The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-03-30
\ Women Inmates of the State
Penitentiary at Milledgeville
Seventeen Are White and Four of Them Are Under
'kl Life Sentences.
Life Sentences.

i Seventeen white and LA negro Wo-
men are languishing behind prison
bars. metaphorically speaking, in the
women's building of the state penl-
i+entiary at Milledgeville. Four OF
the white women face the future with
Ia life sentence hanging over them'
and thirty-four of the negro women
are in the same plight.
Barring only one of the white Wo-
men there is little hope entertained
for the laws mandate being set ASIDE
For that matter, there is one white
woman and sixty-seven negro women
who have terms ranging up to twenty
wears, and for many OF these the
gates of liberty will never swing open
smntil eternity is unveiled. IWeIFe
white women, several pf them come
Inv and more than passing fair, are
{ incarcerated for a year or less ana
tforty-three negro women are ueIain
Ted for the same period.
Il 1t is around the long term servers
That interest clings. Mrs. EllzaDetn
Mobiles, now rs years old, IS uean OF
the; women prisoners. seventeen
YEARS ago, come April 9TH next, she
,hrst crossed the threshold OF the
brisong and since that time she mas
become reconGiled to er tate NO
outside world worries yeX her, 10 her
there is nothing that is more imam
commonplace. Ignorant, untutored
save in the school of experience, TOT
WHOSE lessons she has never had OPP,
no5flf Il raffy ;tO pro She regards the
world as 'al Curious composition be-
yond her comprehension, she consld-
ers any interest manifested IN her as
But the repetition of something that
has occurred in the past, and from
which nothing of good can come TO
her.
THAT is what they all say" she
mutters when anything is suggested
to her, or even voluntary promise
is made. Down in TWiggs county so
the court records go, in 1897, almost
forgotten save by the law-and JUS
tice-wich never fOrgets, it is
charged she conspired with Gus Fam
bles, a negro, to murder Bill Mobiles,
her husband, and the conspiracy was
SllCCpSSIul. ENfuGhCG VI CF OitAiS 49,
ture was introduced and ihorrlble de-
tails brought out, but the jury re-
fused to send woman to the glDDet,
and life sentence was secured Tor
Gus the negro, who was a Wiling
partner to his mistress commands.
For seventeen years Gus has been
laboring increasingly on Georgia |
roads. Unless the Great Prisonkeep-
er releases him he will work on until |
he becomes too infirm and decrepit |
to follow the road, and then he, too, |
will be sent to the state penitentiary |
to live out the rest of his days. Mean
while Mrs. Mobiles has worked in the |
prison building sewing, mending, do |
ing whatever has been appointed to !
her. So far as the world knows there !
is no trace of the memory OF the |
crime of which she is charged She |
never mentions it, and the stOlid, I'M
changeable countenance has no trace
or record written there.
Charged with infanitcide, but pro-
testing that the child smOthered to
death, Mrs. Jennie Bennett came to
the prison in 1904, eleven years ago.
She is now SO years old. The story
of her crime, committed in Forsyth
county, is simply tale of ordinary
texture, horrible in conjecture as to
the travesty of life, for whether in
nocent of guilty an awful price has
been paid-doubly if guilty, enough
to suffice, indeed, if innocent. Her
trial her sentence, her existence has
passed into mere routine; she is
living machine, Injured to whatever
comes her way.
The third of the quartette is Mrs.
Sylvia Hawkins. She is an inmate