The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1908-11-26
PAGE NINE.

snatch up some friendess white man, or some
poor devil of nigger,-Who has no money to
fee good lawyers and no powerful family con-
nections-and to trot him through trial and
off to the chain gang
But when it comes to the big bugs the high
rollers, the criminals Whove got money to
hire batch of lawyers, and who have friends
and relatives among 'the most principallist
men of the town, '-ah, that's different
Such criminals rarely convicted AND
NEVER PUNISHED.
If the crime is so notorious that the Grand
Jury must indict; if the evidence is so over
whelming that the trial Jury must convict, the
sentence of the accused to the penitentiary is
little more than a form. Criminals of that class
are not punished. They are given some light,
congenial task at which they can work as
much or as little as they choose and their
friends keep them supplied with all the COM
forts of life.
Then after short while, it is assumed that
the public has forgotten all about the crime,
and the Governor pardons the criminal.
Take the case of Tom Alexander, of All
gusta, Georgia He was high roler,-was
Tom,-a club man of exquisite finish. No So
cial function was complete without Tom; the
Exchange owed to him it's delicacy of flavor,
and upon the business world of that riverside
metropolis he beamed like an orb celestial.
All of which takes money, Of course. This
LAlllS vi DeluS SVEN, d sport, d social non, d
commercial Brummel, an al-round favorite,
dandy and darling with speedy men and up
to-date women, costs money,-so they tell me.
At any rate Tom AleXander's own cash ran
short and he drew upon the surplus of other
Christians who had the utmost confidence in
Augustus social pet and pride, and who did
not know that they were financing Toms glo-
rlOuS career.
A series of frauds kept Tom in funds long
after his own money was gone. He knocked
the staid old Georgia Railroad bank for the
huge sum of $4,000, and touched" other peo-
pie, right and left How did he swindle the
Georgia Railroad bank out of such a big
amount? He did it by the use of warehouse
receipts for cotton which had no existence.
The air was thick with rumors of other ugly
things done by Alexander, but we do not care
to enter into that. There was no prosecution
for anything but the warehouse receipts for
fictitious cotton, consequently nothing but that
is before us now. There was just COOL con-
tinuous course of fraud, embracing many sepa-
rate crimes, until the grand aggregate of the
sWindle was $4,000.
Had not the Georgia Railroad bank been
sound in all of its timbers, this fine old historic
institution, struck so heavily and suddenly,
might have sunk under the blow, and dragged
down hundreds of others in the crash.
AS to Tom Alexander, he skipped out. When
he returned, he was in the custody of an officer
of the law. Indicted and arraigned, Alexander
pleaded guilty. There was nothing else to do.
Had he been indicted for each separate ware
house receipt for imaginary cotton, upon which
he got money, the cumulative sentences would
probably have kept him on the Richmond
County chaingang the remainder of his life.
This would have been so had his crimes been
treated as no more than msdemeanors. Each