The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-01-28


dren are not compelled to go to
school, but they cannot escape the
changing if they have passed their
tenth birthday and have offended
against the law.
In the changing of the city
stockade of Atlanta | counted seven
little negroes heavily manacled
The youngest was II the eldest 16.
The enormous crimes for which
they must undergo the degradation
of chains and enforced labor were
walking on the park grass, steal
ing and crap shooting.
Although some of the boys were
virtually cripples, their limbs mis-
shapen and distorted from ricketts,,
they were chained up with the 9th
ers, and set to work in the rock
quarry with the dregs from police
court under guard of glittering
line of muskets.
1t is not only the negro child that
is publicly worked in chains in
Georgia, but the white child also,
as the records prove.
In the same prison van that
brought three of these children to
| the stockade was white man fined
for using obscene language and
| beating a woman of the under
world. The witnesses testified that
/ this mans language was so vile it
could not be repeated in court. He
! will work and eat and associate
with these children. He will be
one of their instructors in crime,
/ and the work he fails to do other
experts in crime will take up and
the children's education will be
polished off by the strap in the
hands of a guard, kicks, cuffs and
brutal epithets.
In charge of the city stockade of
Atlanta found d. NJ. Vining, man
of broad and humane views on
many subjects, but chiefly known in
Georgia as the inventor of the
, easy chair" This is a device for
| whipping prisoners and is consid-
cred an advance on the old method
! of holding the person to be whipped
| face downward on the ground.
A bunch of whips hung in the SUI
perintendent's office, the long leath-
er lashes suggestivelv curled on the
ends and highly polished by contact
| with human flesh.
Superintendent Vining told me a
story of 10 children whipped for
throwing coal about the room when
| Inal-n1 thn ninht Tho 10 OF
one to be whipped with little ne
gro about - years old. 1t was his
first experience in the stockade.
Trembling he watched the other
| boys beaten and thrown aside.
When his turn came he whispered,
| Mister, let me pray!"
Then, while the guard impa-
tiently fiicked his whip, the child
fell on his knees and poured out
his soul in an agony of fear to his
mother-he had never heard OF
God-pleading for her to come to
him and save him from the white
mans lash.
| At the conclusion of this tale
Superintendent Vining said 81
neither pity nor hate-I enforce the
law
The changing is a common
sight on the public streets of city,
town and country village in the
South, debasing the civic con
science and lowering the moral
tone of whole communities.
Not infrequently one OF the
water boys" or a trusty without
chains, attempts to escape. He
makes a dash for freedom, the
sharp ping" of the musket rings
out and the striped zebra falters,
staggers on a few steps and falls.
The convicts in the changing
huddle little closer together, work
a little faster with staring eyeball
and twitching muscles; the guard
orders the dead thing" taken back
to camp and resumes his leisurely
pacing up and down.
1t is nothing There are plenty to
take the dead cOnvict's place and to
attempt escape is in itself a crime
in Georgia, punishable with impris-
onment when the guard fails to
make it death.
Miss Partlons next article is on
The Shame of the Southern