The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-03-05
EARNESE MARABLE
DIED IN THE CONVICTS' CAMP
CORONER'S INQUEST.
A HALF.WITTED OLD MAN
Should Not Have Been Forced to Go
to the Camp at All'-Convicted as
Vagrant and Sentenced to
Thirty Days On the Road

What is the difference between the
value of human being and an animal
The value is as is the man or the
animal
A hog, we'll fattened, has a fixed
market value; man, penniless, old, in
firm and sick and friendless, is of not
mitch value: indeed, he may be bur
den on the community, nuisance per-
haps
If old, infrm and sick. a wanderer, a
vagrant he may be consigned to labor
at the convicts' camp. for thirty or more
days.
| 1t is his misfortune to be old and
sick or inhrn and the more's the pity
that he is not Millionaire.
| If he were, this same man would COM
mand the unstinted adulatons of those
who would damn him.
| 1t has been said that mans inhr-
ntanity to man makes countless millions
mourn" This is perhaps fancy poeti-
cal, but as to the value of man!
How much is an old. inirm, sick and
friendless, homeless man worth?
| Not as much as hog: nor as much
as mule.
On Tuesday, February 2S, a white
man, Earnese Marable, died in the
Good Roads Convict Camp No. l. On
January 80 he was convicted in the city
court of being vagrant and sentenced
to thirty days. On the same day he was
conveyed to the convicts' camp. He was
moneyless. friendless; he was sick. but
not soul interceded for him. He was
SO to speak, tried, convicted. sentence
and executed almost in one breath.
Referring to this case. Dr. S. Y. Alex
ander, coroner, said: "He was a half
witted old man, and could not perform
manual labor learned from parties
living in the neighborhood of the good
roads camp that the guards have not
been able to do anything with him at all
He was continually exposing himself to
the weather, and a number of times, it
is said. threw away his shoes. 1t was
almost impossible to make him keep his
clothes on his body"
If Marable was "a half-witted old
man and could not perform manual
labor" why was he sent to the convicts'
camp for thirty days?
Was not this very act crime for
which there can be offered no extenua
Ition?
Send an old, half-witted man for
thirty days to work on the public roads
Is this in keeping with the teachings
of humanity and of Christianity?
Now, if Marable had been mule, in
stead of an old half-witted man, a mule
vagram, having no visible means o1
support, vagrant mule, owned by the
parish of Caddo, would such mule, il
sick and feeble, have been put to worl
on the road, and would not the authori
ties have raised shoel if the mule hae
died as Marable?
In the mule there would have been ;
dead loss of dollars; in Marable, not (
cent! He was valueless, he was penni
Hess. he was friendless!
i And yet, we boast of Our Temples o
IJustice! What travesty! Where even
lhanded-wl1at farce!
/ We are told of the great progress il
good roads making with convicts-rnan,
of them poor wretches. as was Marabl'
and is Smith, victims of drink, and a
we wonder in amazenent and gratifica
|tion as this so-ca1led progress, storie
which rival the enormities of Siberi;
startled the ears. It is not too strong Il
say that if the half which has been de
veloped in the past few days be true
1.-THE blush of shame and indignation
should tinge the cheek of every homes
and decent man ir this community.
i The system may be all right, but OF
Its face, the operation and the manage
ln1ent of that system has been damn
liable disgrace!
| Referring to the Marable death, Dr.
i Alexander said: "That man should no
lhave been forced to 60 to the camp a
lall, being in miserable physical AMI men
ltal condition"
t Marable was CONVICTED and conveye,
Ito the convicts' camp January 90 an.
died on February 28, and yet there wa
mot soul in that camp (not convict
to plead for him Or to intercede fo
him. II the guards or those connected
with that camp, authorized, are so stu
fpld as to not have discovered that thi
man was insane, at least irrational,
mortal TO be pitied, and to receive sucl
Icare as would be dictated by the frs
i impulse Of humanity, then the guard
Tor those connected with that camp ar