The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-03-30


down from Hall county, where she
was convicted of conspiring with Jim
and Bart Cantrell, two mountain
boys, to murder her husband. She is
the youngest and fairest, as women
go, of all the long term prisoners, be-
ing just 25 years old. Today she
AYERS Sc is innocent declares she
loved her husband to the last and
states that the youthful mountain
murderers met the fate they deserv-
ed when the governor of Georgia re-
fused to commute their sentence to
life Imprisonment and they were
hanged.
Mrs. Hawkins may have some hope
of executive clemency, or some other
remedy, but on the outside the world
knows little about it, and there is
hardly even a bare possibility OF in
tercession for her having any effect.
The fourth of the white women is
the one case in which the ends OF
Justice and the demands of law have
already been met, or at least more
fully accomplished than in any other
case in all the prison, though she
has been there less than year. she
is Mrs. Edna Godbee, of Jenkins
county who has aged twenty years
in twelVe-month, and though only 45
appears as if she were 60 years old.
Because she shot her former hus-
band, whom she declared outraged
her and made life unbearable, and
then in the tragic moment she also
killed her husbands newly welded
wife. The prominence Of the par
ties concerned, including Judge God
bee, his second wife, Mrs. Edna
Godbee, caused nationwide interest.
The deed was committed in the post
Office at Millen, down in Jenkins
county, in 1918, and Mrs. GOdbee has
fought for liberty ever since, being
Loyalty aided by friends, all OF whom
have stood by her in her great sor-
row. She has been refused a new
trial, but there are hopes Of pardon
entertained.
But even in prison one sometimes
finds a field of usefulness. Mrs. God
bee is now striving to improve condl-
lions there so far as possible, and
directs some of the work around the
prison building, and it is understood
is planning to beautify the place ma
terially with flowers, shrubs and 9TH
er plants. She is undoubtedly the
cultured woman of the prison the
one upon whom probably the raw
ages of Imprisonment has played its |
most cruel part, and it's ends seem al |
ready accomplished. Nobody but Old |
personal and intimate friends ever
see her, but she has many frequent |
visitors among these, who are ac-
1uainted with the situation and SYM
Dathize with her in her great sorrow. |
e. Among the negro women, Of all the |
thirty-four of them there is nothing |
hardly out of the commonplace as |
crimes among the cOlored citizens go.
All of them are in for murder except |
1ne-that of Lula Everett, from De-
3atur county, charged with mayhem.
She threw potash in the face of
rival, causing blindness, and she has
been paying tribute to society since
1905.
None of the negro women killed
others than negroes, and none OF
hem doubled up on the crime. The
irst of them-the negro life termaTs
among the women-still fhere IS Liz
lie Maxwell. She was sent ~ from
savannah 16 years ago. when size was
)nly 81 years old. She faces many
more years of servitude, and all be-
,ause she quarreled with a girl room
nate about a common mattress and
Iilled her in the ARRAY.
Annie Wright, sent UP from SUM- l.
er county in 1905, is the oldest ne
,ro woman prisoner, being 90 years
I'D and still hale and hearty. Jeal-
,usy is ascribed as the cause OF her
downfall, and instead OF following
he usual procedure it is related that
he deliberately shot her husband
sing an old fashioned shot gun. for
he purpose.
Annie Rabb, of Emanuel county Is
oing life time work because it is
harged she threw her baby from a
asst moving train According to her
tory some one gave her the child to
old and while she had it in the Win
ow it fell out accidentally.
The rest of the negro women cases
re only commonplace, here the story
{ q Saturday night frohc, there a
crap about a man and another wo-
nan, and no unusual incident at
aches to their cases. The inmates
eem happy, take their fate as mat
err of fact resulting; they sing, hoe
nd plough, work in the routine man
Ter, and wait, wait, wait.
The public is not generally ac-
Iauinted with the fact that of the
thousand inmates of the state peni- 1
entiary-they are no longer called
there is hardly
tripe worn today. The stripe is now
lsed as punishment The model pris-
,ners are given certain rights, all the
whites in sober grey, the negroes in
'ombre brown.
The women's building stands on a
nigh hill, almost a mile from any
where. Way off to the right the mas
;ive buildings of the state santa
'ium-eleyen of them-break the |
sky line three miles away, and the |
inmates of the prison-some OF
and then sit down |
reviewing their fate, and |
bringing all their reasoning powers |
into subsection, try to compare. That |
is what they all say those of them |
who talk at all. Over to the left, a |
mile away, in plain view, the main |