The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-09

CTS. heart. to have her little Willie locked up in jail or scnt out to the convict camps. That 1 and my little playmate,
 Dutch. had ran away from home. and
 were goinG down 10 spend the winter
 with my aunt and uncle In New Orleans, tion. and was so weak Dutch had to
 carry me most of the way. Finally l
 broke down and wept. In those days
 sosd sss sve amy emotional sc;rsss 2. S the nc
 death on the weeping game. l. wept the
 treble, and ''Dutch' came tn with . few
 bass sobs at, abtrOpriate iittervaisr The
 Justice of the Peace looked at us as If
 he didn't know what to make of 1t. Be-
 side him stood big man with A lonx
 black mustsche and pair of mean black
 eyes who seemed to be super1ntendtne
 the whole job. He and the Justice held
 a little consultation together. and then
 the Judge cleared his throat and spoke. . If you boys will agree to clear out of
 town within fifteen minutes and stay out
 I'll let you go."
 biz man with the black mustache was
 the manager of the convict camp on the
 lookout for new slaves and we learned
 also how 1t happened that SDutch' and
 had escaped what was in store for us.
 1t may have been that the fact that we
 were both thin and weak had something
 to do with our getting away, because We
 didn't look as though we could have
 uOfie Hiuct WoEk. Dut tHht WaS iot suU
 We had happened alons just after one of
 the most sensational events which ever
 disturbed the convict camp, and to that
 acident bur safety was chiefly due. \ The convi.t camp at Grsenville was at
 that time inanaged on somewhat the same
 plan as the lumber camp from which we
 had recently escaped. Only 1t was much
 dollar a day, as, they did in virginif, the
 rate was fixed at 50 cents. And most Of
 the men were either convtcts leased from
 the State or casual warrants picked up
 at Greenviiie or the nelghborinH towns
 and sent over 90 the camp to work out
 their fines.
 The police and the magistrates in that
 neck of the woods were by no mStnA
 careful at that time about the idenfity of the men they arrested as vaGrants.
 It was common talk that hundreds of
 workmen who were actually looking for work were picked up as .heys passed through that. section of Mississippi and sent to the convict camp. As have said. experienced tramps gave the whole coun- try wide berth.
 At the convict camp there was store. where almost everything was sold at prices thousand per cent over their value in the market. Worse than that,
 tiieie was a saloon. where all kinds Of drinks could be bought, and which the men in the convict camp were encouraged to patronize, every drink being charged up to them at & tremendous figure. Men who ,wer. sent oat U the camp days ahead of them were almost certain to grow desperate and attempt to drown their sorrows at the saloon. That. of course. kept them at the camp until they a result. it was common talk that many men. originally sent out for six months. were kept in the camp for years. with never a. hope of getting away.
 The only alternative to drinking one s self to death, was to try to escape, and in four cases out of six. that meant death or mutilati1n The convict camp was guarded by men armed with rifles. who had orders to shoot when one of the convicts made a break for liberty. and it is declared that often a desperate man
 would deliberately choose that method of ending his endless misery.
 Well. just before we got picked up lisomething happened which rather fright ened everybody connected with the bus mess. and 1t was because of that feeling we got off so easily.
 It seems a young man had been arrested | somewhere in the State and sent down to | the convict camp to serve out a long sentence. He came from a good family and had been on the road only q rev weeks. They set him to the hardest kind I of work and fed him. as all the rest were | fed. oh the poorest kind of food. All the | time he was running more and more Tn l debt at the camp saloon and store until, | II he f1ad wOrke0 out what ne oWtut at- 1 cording to the camp books. 1t would have I kept him there three years.
 Finally he persuaded the man in charge | of the camp to write to his father m | the North and ask him if he would send | a check to cover his sons debt and buy l him u ticket home. The check wa | promptly sent The night 1t arrived at tht | camp the manager put 1t in his safe, in' | tending to get 1t cashed next morning | and then put the young man on train | and send him back home
 As fate would have 1t. the young man decided that night that he would walt no l longer for help from home. He broke | through the stockade and got fifteen min l utes' start before his absence was disoov- | cred The man who learned of his escape | knew nothing of the arrival of the check, | which would have released him, and 1 promptly started out to recapture nini. | Eloodhounds were put on trail and alter | several hours tracking they ran him | down in the depths of a tamarack swamp | fn the effort to capture him he was shot | to death and they brought only the body 1 hack to the convict camp. .. 1 finder the circumstances the thing madt Ia terrific sensation. and 1t was while they | were laboring under It's influence that we | fell into their hands.
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