Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-08-25
MeLENDoN FOR BtEAsE.
{ Continued From Page One).

and said, 20 please jine me in prayer
that the good Lord will give us par
doning governor.' I promised to do so
and went home and told Rena about
the old negro and the awful condition
of the penitentiary. and we knelt to-
gether and prayed taat Featherstone
might be elected. We thoughtthe was
the man who would have kind heart
who would help, hundreds of those
poor people. So we prayed for weeks
that God would give US pardoHng
governor was in the Columbia hos
pital when Blease was elected and 1t
almost broke my heart because I look
ed, upon him as a demon and every
thing that was vile. When 1 got out
Of the hospital and went back to the
parsonage said to Rena, "Well, the
Lord didn't hear our prayers" She
said, "Yes, it Is awful that man like
Blease is governor" and thought 1t
a. shame and disgrace. "One thing,
however said Renas II don't under
stand about this man--his home coun-
ty :Newberry has elected him for ey-
erything he has aspIred to. He has
been in the legislature for years, state
senator, and mayor of Newberry and
now his county has given him an over
whelming vote for governor. There
must be something good about this
man"
In short time after his Inaugural
ton 1 wrote Governor Blease. a letter
and told him the condition of the
penitentiary, and begged him. to be
merciful to those poor unfortunate
people and go, down and ascertain
the condition for aimself. Then I
went. to John Wharton, senator from
Laurens, who was a friend of Blease
and begged him to intercede for these
prisoners. Listen, for the first time in
the history Of South Carolina the
governor himself went to the peniten-
tiary, talked with the prisoners and
found out for himself their condition.
Yes, Governor .Blease found men that
were lost, without father, mother
for them, left alone III the world behind
stone walls and, iron bars. He found
hundreds dying with tuberculosis,
scores were serving long sentences for
minor offenses. He walked through
the knitting mill and. found the
windows pulled down and covered with
cob-webs and asked, why it was so
poorly ventilated. He received this
answer, Governor IL we raise the
windows the wind will break the
threads" He said Which is worth
more-threads or human beings? Get
those windows up ard get some venti-
lation in this place. In a few days
when he asked. the general assembly
why it was that so many people were
dying with tuberculosis in. the peni-
tentiary. requested thefh- to abolish the
knitting mill, and clean up the place in
general. you know what happened
eight men We're set to work to scour,
fumigate and make steril the knitting
mill. In few days afterwards / was
present when some high -browed wo-
men were being shown through. When
they reached the knitting mill the
gentleman who was escorting Them
said: Ladies, does this look Ike the
awful place that il has Been pictured
by Blease and others?" They rolled
their eyes like dying calf and look
ed like they had bunions on their
tongues and answered, mo, no, this is
perfectly clean, and sanitary" l spoke
up and said you ought to have seen it
before Governor Blease cleaned it up.
I want to get back to the old negro
who begged me to Zine" him in prayer
for a pardoning governor. In a few
days 1 wrote the. letter to Governor
Blease, he went down to the peniten-
tiary, examined it, talked with the
prisoners, and pardoned thirty. of
them. 1 picked up the paper which
had the announcement and found my
old negro in the list. Rushing into the
house called, "Rena, look here, Blease
has pardoned my Old negro and several
Others" She looked at me and said,
Baxter, probably God heard our
prayers in electing Blease."
If the general assembly had not
ignored Blease when ne asked them to
abolish that knitting mill he would not
have pardoned one half of those he did
pardon. but the state was making
money, leasing the convicts and north
ern mill owners were coming wealth
out of cheap labor. SO they ignored
him. Blease used the pardoning power
to force q needed reform, and con-
scious of his rectitude of purpose when
he was maligned and his motives i'm
pugned he went farther than he would
have done otherwise. That is all there
is to it.
Right here is where I found myself
feeling kindly toward Governor Blease
and very often I would find myself
defending him. At that time I was a
little one-horse preacher on hard
scrabble circuit and one Of the poorest
excuses for a speaker that ever stood
before q congregation. l spluttered