Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-08-20
A Southern Horror Spot.
Richmond News Leader.

Richmond NEWS lcuuci
There is q grotesquely horrible contrast
between the cean-cut eloquence of Mr..
Graves description of the reverence Of
Southern manhood for Southern WON on
hood, published this morning, and the
story published in the same newspaper
from Mr.. Graves State of Georgia OF the
whipping of white woman on her bares
flesh with heavy, biting leather strap Dy
a prisoner warden. The woman Is describ'
ed as young and attractive and of rssPec-
table family, but she hal been convicted
Of theft and was convict at the Georgia
State farm. She says that she was taken
as a servant in the Warden's family and
that she was officially stripped and beaten
because she refused to allow him TO take
personal advantage of her helpless and
degraded position to become improperly
familiar with her. Whether this be true
or not, the cruel welts are on her white
and tender skin to show that she was put
under the last. They were exhibited to
legislative committee.
The case stirs the hair Of the white peO'
pie Of the South. 1t is peculiar horr Or
to them because one OF their own race, and
woman, evidently above the rdinar}
run of convicts, is the victim. Instinct
lively all of us have kind of special sympa'
thy for people of respectable connections
and gentle rearing in such circumstances.
! But how many unfortunate negro women
have been subjected to like humiliation and
wrong and outrage the records do not
show nor do they show how many men
Of both colors have been tortued, beaten,
even killed because the limit of their en-
durance or their capacity bad been reach
ed, or because thew revolted against illegal
and jnhuman requirements and execu'
tons.
When we of the South go forth to brag
and vaunt ourselves it is we'll for us to re-
collect.that We have some horror spots ard
that it does not become us to be too COM
placent in our selfsatisfaction and SELF
ylorifcation. The convict lease system
of Georgia and South Carolina, and probs'
| bly of some other Southern States, has
been aimply a long series of frightful out
RACES and horrors. One railroad in South
Carolina runs to-day, it is hardly an exag
geration to say, through hundred miles
IF graveyard, where the convicts who built
it were packed away under ground like go
many dogs, as they succumbed to fearful
and relentless driving, cruelty, starvation
and deprivation in January snow and the
scorching heat of August.
Our sincere hope is the case of this De
Crist woman, in Georgia, will stir the long
dormant public conscience in that State
and elsewhere. South Carolina reformed
in this respect long ago, and Georgia is
better than it used to be, although yet bad
enough; but in some Southern States there
has been no change for the better in ten
years. The convict is counted as an asset
of the Stale or county and is farmed out
to those who can make the most out of HE
blood and Drawn by disregarding utterly
his feelings as a man, his instincts of de-
cency and self.preservation, his welfare
and even bis life, if he is man. In case
the convict is woman, and especially
young woman, the conditions cannot be
discussed. In civilized communities great
evils and wrongs rotten ripe often await
but single vivid instance to be obliterat
ed by sudden upheaval Of public senti-
ment and protest.