostly in rags.
There were no seats of any kind,
nothing upon which to sleep but
blankets-that any man i ntown who
owned a dog that he valued, would
not be permitted to sleep on for fear
of disease. The stables in GOldsboro
are in a better condition than the
place in which these human beings
are incarcerated. You say they are
negroes. Are we not sending mis-
sionaries to Africa to preach the Cos
pei to the negro? Do we not help to
build negro churches? Are we not
taxed to keep up institutions oflearn-
ing for them? Are they not the
nurses for our children? Are they
not the cooks in kitchen and the
laborers in our fields? And yet in a
city of churches, a civilized land,
they are imprisoned in a hole in
tested with lice, without ventilation,
given no exercise, for the jailor said
when once in a cell they stayed there
until tried and sentenced.
This is worse than the animals are
treated, for the law says that when
stock is shipped at a distance, they
shall be unloaded every twenty-four
hours, exercised and fed.
These prisoners are fed, how much or
how little I do not know, but exer-
else they have none, only as they
march UP and down their cells like
the wild animals we see in circuses.
The only difference is the cages of
the animals r clean, while the
cells of these men are filthy. The
animals have plenty of fresh, clean
air, and are taken out and exercised
by their keepers. These men have
neither the clean air nor the exercise.
In the outside yard of the Jail
there is all kinds of rubbish, old
blankets and rags, that have been
cast aside lie in heaps to rot and ger
inmate disease that will not be con-
fined by prison walls, but will be
taken up by the winds of Heaven
and find Judgement in our Christian
homes, that permit such a state OF
affairs to exist at our very doors,
while we pray for the unfortunate
and the heather.
The ladies went to the Chairman
Of the Board of County Commission
~ers and stated the case to him.
They were informed that he would
speak to the sheriff and they would
have a general cleaning up within a
week, but, woman-like, they want to
know why in a county that pays he1
county officials as well as any county
in the State, there should have been
such carelessness, and we might say
almost criminal negligence, on the
part of the officials who have the
jail in charge?
It is criminal negligence to en-.
danger the life of any man, ever
though he is a ~law-breaker, and how
any one could be in an atmosphere
like that at the jail and keep well
is more than a woman can under
stand.
Another thing that is past tn
comprehension of these women i
why these strong, able-bodied mel
are not given plenty of soap and wa
ter and compelled to keep thei