The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1906-09-21
THE PEONAGE CASE
Negroes Tell Of Being Compelled
tc Work Under Armed Guard
Without Pay.
MULE WHIPS FOR THE WEAK
Some Startling Testimony Produced
in the Trial of Wealthy Mis-
sourians-Case May Last
Three Weeks

testimony taken Wednesday in the
case in the federal court in which the
Smith brothers of Sikeston and five
employees are charged with holding
negroes in SsSvery developed the sys-
tenn used at Sikeston.
1t developed the fact that there
were two camps in which the men
were kept. On the Woods place,
there were two shacks. On the Ro-
gers place, where most of the work
was clearing underbrush and hand
ling logs, white man with his FAM
lily of four children lived in two rooms
and from eighteen to twenty-one ne
groes lived in the third room in lit
tie lean-to frame house of one story.
The negroes we're kept locked in the
room with windows barred and COW
cred with barbed wire.
The first witness called Wednos-
day morning was Henry Stokes, a
ragged Virginia negro of As, with
scraggly beard and mustache. He had
served five years in the Ninth cayal-
ry and came to Missouri as soldier
at jefferson Barracks. Stokes had
been in Memphis looking for work in
April.
II saw Mr.. Charley Smith, the
young man, in Memphis" he said,
"and he TOLD me he would pay me $l.50
day and pay Saturday nights. |
wanted that so could send the money
to my family | thought it was all
right so | hired to them. There were
fifteen of us when We reached Skies
ton at 1 o'clock in the morning. Mr..
Charles Smith, the Oldest one, met
us at the train, put us in three wa
CONS and took us to the farms"
Il was locked in the shack forty
eight nights, every night until | es-
capped. The clothes / put on at Lit
tie Rock the day before l hired to-
Smith at Memphis l took off on the
fifth day of June, the night after l
escaped. The place was full of in
sects and by the time | had been there
one night | was covered with creep
mig insects"
The negro told OF two negroes,
Robert Butler and another, who es-
capped but were hunted down and
brought back by Fields and Woods,
two guards. He had seen the negro,
Jim Hayes, escape. Hayes had sug-
gested that he run, too. But |
couldn't run fast" he said. When
Hayes ran he said he saw Joe John
son shoot twice and Floyd Woods
shoot three times at Hayes before
the negro reached the timber.
my partner" he said, was trying
to move long log that six mules
could hardly pull, and he couldn't
move it. Mr. Bill Woods whipped him
with a big mule whip cause he
couldn't move the log. He wasn't
strong enough"
The negro described the system of
working when they worked with
teams. A force of negroes with
teams would work close together. At
e1s.h end of the field white guard
would stand or sit with gun and
satch them
The government has "a witnesses
and the defense 1856 The prosecution
spent the entire day examining four
Witnesses, all negroes. 1t is estimat-
Cd that eight witnesses a day will be
oil that can be handled, and at that
rate court will necessarily be in ses-
sion two or three weeks
Cape Girardeau, Mo-, Sept. IS
Charles Smith, one of the defendants
in the peonage case, was identified by
a number of negro witnesses as the
man who employed them TO work at
Sikeston, Mo. All of these witnesses
corroborated other witnesses concern