The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1904-07-29

civilized world has read with horror
of the Black Hole of Calcutta; but il
the proof read before the Maury County
CONF last Tuesday be true. and there
seems 20 be absolutely no GROUNDS for
disputing 1.-THE management of the
Maury County Work house under Andy
Sellers, the Work house Superintend-
ent, exceeds in brutality and inhu-
manly the record of that living hole
of death in India. For in the one case
human beings were simply thrown
into dungeon to suffocate them. and
they survived but a few hours. In
the other. human beings have been
imprisoned in room even smaller
than the Black Hole of Calcutta,
| where they have been made to suffer
indignities that would bring the blush
of shame even to the cheeks of sava9es );
indignitles that would not be thrust
upon beasts, and all of it right here
in Maury County, in the white light
of our boosted American civilization.
In the one case. the outrage was COM
mitted by an uncivilIZed race of
people, and little better could be ex-
pected; in the other it has been COM
mitted right in the heart of what we
boast of being the finest civilization in
the Woodland committed not only
under the protection but in the very
name of the law itself.
AS published in Wednesday S Herald
Andy Sellers. Superintendent CT the
Workhouse of Maury County, has been
removed. He was not fired, as
stated Wednesday. but was suspended.
And he was suspended by County |
Judge w. o. Gordon, and not by the |
appointed to investigate the |
condition of the Workhouse, though the I
Herald got it's information Wednesday !
from one of the county officials who
should have known the facts of the case.
AS has been stated. charges were
preferred before the county court las
Monday against the way the work
house has been managed. The charges
were so explicit, and so revolving in
character. that committee was ap-
pointed by the court to go out and
investigate them. The committee was
of Justices George W.
Hayes, j. W. G. Church and 7. Fl.
Nixon. The committee on Tuesday
proceeded to the work house and began
It's investigation. Judge Gordon being ;
with them. The committee investi
gated thoroughly, and found the
charges to be true in every detail. The
epOrt of the committee shows that the
work house prisoners are kept in
hack about ten by twelve feet; that
he prisoners number about sixteen to
wentyfOur men, and they are forced
0 sleep in the place together that the c
lace has not been cleaned out in weeks :
nd months; that hardly any bed +
lothing at all is provided; that not
ven towel, pan. or any sort of l
water is furnished the prisoners with II
Which to wash their faces and hands,
nd that they have not washed their <
aces in months, or taken bath; that X
he den in which they sleep is full of u
lth, vermin and lice. and that the
Odies of the inmates are infested with
!; that there is no straw to amount to
nytnlng in the bed ticks, which are
,rn badly and are never washed; that
le prisoners wear the same pants as
hen they went into the shack, never I
citing to wash their faces and hands
lcept when the gang is on the roo d
I'd crosses a branch; that when the
Othes of the prisoners get wet they have
pull them off and hang them out to
" and 60 naked while the clothes Y
re drying. Some of them. however,
mt get their shackles off and have to
eep with their wet pants on and let
lem dry on their bodies; that the
isoners are kept in the shack all the 80
me on Sundays except when they &C OF
meals that no sort of water closet W
provided, and candy bucket is
'ed. watch sirs all night in the shack it
I'd frequently it is inadequate for 81
le demands made upon it; that this 70
fuses the shack to wreak with the it,
ost disgusting stink, nut the pris- re
lers have to stay in there and breath ss
/; that the Superintendent Andy hs
,lleIs abused the prisoners often b,
rising them and striking them; that
10 pr soners are all peaceable and VI
OH we'll except when Sellers is pr
ound; mat the day before Sage 81
ok Sellers the latter cursed the NJ
gro and SAID he was gong to whip til
IN; that he frequently went to the
Jack in drunken condition, after "a
ling in Colum ola, and raised a row 81
18th the inmates; that the prisoners IA
Il a l.