The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-11-18
MAKE HEROES OF THEM
THE SUPREME COURT TAKES
UNPRECEDENTED ACTION.
Imprison an Ex-SherifT and Others
for Allowing a Prisoner in Their

llnprlSOn an EX-SnerIH ana OCuerS
for Allowing a Prisoner in Their
Custody to be Lynched.
For the first time in American
history, six men are in prison for
contempt of the Supreme Court of
the United States. For the first time,
300, the Federal Government has
placed men behind the bars as an
outcome, of the lynching of negro.
At the United States Jail in Wash
ington, Capt. Joseph F. Shipp, form
er>sheriff at Chattanooga, Tenn; Jer-
emiah Gibson, his jailer, and Luther
Williams, Nick Nolan, Henry Padg-
ett and VIM. Mayes, Of the same city,
have begun serving terms of i'm
prisonment imposed q few hours be-
fore by the Supreme Court of the
United States.
Shipp and Gibson had been found
guilty of failing to protect from a
mob Ed Johnson, whose legal exc
cution for. rape had been stayed by
the Supreme Court until it could
review the case. The others had
been found guilty of participation
in the lynching of a Federal priso-
ner. Shipp, Williams and Nolan
were given sentences of ninety days
imprisonment each, while Padgett,
Gibson and Mayes each received Six
ty days.
AS the big barred doors of the
Jail swung open to receive the priso-
ners, Immediately after sentence had
been imposed, Warden Mckee stood
before them.
GAS least We are in the hands of
soldier!" exclaimed Capt. Shipp,
who had been in many fight for
the Confederacy, as he espied a G.
A. R. button on the lapel of Warden
McKee's cost. Then, turning to his
FIVE fellow prisoners, he said:
"Boys, it will. be all right"
Warden Mckee has inaugurated
methods of punishment at the jail
as humanitarian as the various class
es of prisoners will allow, and he
was prepared for the reception OF
the six men from Tennessee.
;SAbout a year ago, during the i'm
pirisonment of an unusually large
number of women, the warden had
fitted UP a store room on the fourth
floor of the Jail as quarters for fe-
male prisoners. 1t was in this large
room, perhaps twenty by thirty-fve
feet, that he locked thc-si1. prisoners
In the room were beds for each
of the prisoners, while at one end
was a table upon which TRUSTEES
will set their meals three times a
day. A bath room, adjoining the
room, will be used by the prison
ers exclusively. Four large circular
widows open to the south and west
giving excellent views of the front
of the buildings. In fact, so pleas
ant did the prisoners find the quar-
ters that Capt. Shipp sent his at
torney, Major Cliff, to the Office OF
the Supreme Court to withdraw a
request he had made when sentence
| was imposed. to be sent to the Fed
eral prison at Atlanta, Ga, instead
of the Jail in Washington.
During the afternoon, the six men
received calls from Tennesseeans and
others. Sitting on his straw bed
half reclining on his pillow of straw
Capt. shipp made this statement:
1--WE are very well pleased with
the treatment given us by Warden
Mckee, and are delighted with the
! quarters assigned us"
A few hours in jail made Gibson
| reminiscent. He told his compan'
ions that this was not the first time
he had been in prison in Washing
| ton. ~
But the other time l was brought
here as Confederate prisoner, ne
said.