and from dawn to dark, with brief intermis sion, they toil on the public roads and be fore the public eye. About them as they sleep, journey and labor, watch the convict guards armed with rifle and shot gun. This is to at once make escape impossible, and to make sure the swift thudding of the picks and the rapid flight of the shovels shall never cease. If the guards would hesitate to promptly kill one sentenced for petty viola tions of city law should he attempt to escape, the evidence does not disclose the fact. And the fact more baleful and more igno minious than all, with each gang stands the whipping boss, with the badge of his authority. This the evidence discloses to be a heavy leathern strap about two and a half or three feet long, with solid hand grasp, and with broad, heavy and flexible lash. From the evidence we may judge that the agony inflicted by this implement of torture is not surpassed by the Russian knout, the synonym the world around for merciless cor poral punishment. If we may also accept the uncontradicted evidence oí the wit nesses it is true that on the Bibb county chaingang for no day is the strap wholly idle and not infrequently it is fiercely active. One witness, who served many months, testified that if the gang does not work like "fighting fire," to use his simile, the whip ping boss runs down the line, striking with apparent indiscrimination the convicts as they bend to their tasks. Often the whip ping is more prolonged and deliberate. At times, according to another witness, also un contradicted, the victims when at the stock ade are called into the "dog lot." All pres ent, the whipping boss selects the victims in his judgment worthy of punishment. They are called to the stable door, made to lie face downward across the sill, a strong convict holds down the head and shoulders and the boss lays on the lash on the naked body until he thinks the sufferer has been whipped enough. It is but just to Mr. Wimbish to record his statement that he knew nothing of this ceremony. It may be judged from the evidence that it is a whipping more
formal and dramatic than any other inflicted. Since this is done at the stockade, we may presume that the spectators and'guards are the only witnesses, but on the public roads, in the presence of wayfarers and by-standers, often the convict, to use an expression of a witness, "is taken down and whipped." The evidence gives us the account of two white persons who were thus whipped, one, a boy with but one arm. For this reason, it was not necessary to hold him. He stood and cried as the boss applied the lash. The other white boy was compelled to place bis head between the legs of a burly negro con vict and was thus immovably held. The punishment will mark the lad with infamy in the minds of his fellows as long as he may live. The offense of one of these lads was "loitering in the depot." Nor does the Re corder sentence to this punishment men who commit crimes against the laws of the State. By explicit decisions of the State courts this official has no jurisdiction to sentence but must commit such offenders to the appro priate State court for jury trial. The pun ishment here described is inflicted upon those who are convicted of minor municipal offenses, such as disorderly conduct, viola tions of the bicycle ordinances, walking or standing on the park grass, loitering in the depot or in the railroad yard, careless driv ing and the like. After discussing authorities the court said: Indeed it may be with entire accuracy declared that the voluminous and exhaustive preparation of the city attorney, and the sub sequent examination by the court has evoked no shred of authority, either Ameri can or English, where a sentence for petty offenses, by a police magistrate, to a public chaingang, with the ignominious accessories of fetters, the stripes, lash, and of the degra dation of convict life, has been sustained or even palliated. Under the American sys tem the chaingang has no place in the juris diction and procedure of police courts where trial by jury is not a right, of the accused. The court ordered the discharge of the petitioner from custody.
