The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-25

| The second governor. in the period oil
accomplished white supremacy, OF the re-
construction era. Rufus W. Cobb, was
thoroughly sympathetic with his oppor-
| tunties. He was a man of courage, an
honest man and the fixed sympathy he
maintained With the cause of the people
made OF him a sufficient chief executive
of the state.
] Administration work was Incumbent and
| of the gravest character. The release OF
the laboring population from the adequate
discipline of the plantation. by enancf-
patton, the inevitable discord thrown into
the ranks of that population by the vi
cious intermedding of the federal gov
ernment for partisan ends, had among
its effects, created an Institution of the
penitentiary not contemplate by the laws
thus far enacted for the management OF
1t. Political confusion. enforced from
washington, had contributed its full in
fluence upon the neglected condition of
the county jails.
The penitentiary and the jails were in
state OF evident and even disgraceful
neglect.
conservation. labored to arouse public
feeling in the interest OF reformed man
agement of the prisons, especially of
the county prisons. The legislature sent
a committee to the penitentiary to in
vestigate. John Bass was warden and
the warden was mild hammered, in
teligent and active OFFICER. He had set
out a grove OF elm trees upon the barren
knob where the tall brick house with
iron bars at the windows stood. The yard
was we'll swept. the cells and the bed
ding scrupnlously clean. The plan of
the prison was Individual cells, with
heavy doors into which a small square
hole was crossed by iron bars The IRON
obstructed small hole was the sole means
OF lighting and ventilating the individ-
ual cell, wide enough and long enough for
a cot.
The committee seemed apprehensive
that the convict confined in the Individual
cell might need artificial heat In very
cold weather and so remarked, incident
ally only, in its official report There
was no attempt to warm the cells and
the committee of the Legislature did not
polite suggestion that conyicts might"
feel the need of artificial heat when there
was none. provided the usual winter
weather should continue, was all they
ventured to see and report that was not
roseate at the penitentiary. After a good
dinner at the institution the committee
returned to the capital
The legislature OF this Cobb admin
istration enacted many useful reforms.
The legislature put into office by Con-
gress, in 1858. mad passed a law intended
to be confiscatory OF plantations where
taxes were in default. This statute was
| amended. habit had grown up with
circuit solicitors and attorneys in general
practice, OF signing the bonds OF court
| officers. A statute now passed forbade
| that habit. A local act authorized the
people of Washington to vote on a prop
osition to change the county seat from
old st. Stephens to a more central and
accessible locality.
The legislature gave abundant evidence
of its devotion to the enterprise of the
people. Resolutions and memorials, ad.
dressed to Congress, expressed with pride
| and eloquence memories OF the ante-bel-
lum projects for promoting the expansion
of the wealth and increase of the popu-
| lation.
| Currency reform was then the alb
| sorbing federal question. The state SEN
ate passed a resolution calculated to
arrest the attention of the senators