The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-10
DOING GOOD WORK
COUNTY DERIVING GREAT BENE-
FITS FROM CONVICT SYSTEM.
VALUABLE LANDS DRAINED.
TRACT THAT HAS BEEN UNDER
WATER FOR YEARS NOW DRY.

superintendent Chaplin of the COun-
ty Public Works Says That the
Roads Were Never in Better Con-
ditiOn Than at Present-RepOrt
Which Will BE Submitted to the
County Commissioner will Show
That the County Farm Has Never
Had Such N Prosperous Year-Over
300 Prisoners Now on the Gang.
County Superintendent of Public
Works Chaplin is busy getting his re-
port of the work done by the convicts
during 1903. ready to submit to the
County Commissioners. 1t will hardly
be ready for the next meeting of the
board, and win probably be presented
at the February meeting.
At present the chain gangs are work.
ing full time. Over 800 able bodied
convicts are at work. and the various
departments of the county public works
are in better condition than they have
been in years.
Work Done Rapidly.
Camp No. is on the county farm,
and 125 men. women and children are
assigned there. The report of the SUI
perintendent will show that the year
was the best in the history of the coun-
ty farm, and more benefit was derived
from its operation than any year since
its establishment. Nearly all of the
supplies furnished to the camps were
raised on the farm. and the promise
for the coming year is that the cost of
feeding the convicts will be even below
the unusually low average of this year
Camp No. is six miles out on the
Augusta road. There are lis men in
this camp. who are at present digging
the Pipe Maker canal, which drains a
large section of territory. This work
mas been progressing rapidly, and for
the first time within the memory of
man large tracts of the heretofore al
most impossible swamp are dry This
work can only be done in good weather.
The convicts are also engaged in re-
pairing the Monteith road between
Montgomery. and Meinhard and resur-
facing part of Lathrop avenue and
the Augusta road.
Camp No. 3, composed of fifty men,
is resurfacing the old Thunderbolt and
Bonaventure road, now known as
Moore avenue, and is keeping in repair
the bitches near Bonaventure.
Camp No. of forty men is perfect
ing the Telfair system of drainage west
of the city, near the Georgia Car
Works. This is, perhaps, the most i'm
portant work that is now being done
by the convicts, and after years of eff
fort the commissioners have been sue
cessful in gettings rights of-way, and
are making valuable tracts of land out
of what has heretofore been a swamp,
the city and an impossible boundary
to future growth in that direction.
Land that was used for years and
years for rice fields, and which was in
undated by back waters, is now dry
and within a short time a large por-
ton of it will be suitable for farming
purposes.
Roads i'm Good shape.
Supt. Chaplin says the roads in the
county were never in better state of
repair than at present. and though the
demands on the services of the con-
vict labor under his charge have been
heavy, the work has progressed
smoothly, and the county has derived
great benefits during the year
The report of the superintendent will
show every days work for the year,
and just what it means in dollars and
cents to the county. It will also show
what the cost of maintaining every de-
partment has been, and what savings
to the county has resulted through the
methods introduced in perfecting the
system of utilizing convict labor