A TERRIBLE STORY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2104, 1 October 1875, Page 3

A TERRIBLE STORY.

i.A:; very terrible story, of the authenticity of which there seems to be no doubt, * cornea from Texas. The penitentiary of that State, up to 1870, had been maintained at a loss of about 68,000d015. a year, the prisoners doing no work, and being kept in idleness. In 1870, however, the. prison was leased to a firm of . contractors, Messrs Ward, Dewey, and Co., for ten years, at "an annual rental of lO.OOOdols. a year, and by the terms of the contract they have entire control of the prisoners. A correspondent tells what has been the result of this arrangement:- — L :■'.■-■

"In fact, a convict belongs to them body and soul, and they use their power unmercifully.: During the past two or three years the greater part of the railway work has been done with convict labor. The Houston and Great .Northern railroad was built on the dead bodies of convicts. Convict labor was used exclusively in the construction of the road; men were worked from daylight until dark in the hot sun, fed twice a day on food. which would scarcely keep body and soul together, and at night huddled into box cars. To save the "expense of a guard at night the car doors were locked, and the poor convicts were made to suffer torments in these- hot, footid dens, which rivalled the famous Black Hole of Calcutta. When taken out in the morning they were more dead than alive; they were not rested, for it was impossible to sleep; and as they were unable, or refused to work, they were put in the stocks and kept in until they were black in the face, their eyes starting out of their sockets,

and their tongues lolling out of their mouths. Some have been taken out dead, and it is quite common to leave them in until irseusible. Subject to such fearful treatment, who can wonder that the convicts became desperate, and that numerous attempts to escape were made, even in the face of the fact that not o"ne in ten of those who made the attempt ever succeeded in getting away. It was almost certain death, yet they preferred to risk it rather than remain at the mercy of their taskmasters. I have heard the, guards say that they could always ; tellbyja convict's manner when he was going to jump from the brush, and he rarely got ten feet before his earthly flight was stopped by a load of buckshot. The guards seldom miss their aim, and but few of those ever move. Sixteen buckshot at twenty or thirty paces tear a man to pieces. Convicts are plentiful. The penitentiary is so full that the leesees do not know what to do with them. That probably accountß*for the killing of so many. About three years ago between thirty and forty convicts were killed in an accident on the Gi'eat Northern railroad. The lives of a few dozen convicts are of a small consequence to Ward, Dewey, aid Co., when it comes down to a question of curtailing expenses. Several cotton and sugar plantations, on the Brazos river are worked by convicts, and from, all accounts the poor creatures have a hard time of it. A week ago last Wed nesday one of the guards shot a convict without cause, and an indignant citizen demanded that a coroner's inquest be held. As there was no witness to the shooting, the guard was allowed to make a statement in his own behalf. He said that ' he did not intend to kill tho man, but simply to frighten him, and that he meant to snap his six-shooter on a chamber which had been discharged, but uninten tionally he pulled down on a loaded chamber.' An enlightened jury returned a verdict for "accidental death."