Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-02
At Sunrise 1850 Human Be-
ings Were Led Out of Black
Mines, Or from Blazing
Kilns, Into the Outdoors.
NO LONGER WILL STATE
DELEGATE PUNISHMENT
TO OUTSIDE AUTHORITIES
Convicts Hail the Change With De-
Iight-Prayers and Songs Marked
Their Departure from Chattahoo-
chez Brick Company Camp.

In the sunrise of April the first Georgia
shook of the last rag of her convict
! lease system and STROBE into new era
Of history. From one end of the state
to the other hundreds of human beings.
1850 in all, are being led from the depths
of dark mines or the sweat Of blazing
kilns into the great, fresh out-of-doors.
Hundreds Of pallid faces are being turn
ed to the sky and thousands of nrawny
muscles turned to the building IF public
highways that will mean bigger things for
commerce and for the good and comfort
Of the whole people. The state Is oecom-
ing master where individuals were be-
fore. She has assumed a new burden;
she will reap new rewards.
This sunrise of mighty changes was
born amid loud songs and strange spec
tacles. The shackled creatures who were
the material substance and center of it's
revolution felt but dimly, perhaps, the
larger meaning of the day. Yet some
thing within them, some old instinct OF
the earth like that which informs the fox
or the reed when winter is passing, told
them that a new season was about to
break within their lives Some, 1t filed
with a vague uneasiness and some with
animal laughter. Others looked childish
ly upon the familiar sights and faces
Of toll and set forth with half a regret
at the parting.
At ChattahoOchee Camp
In the camp of the Chattahoochee brick
yard near Atlanta, there were men whose
backs have bent together for twenty
years The world is full of strange conf
radeships that spring up and grow among
the heaviest shadows or the queerest
crannies, of existence. A convict camp
is not without them. And so these men
in stripes and iron said goodbye to each
other and to the spot which habit had
made home-to them. There were num-
Der of negro preachers on the ground.
They read old stories from the Bible and
prayed and sang and as the songs rose
higher through the dawn, almost wild
in their rude music, one deep voice after
another Joined in until the whole gray
land quavered and pealed and the young
sun came out of the east.
Roads To Be Built
But to thousands of free men, the day
brought wider though remoter meaning.
These conviCts are now being hurried
into los different counties, where roads
are to be worked or built Farms thai
have hitherto lain far outside the way
of traffic are to be linked to the mar
mountain paths will be opened for the
rural mail carrier. Creeks that have sepa-
rated communities in times of flood will
be bridged so that children may go TO
school the season through. Gullies that
have yawned to the danger or damage of
the traveller will be filled and made
smooth. Hilsides will be cut away. Old
roads will be made respectable. New
roads will be opened. Farm commodities
will find easier and nearer markets. Peo-
pie will visit each other oftener. School
and church will be more convenient to
them. These and a hundred other things
that Georgia's new era of road building
means. have begun, in good earnest.
A Gigantic Task
The redistribution of all these convicta
is a gigantic task. Some weeks ago the
general plan of the allotment had been
completed The counties had spoken for
the number of convicts to which each was
entitled under the new law The mmedi-
ate difficulty lay in the transfer of the
prisoners from the mines and Industrial
plants where they have been at labor to
the county camps. These men, il should
be remembered, are in many instances of
desperate character. The slightest lapse of
vigilance and dozens of them would be at
large upon the community again. BY We'd
nesday night most of the county au-
thorities who are to look after this trans
fer were at the respective camps from
which they are to take their men. The
railroads had banked transportation cars
as close as possible to the camps. At
daylight the moving was under way. The
Dooo