The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1923-07-28

ton. Reprinted from the St.
Paul Dispatch.
Coco, Fla.-Bosses of convict labor
gangs, denied the right to use the
lash since the death of Martin Ia
bert caused the Florida legislature to
pass an anti-whipping law, have OBJ
tained new expedients to extract obe-
dience from their charges.
The "sweat box" is the new meth
cd of torture for white prisoners who
are strip road workers while the col
ored convicts, on the same sort of
work, are given an even more cruel
type of punishment. Convict guards
from all parts of the state are re-
ported to have complained to the au-
thorities at Tallahassee, the capital,
that since Governor Hardee signed
the anti-whipping act it has been al
most impossible to force convicts to
labor on the roads. They contend
that, lacking the whip, they are un-
able to subdue the insubordination
among road gangs all over the state.
Seven in One Camp.
A closeup of the "sweat box"
however, demonstrates that it is
quite effective. This correspondent
today visited a convict camp on state
road No. A, which is being pushed
through the palm -bordered swamps
and the live oak hummocks of Brev-
yard county. There were seven
"sweat boxes" at this particular
camp, and all of them were occupied
at some time or other.
Picture a plain wooden box, made
out OF rough pine lumber. 1t is just
high enough for a medium-sized man
and not wide enough to permit one
to sit down or even bend over. A
fraction of an inch separates ones
head from the roof, perhaps there is
not even this much space. The roof
itself is the crowning touch. It is
made of galvanized iron. There are
no windows in the box, and the only
fresh air, when the door is closed, is
that which seeps through the cracks
and crevices.
Placed in Hot Sun.
The "sweat box" is trundled out
under the broiling sun, the pitiless,
tropical sun of midsummer in Flor
ida, and the recalcitrant convict is
made to enter it. A pint bottle of
water and a portion of bread is
placed on the floor. The inmate can
reach it, only by the most difficult
contortions. Many hours, one may
hear feeble calls for help from with
in the box. When a man is released
his clothes usually drip with perspi-
ration and his face, bloated red,
shows the agonies he has undergone
In the colored camps disobedient
convicts are given short shrift.
When a convict says he is unable to
work-and illness is not accepted as
an excuse either from whites or
colored-he is at once stripped to
the waist, handcuffed to a pine tree,
and so placed that his bare back re-
ceives the full force of the suns
rays. But this is only the begin
ming. Nothern tourists to Florida
know little of the swarms of mosqui-
toes and other insects that abound
during the summer months along the
flat, swampy lands of the east coast.
Made Insects Prey.
The handcuffed colored man is the
prey of these insects. While resi-
dents of the locality will not think
of stepping outdoors without protec-
tive wells, he stands barred to the sun
with his back covered with myriads
of the blood-sucking insects. Not a
man is said to have been able to
stand the torture for more than a
half hour.
Most of the inmates of the camp
visited today were the remnants of
the "snow bird" crop of last winter.
The term "snow birds" here identi-
fies Northern youths and men with
out visible means of support who
come South every winter to escape
the snow and ice. " course, there
were a few hardened criminals in the
road gang, old timers doing long
stretches, but the. majority were
"snow birds" serving sentences for
vagrancy and petty larceny.
One youth. hardly 10, who was do
ing his bit for vagrancy, said:
IF our mother was i'll in the next
town and you were unknown in these
parts and there was no train for six
hours, and you started to walk be-
fore you took the time to put little
money in your pocket, you could and
probably would be- arrested for vag
rancy and put in state camp. Then
they'd send you out on the road"
Fewer Arrests Expected. 4
With the abolition of the convict
lease system, however, it is expected
that not nearly so many arrests, as
occurred in the past, will be made
for petty offenses, and consequently
only desperate and unruly convicts
will have to undergo the tortures of
the sweat box" and the bareback
mosquito sessions.