Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1913-07-08
Cruel TREATMENT
IS THE charge
Warrant Issued for County
Convict Farm Warden in
Three Cases.
ARE DENIED
contractor NiveR Declares That There
is Absolutely No Foundation
For Them.

Jack Nichols, warden at the Jeffer-
son county convict farm near Thicker
VIII be arrested this morning by
l)eputy Constable d. w. Stewart.
with warrants from Magistrate J. A..
frazler's court, which charge assault
and battery in three different cases.
Deputy Stewart will at the same time
summon a number Of witnesses and
1t is expected that the preliminary
hearing will be given Nichols on
Wednesday morning.
The charges grew out Of alleged in
| human treatment, said to have been
forced on convicts at the county farm,
who, it is charged have been brutally
whipped and forced to submit to
treatment that bordered on the dis
graceful, Notwithstanding the fact
that a sub committee from the JEFF
ferson county grand jury recently re-
ported to Judge Grace that, after
and it's prisoners, they had found
them we'll kept, well treated and sat
isfied with their lot. They reported
that Mr.. Niven. the contractor. was
giving them every attention, plenty
of clothing and medicine and good
wholesome food.
Eight citizens, who reside near the
county farm and two of the prisoners
will be brought into the court of
Magistrate Frazier this afternoon, to
give evidence in the case.
The witnesses, who are W. NJ Fish
err, A. Sanders and Frank ArchiboId,
Luke Johnson, w. P. Notes and Mr..
and Mrs. Gregory. Gregory is a
guard at the farm.
1t is alleged in the charges filed
with the prosecuting attorney, who
caused the warrants to be issued, that
Nichols has worked the prisoners
from 3 and o'clock in the morning
until 10 and II at night, often times
in water waist deep, bringing then:
in wet and muddy, in which condi-
ton they were forced to sleep in
filthy hunks. Those among the pris-
oners who had failed to accomplish
the task allotted them for the day,
were called out, their backs barred,
and from twenty to forty lashes given
them with a thick leather strap three
inches in width and twenty-five in
ches in length. 1t is said by those
who have witnessed punishment OF
this sort that after the first few
blows are struck, the flesh is SO swol-
len and bruised that succeeding
blows caused the blood to burst from
the quivering flesh.
The prosecuting witnesses in the
case are Nathan Brown and Ella
Cooper. negroes, one, Brown, for
mer prisoner at the farm. 1t is al
legged that Warden Nichols placed his
foot on the back of the neck OF the
negro woman, pressing her face into
the dirt, while giving her twenty
lashes on the bare back.
Says Its Not True.
II. 3. Niven, of this city, county
convict contractor, declared last night
that there is absolutely no truth to
the charges made against War
den Nichols. He said that Humane
Officer A. L. Cason has been trying
to get some negroes to make such
affidavits for some weeks, Gin order
to get a fee." Nathan Brown, one
of the prosecuting witnesses, was re-
Gently released from the county
farm, Mr.. Niven says, because he was
sick. He still owes the county farm
ninety days, Mr.. Niven says:
Mr.. Niven admitted that Nichols
whips the prisoners when they need
it, but he adds that he is never cruel
to them and that he will not permit
him or anyone else to be. He says he
has invited Humane Officer Cason and
others to visit his farm and if they
found Nichols brutal to the prisoners,
he would discharge him and get an
other warden. Mr. Niven did not take
the charges seriously, declaring that
there was nothing whatever to them.