The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1915-10-21
Journey to He'll and Back

Journey to He'll and Back
Editor W. O. Saunders of Elizabeth
City, recently visited Hopewell. He
tells of Bob Simpson going there fol
! work and after seeing so many
wounded and dead people, baked
and took the next train for home
Mr.. Saunders saw every evidence OF
lawlessness in this recently built city
of 10000 people and among other
things says:
There is little law and no order in
Hopewell. The town has never been
incorporated and it has sprung so
suddenly into being that the sleepy
headed and unsophisticated authori-
ties of Prince George County are
powerless to grasp the situation or
control it. Governor H. C. Stuart
has taken q hand and tried to get
some order out of the chaos, but it
is too much of job for a governor.
Stuart has succeeded in putting
down some of the lawlessness: the
open saloons have been closed; the
open gambling halls have been clos
ed; the lewd woman has been fore
ed to make herself less conspicuous.
Having begun to take on some of
the veneer of civilization and hide
their dirt, the tipplers, gamblers and
rOuges of Hcpewell are more sub
dued, make less show and noise
with the result that there is less
boisterousness, less rowdyism. less
fight ng. stabbing, shooting and muir
der. Gambling, drinking, prostitu-
ton and other forms of vice 60 mer-
rily on in Hopewell, but they don't
advertise the fact as they did few
months or a few weeks ago.
And Governor Stuart of Virginia
is still on the job. All over Hope
we'll one will find his piacards. $3.50
reward for evidence leading to the
arrest of highwaymen-$25 reward
for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of persons guilty of
violating the Gambling and Liquor
Laws in and around Hopewelt."
Patrolling%the roads into Hopewell
are policemen from Richmond act
ing under the Governors personal
orders. The Governors special
policemen make anything but favor
able preport on the Hopewell police.
They say the Hopewell police depart
ment is lax in the enforcement of
law and lax in dealing with crimi- |
mails. Big offenders are let off with |
nominal fines, others are permitted
to give straw bonds and walk away.
And the treatment of ordinary |
prisoners! Mark this: There is one
cell in the Hopewell Jail. Into this
cell white men and white women,
black men and black women, are
thrown promiscuously together night
after night Think of men and wo-
men lodged together in one cell!
The thing is unspeakable, but the
thing is Hopewell.
NOT ALL PROSPERITY
There is no end of immortality |
dirt, disease and poverty in Hope
well, with all of its jobs and all of
its high wages. Common labor in
Hopewell gets $3.50 a day. but it
pays dearly for this wage in the
hardships and high cost of living
which it has to endure and in the
dangers to which it is exposed. And
there isn't work for everybody in
Hopewell, either. Hundreds are
turned away from the murder mills
every day. Every day brings its
new army of job seekers, but every
day does not provide new jobs.
Many who come and get work are
not there for long. There is mer-
CHESS wedding out process going on
in the mills all the time. Only the
fittest are retained. A strong man
can hold his, job only until strong
er man applies for it.
Laborers live in tents and shan
ties so long as they have work. Out
of work, they sleep on the ground in
the surrounding woods, sleep under
lumber piles, in piles of rubbish, any
where. Almost any sort of bed is
accenred i'm HONEYWELL A bed in the |