The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1909-11-04
Officials Admit to the Legislative Committee that Regulations in
the State Penal Institutions Are Practically Dead Letters
STRAPS IN USE ARE LARGER THAN ALLOWED BY LAW
Major Durham and Under Keeper Summers Calmly Confess that They Vi
olated the Prison Regulations Mo Cuts Eighteen
Inches from Length Strap and Half Inch from Width

Rusk, Texas, Nov. 4,--Represen- |
tative Moller of Galveston played |
the double role of humorist and sur
geon before the legislative committee !
investigating the affairs of the state !
penal institutions when, while exam |
lining one of the leather bats employ !
ed in Furnishing the men at the pen !
itentiary here, he read the rules |
prescribing the dimensions of the !
straps in the hearing of Major c, =. |
Durham, who was on the witness !
stand, and then calmly took his knife |
and operated upon the strap until |
il met the requirements of the law. |
After taking eighteen inches from |
the length of the leather bat and a /
half inch from its width, the instru-
ment which the conyicts dread more |
than anything else was handed back !
into the possession of the penitenti-
ary as the first bat the committee |
has seen that complies with the law !
that is supposed to govern the state |
penal institutions. 1t had been decap- |
itated until its length had been re- |
duced from forty-two inches to |
'twenty-four and its width from three
inches to two and one-half. After
the strap had been altered, Major /
Durham meekly replied to Colonel
Moller:
You have ruined Ihy pat.
I Colonel Moller took his trlmminss'
from the strap. which weigh nearly
a pound, and will present them TO
the legislature at the time the com
mittee makes its report to the BODY
that created it. The most shocking
point in the whole incident was the
revelation of the fact that the lnstru-
mont was made in the Huntsville
Ipenitentiary, where the law Is sup
lposed to be read most diligently, ana
from there impaired to the suhofdlh-
late officials at other prisons over
the state.
One of the bits of remarkable tes-
tlmony that have been taken during
1.-The investigation was that OF j. u
Summers, underkeeper of the RusB
prison, who testified that he hac
read the laws regulating the con
duct of the prison and the treatmen
of the convicts at one time, but ina
he had forgotten them. When ques
tianaa hv the committee as to hi
/ .Us!updS )! lBq
lnected With his position, Mr.. sum
mers frankly confessed that he hat
been guilty of violation OF the regu
Ilations in many respects, and s.
iclose was the inquiry of the com
mittee and so cumulative was th'
leffect of the numerous shortcoming
which his own confessions heapet
lupon him that he at one time brok'
down under emotion.
There was every evidence OF sin
cerity and honesty in the man
whole demeanor, and while the com
imittee believed he was guilty to al
extent for not knowing and obeyinl
the laws, they laid the larger censur
iupon his superiors who had neve
demanded the full compliance witt
the rules from him. 1t deyolyes upol
Mr.. Summers to apply the whip II
1.-THE larger number of instances whel
Ian order is given by the assistant su
perintendent for its use upon con
lvict. Mr.. Summers declared that n
had rather do anything else than t
iwhip one of the men, but he admit
ted that it had never dawned upo
him that he was violating the law i
applying the strap of the dimension
of the one produced before the Ill
vestigating committee. 1t happene
that the very strap produced wa
made while he was in the serVlc
at Huntsville and he addressed ID
ugly instrument to Captain Kelly .
engraving his name on the woode
handle. Mr. Summers declared th'
ihe had never cut the skin of any {
1.-The men when applying the strap an
THAT he would hereafter use no b;
that did not in every way comply wit
1.-THE law.