Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, August 27, 1915, Image 1
YORKVlLLE ENQUIRER.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
The Bridge of Jehennam.
Griswold took a final look at himself
in his dressing case mirror before going
to keep his evening appointment
at the doctor's downtown office. It
was comfortably reassuring. So far as
he could determine, there was little
in the clean-shaven, square shouldered,
correctly garmented young fellow
who faced him in the mirror to suggest
either the bearded outcast of
New Orleans or the unkempt and toil
uiilen roustabout of the Belle Julie.
If only she had not made him speak to
her. He had a sharp conviction that
the greatest of all the hazards lay In
the chance that she might remember
his voice.
He found the cheery little doctor
waiting for him when he had walked
the few squares to the Main street office.
"I was beginning to be afraid you
were going to be fashionably late,"
said the potential host; and then, with
a humorous glance for the correct garmenting:
"Regalia, heh? Hasn't Miss
Grierson told you that Wahaska is still
hopelessly unable to live up to the
dress coat and standing collar? I'm
sure she must have. But never mind;
climb into the buggy and we'll let old
Bucephalus take us around to see if
the neighbors have brought in anything
good to eat."
The drive was a short one. Broffin
was once more shadowing the house
in which, first or last, he expected to
teur MacHeath; and when
the buggy was halted at the carriage
step he was near enough to mark and
recognize the doctor's companion.
"Not this time," he muttered sourly,
when the two had passed together up
the graveled path and the host was
fitting his latchkey to the front door.
"It's only the sick man that writes
books. I wonder what sort of a book
he thinks he's going to write in this
inforgotten, turkey-trodden, comealong
village of the Reuben yaps?"
Griswold, waiting on the porch while
Doctor Farnham fitted his key, had a
nerve-tingling shiver of apprehension
when the latch yielded with a click
and he found himself under the hall
lantern formally shaking hands with
the statuesque young woman of the
many imaginings.
"You are very welcome to Home
Nook, Mr. Griswold; we have been
hearing about you for many weeks,"
she was saying when he had relinquished
the firm hand and was hanging
his coat and hat on the hall rack.
And then, with a half-embarrassed
laugh: "I am afraid we are dreadful
gossips; all Wahaska has been talking
about you, you know, and wondering
how it came to acquire you."
"It hasn't acquired anything very
valuable," was the guest's modest disclaimer,
its readiness arising out of a
grateful easing of strains now that the
actual face-to-face ordeal had safely
passed its introductory stage. "And
you mustn't say a word against your
charming little city, Miss Farnham,"
he went on. "It is the friendliest, most
hospitable?"
The doctor's daughter was interrupting
with an enthusiastic show of applause.
"Come out to dinner, both of you,"
she urged; and then to Griswold: "I
want you to say all those nice things
to Aunt Fanny."
In the progress to the cozy, homelike
dining-room Griswold found the
* .? of Kot wnon tho T<*o rn h q m hnmo
and the ornate mansion three streets
away on the lake front strikingly apparent:
as cleanly marked as that between
Margery Grierson and the
sweetly serene and convcntial young
person who was introducing him to
her aunt across the small oval dining
table.
So far. all was going well. But a
little later, in the midst of a half-uttered
direction to the serving maid.
Miss Farnham stopped abruptly, and
Griswold could feel her gaze, wideeyed
and half-terrified, seemingly fixed
upon him.
It was all over in the turning of a
leaf, there had been no break in the
doctor's genial raillery, and the
breathless little pause at the other end
of the table was only momentary.
When the dinner was over the doctor,
in the act of filling two long-stemmed
pipes for his guest and himself, was
called away professionally. Miss Gilman,
least obstrusive of chaperons,
had been peacefully napping for a
good half-hour in her low rocker under
the reading lamp, and the pictures
in a thick quarto of Gulf Coast views
had pleasantly filled the interval for
the two who were awake, when Griswold
finally assured himself that the
danger of recognition was a oanger
^ past. As a mental analysis he knew
that the opening of each fresh door in
the house of present familiarity was
automatically closing other doors
opening upon the past: and it came to
him with a little flush of the seer's exaltation
that once again his prefigurings
were finding their exact fulfillment.
In a spirit of artistic daring he
yielded to a sudden impulse, as one
or, icoimr tho of mnv
run anil leap to prove that his theory
of safety stresses is a sufficient guaranty
of his own immunity.
"You were speaking of first impressions
of places." he said, while they
were still turning the leaves of the
picture book. "Are you a believer in
the absolute correctness of first impressions?"
"I don't know." was the thoughtful
reply: but its afterword was more definite:
"As to places, I'm not sure that
the first impressions always persist:
in a few instances I am quite certain
it hasn't. T didn't like the fSulf coast
at all, at first: it seemed so foreign
and different and unhomel?1 As to
persons, however?"
She paused, and Oriswold entered
the breach hardily.
JZ
mwc
-cmants
OC*>Y/?/C#r0rCKAALfJ 3CMWEP3 3QH3
"I know," he affirmed. "There havo
been times when, with every reasonable
fiber in you urging you to believe
the evil, a still stronger impulse has
made you believe in the good."
"How can you know that?" she
asked; and again he saw in the expressive
eyes the flying signals of indeterminate
perplexity and apprehension.
Resolutely he pressed the hazardous
experiment to its logical conclusion.
Once for all, he must know if this
young woman with the sympathetic
voice and the goddesslike pose could,
even under suggestion, be led to link
up the past with the present.
"It is my trade to know," he said
quietly, closing the book of views and
laying it aside. "There have been moments
in your life when you would
have given much to be able to decide
a question of duty or expediency entirely
irrespective of your impressions.
Isn't that so?"
For one fleeting instant he thought
he had gone too far. In the hardy determination
to win all or lose all, he
had been holding her eyes steadily, as
the sure mirror in which he should
be able to read his sentence, of acquittal
or condemnation. This time
there was no mistaking the sudden
widening of the pupils to betray the
equally sudden awakening of womanly
terror.
"Don't be afraid," he began, and he
had come thus far on the road to open
confession when he saw she was not
looking at him; she was looking past
him toward one of the windows giving
upon ihe porch. "What is it?" he demanded,
turning to look with her.
"It was a man?he was looking in
at the window!" she returned in low
tones. "I thought I saw him once before;
but this time I am certain!"
Griswold sprang from his chair, and
a moment later was letting himself out
noiselessly through the hall door.
There was nothing stirring on the
porch. He was still groping among the
bushes, and Miss Farnham had come
to the front door, when the doctor's
buggy appeared under the street lights
and was halted at the home hitching
post. *
"Hello, Griswold; is that you" called
the cheery one, when he saw a bareheaded
man beating the covers in his
front yard.
Griswold met his host at the gate
and walked up the path with him.
"Miss Charlotte thought she saw
someone at one of the front windows,"
he explained; and a moment afterward
the daughter was telling it for
herself.
"I saw him twice," she insisted;
"once while we were at dinner and
again Just now. The first time I
thought I might be mistaken, but this
time? '
Griswold was laughing silently and
Inwardly deriding his gifts when, under
cover of the doctor's return, he
made decent acknowledgements for
henefltK bestowed and took his de
parture. On the pleasant summernight
walk to Upper Shawnee street
he was congratulating himself upon
the now quite complete fulfillment of
the wishing prophecy. Miss Farnham
was going to prove to be all that the
most critical maker of studies from
life could ask in a model; a supremely
perfect original for the character of
Fidelia in the book. Moreover, she
would be his touchstone for the truths
and verities; even as Margery Grierson
might, if she were forgiving
enough to let bygones be bygones, hold
the mirror up to nature and the pure
humanities. Moreover, again, whatever
slight danger there might have
been in a possibility of recognition
was a danger outlived. If the first
meeting had not stirred the sleeping
memories in Miss Farnham, subsequent
ones would serve only to widen
the gulf between forgetfulness and
recollection by just such distances as
the Wahaska Griswold should traverse
in leaving behind him the deckhand of
the Belle Julie.
How much this might have been
modified if he had known that the man
whose face Miss Farnham had seen at
the window was silently tracking him
through the tree-shadowed streets is
a matter for conjecture. Also, it is to
be presumed that much, if not all of
the complacency would have vanished
if he could have been an unseen
listener in the Farnham sitting-room,
dating from the time when little Miss
Gilman pattered off to bed, leaving the
father and daughter sitting together
under the reading lamp.
At first their talk was entirely of
the window apparition, the daughter
insisting upon its reality, and the
father trying to push it over into the
limbo of things imagined. Driven
finally to give all the reasons for her
belief in the realities, Charlotte reiaiea
the incident of the afternoon.
By this time the good Doctor Bertie
had become the indignant Doctor Bertie.
"We can't have that at all!" he said
incisively. "You did your whole duty
in that bank matter; and it was a
good deal more than most young women
would have done. I'm not going to
have you persecuted and harassed?not
one minute! Where is this fellow
stopping?"
The daughter shook her head. "I
don't know. He gave me his card, but
it has the New Orleans address only."
"(live it to me and I'll look him up
tomorrow."
The card changed hands, and for a
few minutes neither of them sjsike.
Then the daughter began again.
"I've had another shock this evenning,
too," she said, speaking this time
in low tones and with eyes downcast.
"This Mr. Griswold?did I understand
you to say that he had lost all of his
money?"
"Yes; practically all of it," said the
father, without losing his hold upon
what a certain great London physician
was saying: through the columns of the
English medical Journal.
But afterward, long after Charlotte
had gone up to her room, he remembered,
with a curious little start of
half-awakened puzzlement, that someone,
no longer ago that yesterday, had
told him that young Griswold was
rich?or if not rich, at least "well
fixed."
(To be Continued.)
GENERAL NEWS NOTES
Items of Interest Gathered from All
Around the World.
A fleet of 41 fishing boats arrived at
the fish pier in Boston, Monday, having
a total of 3,500,000 pounds of fish.
A Japanese supplying company has
placed contracts for the building of
six 12,000 ton freight and passenger
vessels for the trans-Pacific service.
One hundred and fifty Greek and
Italian laborers in a leather factory at
Woburn, Mass., went on a strike Monday,
rather than work with Turks.
The United States Fruit company's
steamer, Marowijne, with 93 persons
on board, has not been located since the
gulf storm of last week.
A New Orleans dispatch says that
the Carranza government has purchased
510,000 barrels of flour to be
shipped to Mexico to relieve the food
shortage.
The gas plants supplying Constantinople
with gas, are reported to have
been closed down on account of a
shortage of coal. The city is now being
lighted with kerosene oil.
Up to last Monday the total attend
ance at tne ranama-racinc tapusiuvu
reached 11,000,000. The average daily
attendance since the fair opened February
20, has been 59,919.
The Austrian minister of the interior
reports that on August 20, there were
1,586 cases of cholera in Austria.
The disease is also reported in the
vicinity of Berlin, a number of lakes
and rivers being contaminated.
Count OKuma, premier of Japan, is
authority for the statement that while
his government will not send Japanese
troops to help the Russians, she will
greatly increase the supplies of war
munitions that she has been sending to
Russia.
In a Federal dragnet in Philadelphia
Monday night, officers working under
the Harrison anti-narcotic drug law,
found Incriminating evidence against
nearly 100 physicians and druggists
of the city. Numerous physicians
were found to be selling narcotic prescriptions
at J1 each to all comers.
Deaths by starvation to the number
of 25 per day are being reported from
Mexico City. Military authorities
learned of investigations made by Red
Cross workers and ordered that hospital
or cemetery officials shall not
make public any statistics in the fu- ,
ture, according to the report of a Red-1
Cross representative. (
Perry D. Baker, United States commercial
agent at Archangel, Russia,
reports to the Federal department of i
commerce, after a visit to that' port,
that the number of ships entering and
leaving from Archangel is equal to the
shipping arriving and departing from
New York. The Russian government
is receiving immense quantities of all
kinds of war supplies at this port.
A dispatch to the London Chronicle ,
from Amsterdam, says that from a ,
source often well informed, it is learn- ;
ed that a new peace scheme is now |
in course of development In Berlin, the ;
nature of which is not disclosed. The ]
correspondent is assured that it will
not take the form of feelers in the
neutral press and other neutral quarters
as hitherto. If plans do not miscarry,
the scheme will be disclosed to
the world in about two weeks. (
. LESSON IN SAVING i
1
The Jar that Woke Him Up at
Forty. i
In the new department called "The
Family's Money," in the September
American Magazine, appears a little <
article by a man who was suddenly
made to realize that one who could not i
make a success of his family finances
could not be trusted to manage the
finances of a larger business. Following
is his account of how he secured a <
$5,000 a year position which he might
not have gotten had he not learned to
save his own money.
"Until forty, pride was always my
greatest failing. I married at thirty, i
and had a wife and four children. My ;
salary was $50 a week. We spent all
of it. One day my department head
called me into his office.
" 'We are going to make a change,'
he said. 'I am to be promoted, and So- i
and-So is to succeed me as manager of
this department. You were considered, i
but the "old man" investigated you i
and. finding thai you were not putting
aside any of your income, concluded <
that one who could not make a success
of his family finances could not be
trusted to handle an important part of ,
a big business where production is j
maintained at the minimum.'
"I did not feel offended. I realized .
that the fault was my own. I went i
home and told my wife why I had lost i
this $5,000 a year place. I think I must
have jolted her pride. She suggested
that we move out of the district where
house rent was $50 a month and confine
our living expenses to $25 a week, ,
half of my income.
"To make this obligatory I instructed
the office bookkeeper to hold back $25 ;
of my salary each week until the end
or ine year, i was ueiermineu 10 snow
the 'old man' that I could save money.
At the end of the remaining thirty
weeks in that year I had $750 to my
office account. I might have received
six per cent interest, but I was fishing
now for bigger game. I told the bookkeeper
to hold back $30 a week.
"The end of the eighteenth month
found mo in charge of the purchasing
department for the company and drawing
the $5,000 a year. When I am
fifty years old I shall have no less
than $30,000 at the present schedule.
And this is a better asset in old age
than pride."
J. T. Wood of Greer, an advocate of a
$050,000 road bond issue in Greenville
county, defeated Marvin R. Reese, also
of Greer, in the second race for the
vacancy in the Greenville county delegation
in the house of representatives.
Unofficial returns gave Wood 3,516
votes and Reese 2,487.
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS
Former Governor Blease Discusses
Subject In Boston
HUMANITY BETTER THAN INHUMANITY
The Mob is a Development of Outraged
Justice?South More Highly Civilized
than the North?Duty and Responsibility
of Chief Executives.
One of the principal set speeches
before the conference of governors in
Boston this week, was that delivered
by former Governor Blease of South
Carolina, yesterday, on "The Duty
and Responsibility of Chief Executives
in Dealing With Prisoners."
The full text of the speech was as
follows:
Gentlemen of the Governor's Conference:
Three-quarters of a century ago, in
the historic city of Boston, one of the
clearest thinkers which Massachusetts,
or even the nation, has yet produced,
in an address upon "Man the Reformer,"
emphasized the thought that "every
great and commanding moment in
the annals of the world is the triumph
of some enthusiasm." He cited as an
example "the victories of the Arabs
after Mahomet, who, in a few years,
from a small and mean beginning, established
a larger empire than that of
Rome." "But," he predicted, "there
will dawn ere long on our politics, on
our modes of living, a nobler morning
than that Arabian faith, in the sentiment
of love. This is the one remedy
for all ills, the panacea of Nature. We
must be loverB, and at once the impossible
becomes possible. Our age
and history, for these thousand years,
has not been the history of kindness,
but of selfishness. Our distrust is very
expensive. The money we spend for
courts and prisons is very ill laid out
We make, by distrust, the thief, and
burglar and incendiary, and by our
court and Jail we keep him so. An acceptance
of the sentiment of love
throughout Christendom for a season
would bring the felon and the outcast
to our side in tears, with the devotion
of his faculties to our services."
There is no crystal ball In which
man may see portrayed the future, and
little did Emerson think that two decades
after he was so eloquently
preaching this doctrine of peace and
love that this nation would be plunged
into four years of civil strife. When
he said that "this great, overgrown
dead Christendom of ours still keeps
alive at least the name of lover of
mankind," and prophesied that "one
day all men will be lovers, and every
calamity will be dissolved in the universal
sunshine," little did he reck that
seventy-four years later the far-flung
battle lines of Europe would stretch
from hundreds to thousands of miles
and that nearly the whole world would
Go in a death grapple, attended by
cruelty and sacrifice and misery which
passes human understanding. Millions
of men are seeking each other's blood,
and
"Few shall part where many meet;
The smoko shall be their winding
sheet;
And every sod beneath their feet
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre."
But it has been the history of the
world, in accordance with the slow but
steady progress of the human race
lhat the darkest night is ever followed
by the brightest dawn, and from the
gloom which now enshrouds the land
and the sea, will emerge a nobler civilization,
which will continue to gain
strength in an atmosphere purified by
the shock of battle, and human nature
must be softened by the blood that
hns been spilled and by the prayers of
widows and orphans that have ascended
to the throne of a pitying God.
You will pardon me for this digression;
but the thought was suggested
by the fact that the spirit which
plunges nations into wars, except the
nations which wage war against oppression,
is the same spirit which has
in centuries past led men to seek the
cruel runishment of prisoners?a spirit
which is vastly too much in evidence
even in this twentieth century.
Within the past few weeks we read
in the newspapers of a man who had
made an attempt upon the life of another
being plied with questions until
he was too weak to talk, then being
walked up and down the corridor of
his prison to revive him, then plied
with questions again, and subjected to
God alone knows what else, in the administration
of the "third degree."
Later this prisoner was found on the
floor of his cell with his skull crushed
in. and it was told that he had climbed
to the top of his cell door and jumped
to the floor, killing himself. Whether
he was murdered or whether ne really
committed suicide I do not know, but
this I do know, that the suicide of any
man would hardly be unnatural under
such circumstances, and that the
treatment accorded him, before conviction,
would have been a disgrace to
our civilization even had it occurred
after he had been tried and sentenced.
As remarks a very distinguished
southern minister of the Gospel, "the
so-called 'third degree' is a revival of
the horrible method of the Spanish Inquisition,
a species of torture to compel
an accused person to incriminate
himself, a flat contradiction of the humane
principle of law that regards every
person innocent until proved
guilty." This "third degree" method
that is practiced in the north and east
and west?less frequently, I am glad
to say, in the south?whether a man
killed during its administration, or
whether he be driven to commit suicide,
or whether he be tortured sometimes
into confessing crimes of which
he may be innocent, is barbarity In a
sneaking form, under the sanction of
law, and those guilty of practicing it
evidence a spirit as mean and contemptible
as the malice which animates
the midnight assassin.
Throe years ago I had the pleasure
of addressing this conference in Richmond.
My remarks were telegraphed
throughout the nation, and I was heralded
to the world as a chief executive
who advocated mob violence. I do not
propose to go into a discussion of that
here; It Is entirely beside the question.
Suffice it for me to say that in the
south, the lynching of a man for the
unmentionable crime is a protection to
our civilization, while the practice of
this "third degree" violates the letter
of our constitution at its most vital
point and is a blow to the whole spirit
1 of our institutions. In the south ai
I aroused mob is an outraged commu
nlty which carries out the law, bu
, brushes aside with mighty force th
1 law's technicalities and delays. Ther
is no hypocritical, sanctimonious vio
lation of fundamental rights under th<
cloak of law by those sworn to uphoh
the law; the deed Is open, and civlll
zation and justice are vindicated. An<
when mobs are no longer possible, lib
erty will be dead. As was eloquent);
said by a southern orator not loni
I ago: "A nation of molly-coddles migh
meekly He at the feet of popes an(
kings, while schools were being abol
ished, libraries burnt, scientific re
search penalized, and the great mas
of the people plunged into ignorance
superstition and slavery; but such s
nation never reured a Washingtor
monument or drank patriotic insplration
on battlefields where brave soldied
died, or broke out into enthusiasm
when the flags were flying and th?
bands struck 'Dixie.' Grape-Juice
dreamers may cry, 'Peace, peace,' but
there 1b no peace, anywhere, nor waf
there ever any. The elements have
no peace; the stars have no rest; the
clouds toss and tumble, float or fl>
forever; the ocean always murmure
and always moves; the rivers do nol
stop, and the dews are ever going up
or con-ing down; the storm is gathering
its forces, or spending them, all
the time; there is no peace. It seems
to me, I remember something about
'mobs'; and, strange to say, these mobs
are described as being pioneers of oui
independence and institutions. There
was that Boston mob, whose picture
used to be in all our histories al
school. You can close your eyes and
see it now; the British soldiers, standing
in well-dressed line, muskets at
their shoulders, and the smoke and
flame bursting out at the muzzles?and
the members of "mob" falling to the
ground. The firing on the Boston mob
fired the American colonies, and the
cry went all the way down to Savannah?'The
cause of Boston is the cause
of us all,' "
The chief executive of a state has
n rvt n m/von i.nol Alio /llltlf Q OTQ VOf
?wi a, aiuic ocuuuo uuij nut a q>?*ui
responsibility than the obligation imposed
upon him in dealing with prisoners?and
by prisoners I mean to include
those in Jail awaiting trial, with
the presumption of Innocence thrown
around them by the law, as well .as
those serving sentences after conviction.
The aim of the law?not some
of the inlquitious laws written by man,
but the great Moral Law of God, which
was in the beginning, and shall ever be
?exists for the benefit of society, and
not for the punishment and degredatlon
of offenders against the law. II
is necessary to deprive men of their
liberties, and sometimes of their lives,
for two primary reasons; to remove
them from society until they may be
reformed, and to deter others from
committing like offenses. To go beyond
this is barbaric, inhuman and in
violation of the highest law. A state
or a nation that allows its prisoners to
suffer cruelties Is guilty of a greater
crime than the prisoners themselves
have committed.
We have prisons and prison methods
In the United States today, which
arc a disgrace to any civilization, and
there are thousands of prisoners who
might well describe their condition in
the words of Lord Byron's "Prisoner
of Chillon":
"My hair is gray, but not with years,
Nor grew It white
In a single night,
As men's have grown from sudden
fears.
My limbs are bow'd, though not with
toil,
But rusted with a vile repose,
For they have been a dungeon's
spoil
And mine has been the fate of those
To whom the goodly earth and air
Are bann'd and barr'd?forbidden
fare."
Or we might describe some of these
prisons in the words of Cellini, written
in a jail in the sixteenth century, four
hundreds years before our boasted civilization:
"Mark well how Glory steeps her sons
in gloom. .
You have no seat to sit on, save the
stool;
Vot vau u?oro ohfluft from vniir mnth
er's womb.
"The knave who serves hath orders
strict and cool
To list no word you utter, give you
naught,
Scarcely to ope the door; such is their
rule.
"These toys hath Glory for her nusling
wrought.
No paper, pens, ink, fire, or tools
of steel,
To exercise the quick brain's teeming
thought."
When I assumed the office of governor
of South Carolina, I inaugurated
in my state the parole system, and
granted hundreds of paroles. As I
stated in an article which I wrote for
a leading law magazine recently, I was
as vigorously condemned on the one
hand, and as heartily praised on the
other, for nearly every decision I
reached upon each individual case, as
any man who has ever been in public
life in the history of this country. I
cared not for" the condemnation of the
praise. I was seeking to do my duty
under the constitution, to execute the
laws faithfully in mercy, and striving
to do the right and to give human beings
who made a mistake a chance
to correct it and to do their part for
the benefit of society. The parole system
which I inaugurated was entirely
successful. Out of the hundreds of
paroles granted, very few of those receiving
this clemency failed to lead
good lives. They were given another
hance In life, and they took advantage
of their opportunity.
I stated to the general assembly of
my state, in regard to this matter, that
I considered the parole system the best
system ever devised for the handling
of convicts. In a letter of transmittal
of the reasons which actuated me in
each case, I said, among other things:
"Vmv fnp Inatn VOU Darole a
man during good behavior, who possibly
has served more than half of the
sentence Imposed upon him?sometimes
they have been paroled when
they had only three o?- four months
to serve?you do not turn him loose,
but say to him. go forth, make a man
of yourself, for if you do not, and you
are ever convicted again, you have to
go back and serve the remainder of
the sentence imposed. Now, if these
men had gone ahead and served out
their sentences, they would be footloose
to do as they please, and no restraint
would be upon their actions.
Even a life prisoner may be paroled;
[i it is simply giving him another chance
- in life; and how many men who prot
feBs to be great Christians would be
e living and enjoying the blessings of
e this life, had not God forgiven them
- and given another chance? The pae
role, during good behavior, means
1 what? Good behavior means that he
. shall not violete any of the criminal
J laws of the state. If they do, they are
. not of good behavior, and they can be
v recommitted to'the penitentiary, with
? out trial, to serve the remainder of
t their sentences. The system I have
1 now established in South Carolina will
- be followed by other governors?posal
bly not so many will be paroled, but
s the system itself will be kept in vogue.
, The same system is being tried in
other states; some going even further
and allowing a man to work himself
out by his good behavior in the penitentiary.
Take one case, particularly,
a negro had been in the penitentiary 1
for eighteen years; he is paroled during
good behavior; he is given another
opportunity to live. If he disturbs the
peace or violates any of the criminal
states of the state, he goes back to the
penitentiary for life; that condition
hangs over him, and he knows that if
he is not of good behavior, he goes
back to serve the remainder of his
sentence. Another instance, a white
man sentenced to the penitentiary for
a long term, for a crime committed
while under the influence of liquor;
parole him on the condition that he
take not another drop of liquor. If he
does, and thereby violates his parole,
he goes back to serve the remainder
of his sentence."
After an experience of four years as
governor of South Carolina, during
which time I exercised clemency in
more eases than any other three or
1 four governors combined, I believe
I more firmly today than ever before In
Al%/k nnsalA mra#nm na # V% r\ mrvof nHlfnnn. t
! (.sic: j/ai uic oj oiciu an vise: muov uu?a??v
i ed step that has ever been taken In
i prison reform. As proof of the correctness
of this opinion, I may state
i to you that since I retired from the
office of governor, of all the large
i number of those whom I paroled not a
one has been returned to imprisonment.
These one-time convicts have
. reformed and are leading good lives
and making substantial citizens. By
i the parole system they have been savi
ed to their families and to the state,
i But there must be places of confinement
for prisoners who, it may be, can
t not be paroled, and for those who
must serve sufficient time that the les,
son may be taught. Therefore, every
i chief executive ought to familiarize
I himself thoroughly with the condition
of the penal institutions of his state.
; and see to It that they are comforta>
ble and healthy, and that the inmates
are treated like human beings, and not
i like cattle.
t I believe in fresh air and wholesome
i food for prisoners; and In comfortable,
well-ventilated rooms,
i I believe they should have good lit)
erature and good newspapers, espe,
daily their home county papers, en>
abling them to keep posted upon the
i acts and doings and to keep up with
the progress of the people of their respective
counties and of their state, In
order that when they are given back
to society they may not be as strangers
in a new and unknown world, but
may have the Incentive in familiar
surroundings to build their lives anew
upon the solid foundation of honesty
and Integrity.
I belleve*they should have the right
kind of amusements, that the social
instinct so necessary in the plan of
their salvation may not be deadened
within them.
I believe ihat the whipping of pris1
oners should be forbidden, except In
cases of wilful disobedience of rules
or acts of insubordination, and that
1 then the whipping should be admin- 1
tered only in the presence of disinter- 1
ested citizens of good repute who are 1
not connected in any way, directly or
indirectly, with the institution. The 1
people of the nation would be horrified t
if they knew of the fearful brutality t
i practiced in our prisons?the merciless i
whippings, the electric shocks and (
1 other forms of shocking cruelty. Ev- <
ery chief executive should inform i
himself of these things, that he may '
remedy the appalling conditions. As 1
I can testify from experience, it is to ]
easy matter to secure the information. I
It cannot be done by personal visits, 1
because on such visits everything will 1
be in the best of shape, and if the 1
prisoners are asked how they are ]
t treated they will be afraid not to say ]
they are well treated, because of the s
' knowledge that if they state the facts
they will be visited with even more i
cruel punishment by their keepers, i
But the proper kind of investigation, i
in the right kind of way. will bring i
forth the facts, and the remedy can <
be applied by a just and fearless man. '
i Thousands of prisoners every day I
arc being released after service of the I
full sentences imposed upon them. In J
what condition are these men to re- <
i enter society and to take up again the !
burdens and responsibilities and priv- <
ileges of citizenship? What more im- <
, portant duty rests upon the chief exe- ]
cutive than that of seeing to it that i
confinement has tended to reform the
prisoner rather than to make a more t
hardened criminal of him? <
There are some professing Chris- 1
tians?God save the mark!?down in (
my state who condemn me for these '
ideas, and who sneeringly ask if pris- '
' ons are to be made so attractive that 1
they w ill lure men into them. We can 1
only pity such beings, and pray God 1
that his all-encircling charity may in '
some manner include them.
I believe that prisoners, in healthy 1
and wholesome surroundings, ought to s
be put to work at useful trades, or 1
taught useful trades when they do not 1
know them. In my state most of the '
convicts are worked on the roads. This 1
work, properly required, is healthy
for the able-bodied, and benefits the
people at large. But we have the women
and the weak-bodied also to look
after, and other suitable work may be
found for them,
i And there is another matter which
i should be considered. In the majority
of cases the family of the prisoner suffers
more than the prisoner himself.
It seems to me that much of this suffering
could be relieved by paying to
the dependent family of a prisoner a
small compensation for the prisoner's
labor. In muny instances in my state
the husband and father is Imprisoned
for crime, and his wife and little ones
are left at home without any means i
of support, suffering hardships and f
privations, thiown absolutely on the
mercy of the world for the bread they
must have. Had there been a system
of compensation to the family in South
Carolina while I was governor, it
would have relieved me of what I felt
to be the necessity for taking action
in a number of cases, where the husband
und father was sent home to
save his family from dire distress. We
are told by some that a man should
consider his wife and children before
he commits a crime. That is true, but
if he does not, the fact of suffering
u-nmpn nnri rhllHrpn ntflrM iih in thp
face?innocent women and children
suffering for want of food and clothing.
Of course there are cases in which
even their appeals must be disregarded,
in order that society may be protected,
and charity, which too often
is found wanting, must be relied upon
to put bread in the mouths of babes
crying because they are hungry.
Still another matter which I have
urged is that we ought to discard the
system of numbering prisoners?designating
them only by number. It
would have a much better effect in reclaiming
prisoners if their identity was
maintained, even though they occupy
a. prison cell, keeping constantly before
them the fact that they are human
beings and that they have a soul.
And when the prisoners are released
It Is nothing short of a greater
crime than most of them have committed
to hound them down by always
reminding any one to whom they
might apply for work that they are
cx-convlcts. There ought to be a law
passed by every iatate, and a national
law passed and enforced, to prevent
.his great evil. The poor fellow should
be helped to rise and do better instead
pf being held down, with so-called detectives,
hirelings, running around
trying to get people to perjure themselves
in order to work up new cases
igainst men who have expiated their
:rimes by the time they have spent in
prison.
I was heralded to the world as "the
pardoning governor," and I am proud
>f the title. I investigated every case
jefore me, and always was saddened
.vhen I found a case in which my duty ,
o my people forbade me to exercise
:lemency. My ideas along the line of *
he parole system and of prison reform
lave been called extreme by many, but
there are those of us here today who
will live to see them carried out
throughout the nation, if we continue
.0 go forward in the future as we have
advanced in the past. "What if some
)f the objections whereby our institutions
arc assailed are extreme and
ipeculative," said Massachusetts great
scholar, "and the reformers tend to
deallsm; that only shows the extravagance
of the abuses which have driven
he mind into the opposite extreme."
The greatest debate this nation ever
A'itnessed was staged in the senate of
:he United States between a son of
Massachusetts and a son of South Carjlina.
Both were imbued with the
highest patriotism, and each was striving
towards the same goal, but along
lifferent paths. Looking back to that
ime, we can see the gloom of civil
var, in which brother was to be pitted
igainst brother, was already settling
jpon our great nation. A few years
ater the inevitable storm was upon
is. Fifty years have now passed since
ts fury was spent, and today South
Carolina and Massachusetts, by the
ervia aevonon iu piiuuiyic <th?.ii
lelped to bring on the great battles in
which the sons of one wore the gray 1
ind the sons of the other the blue, can i
clasp hands with higher respect each t
'or the other and with the friendship
>f brothers each of whom knows the ]
:ourage of the other and his devotion >
:o a common mother. And I am glad <
hat today South Carolina's voice can <
)e raised in Massachusetts in the in
erest of the great reforms which I <
vould urge.
I hear sometimes expression from '
he north and the east and the west '
is to the treatment of negroes and ne- 1
jro prisoners in the south. Let me
?ay that while I was governor of South
Carolina, three-fourths, at least, of the
cases in which I exercised clemency
were those involving negro prisoners.
The best friend the negro has ever
had, so long as the negro stays in his
place, is the southern white man, and
the negro knows it The south will
work out her own problem along this <
line, and outside criticism and interference
can only retard the solution.
But in the underlying principles of improving
our systems generally, we
jhould all work hand In hand.
In this connection, I may say that
recently I visited the penitontiary of
my state, and I saw walking around in
i large, comfortable corridor, two negroes
held upon the charge of having
criminally assaulted white women.
They had escaped their Just deserts
for the time being. Locked and barred
Inside of cell about four feet wide
ind seven feet long, with a little wlnJow,
Iron-barred, about two feet
jquare, were three white men, charged
with having killed a negro who had
criminally assaulted a white woman.
[ do not mean to say the incident is
usual, but it was in South Carolina.
In conclusion, I would again urge
he importance of the duty of the chief
executives ir. the proper handling and
treatment of prisoners. Our chief executives
are clothed with large powers,
and a heavy responsibility is
:heirs. A man in jail awaiting trial 13
presumed to be innocent?a presump:ion
too often trampled upon by the
law which has made it. A prisoner
serving a sentence is a human being,
with a soul?a being created in the
mage of the same God in whose im
lge you and I were created. Society
must be protected, but the most efficient
means of protecting it is the reform
of the criminal, and just as surey
as we make criminals more hardened
by the punishment which we mete
lut, as surely is society going to suffer,
and those responsible must give
in accounting some day, if not In this
ife, then at the bar of the Great
Tudge, who, I must believe, is going
:o hold to a stricter accountability
hose who have violated his iaws unler
the hypocritical cloak of laws
made by men, than he will hold the J
ioor unfortunates who have erred
hrough the frailties of their human
latures,
'For they appeal from tyranny to ,
God."
*
A state warehouse is to be erected
n Lexington county within the next
'ew weeks.
PALMETTO GLEANINGS
Current Happenings and Events
Throughout 8outh Carolina.
N. D. Womble has been elected mayor
of the town of Mayesville, defeating
J. D. Mayes.
Governor Manning has appointed J.
H. Turner and I. B. Carter as commissioners
of state elections In Cherokee
county.
Edward White, formerly a clerk In
a Charleston grocery store, has been
arrested, charged with the larceny of
several hundred dollars from his emDloyer.
Richland county prisoners have
been transferred from the state penitentiary
and the city jail to Richland's
new Jail, which has only recently been
completed.
Joe Jackson, the famous fielder of
the Cleveland, Ohio, baseball team,
has been sold to the Chicago American
league team for the sum of $20,000.
Jackson is a native of Greenville.
Numerous applications for appointment
as state whisky gauger to succeed
L. M. Fouche, deceased, have
been received at the governor's office.
The appointment will be made by
September 1st.
W. R. Neely, jailor of Greenville
county, is being urged to run for
sheriff by his friends. He was appointed
jailor by the present sheriff,
Hendrix Rector.
Cornelia McCrackin. a negro woman
of Newberry, has been arrested,
charged with the theft of the wedding
dress and other clothes of the Newberry
lady for whom she cooked.
Fire In Williamston, Anderson county,
Tuesday morning, destroyed three
houses and caused the death of Roy
Hand, a 12-year-old boy who was
trapped in the upper story of his father's
residence.
Miss Mattie E. Sammouds, a popular
young lady of Greenville, was killed
last Sunday near that city when an
automobile in which she was riding
with her brothers was overturned. One
of the brothers was pretty severely injured.
David R. Coker of Hartsville, one of
best known farmers in South Carolina,
was married to Miss May Roper,
daughter of Daniel C. Roper, assistant
postmaster general in Washington on
Wednesday.
John Mack, a negro chauffeur, was
arrested in St. Matthews this week,
charged with reckless driving and with
painfully wounding a young boy whom
he ran over. The negro is in Jail in
default of bond.
Sam J. Nlcholls and B. A. Morgan,
candidates in the second primary in the
race for congress, have filed statements
of their expenses between the first
and second primaries with the secretary
of state. According to the statements
Nlcholls spent $200 and Morgan
$1,098.
James A. Parler has been declared
by the supreme court to be the superInian/lont
r.f oH ur?Q tlrvn TVirrhpctM*
county. In the general election Parler
received 392 votes and J. J. Howell
312. The latter appealed to the supreme
court on the ground of certain
Irregularities.
Attorney General Thos. H. Peeples,
upon request of Lieutenant Governor
A. J. Bethea for a ruling on the subject.
has given it as his opinion that
the lieutenant governor cannot act In
the absence of the governor unless the
governor publicly places the lieutenant
governor In charge. The ruling
was necessitated by the tiling of a
petition signed by citizens of Beaufort,
asking the lieutenant governor to order
an election on the question of recalling
Mayor Danner and Councilman
Marscher of Beaufort, following their
dismissal of City Manager Home last
week. After being informed of the
attorney general's opinion, Lieutenant
Governor Bethea declined to order the
election on the ground thai Governor
Manning did not publicly place him
In charge of the government when he
left the state several days ago.
The army worm, or something similar
to it, has made an attack upon the
fine field of alfalfa on the plantation of
C. M. Bflrd near here, says a Lexington
dispatch of Tuesday. The entire
field has been almost completely ruined,
the attack being so quick and effective
that the entire patch became
Infected before It was discovered. This
pest appears to work in droves, and
once a field becomes Infected, It Is not
long before complete and thorough
destruction follows in their wake.
While Mr. Eflrd's Is the only field that
has so far been attacked, it is almost
certain that the worm will attack
similar crops in the Immediate neighborhood.
Judge Eflrd, however, expects
to take the initiative,, and will
A A*AV\ A t Vl A
use every menus iu pui ? oiu|< iw
further spread of the pest.
Sam J. Nicholls of Spartanburg, defeated
B. A. Morgan of Greenville for
the vacancy In the Fourth congressional
district, caused by the election of
former Congressman Joseph T. Johnson
to the position of Federal judge,
in the second primary which was held
Tuesday. Nicholls' majority is about
600, according to unofficial returns.
The vote In the second primary was
considerably heavier than that of the
first, approximately 18,000 ballots being
cast. Nicholls carried Spartanburg,
Laurens and Union counties?
the latter two by very small majorities.
Mr. Morgan carried Greenville
county by a majority of about 2,000
and Mr. Nicholls lead in Spartanburg
county by an equally large majority.
Mr. Nicholls, the new congressman
from the Fourth, is the son of Judge
Geo. A. Nicholls of Spartanburg. He
is 30 years of age and for the past
eight years has been associated with
his father in the practice of law. He
is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic
institute at Blacksburg, Va? from
which institution he iras graduated
when he was 19 years oi age. When
little more than 21 years of age, he
was elected to the general assembly
where he served one term, and did not
seek re-election. He opposed Congressman
Johnson for re-election In
the campaign last summer and was defeated.
Nlcholls achieved considerable
notoriety last year through the
famous "dictagraph frame up," and to
many people he is known only as
"Dictagraph Sam." He has always
been a loyal political and personal
friend of former Gov. Blease. Several
months ago he was married to Miss
Eloise Clark of Green Bay, Wis.