MISSISSIPPI CONVICT SYSTEM.

The horrid barbarity of the State convict-system in Georgia is paralleled by Mississippi. The moral sense of the people in these States is waking up and public attention is being called to the cruelty and inhumanity on the part of those who have prisoners in charge. It seems incredible that such things can be so. What a disgrace to our country and our civilization! Here is a report recently made by the Grand Jury of Hinds County, Mississippi:

To the Hon. T. J. Wharton, Judge:

After a most arduous session of eleven days we, the Grand Jury of the First District of Hinds County for this the June term of the court, having completed our labors, beg to submit our final report. We have examined 220 witnesses and have found and returned into court thirty-eight true bills, of which six have been for murder, eight for grand larceny, and the remainder for minor offenses.

We find, with the exception of murder, there is very little crime in this district; but we are compelled to deplore the fact that homicide seems to be on the increase. We feel we have discharged our duty toward the suppression of this crime as best we were able, leaving the court to carry on the work.

We have examined the public officers’ accounts and settlements and find everything in good shape. We have examined the jail, and find the roof and floors in bad condition and the bedding and covering of the prisoners insufficient and in a bad condition. We recommend that proper and clean bedding be furnished the prisoners and that the roof be repaired or replaced by a new one.

We felt it our duty to inspect the penitentiary, and we report the result of our inspection as follows: We find comparatively few prisoners in the walls of the penitentiary, most of them being out on the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad and elsewhere. We found nothing to complain of in the walls. The yard seemed to be clean, and the building, so far as we could judge, in a safe and cleanly condition, and those immediately in charge polite and accommodating in showing us around. But we feel constrained by a sense of public duty to call attention to the hospital there, the manner in which it is kept and the condition of its occupants. We found twenty-six inmates, all of whom have been lately brought there off the farms and railroads, many of them with consumption and other incurable diseases, and all bearing on their persons marks of the most inhuman and brutal treatment; most of them have their backs cut in great wales, scars and blisters, some with the skin peeling off in pieces as the result of severe beatings.

Their feet and hands in some instances show signs of frost-bite, and all of them with the stamp of manhood almost blotted out of their faces, which show that they have been treated more cruelly and brutally than a nation of savages ought to permit inflicted upon its convicts. They are lying there dying, some of them on bare boards, so poor and emaciated that their bones almost come through their skin, many complaining for the want of food.

We believe they are fed improperly. Sick people ought to have light diet and these poor creatures get their beef water and meal for soup, as we are informed, with coarse meat and cabbage—such diet as they cannot eat. One poor fellow burst out crying and said he was literally starving to death. We actually saw live vermin crawling over their faces, and the little bedding and clothing they have is in tatters and stiff with filth.

We call the attention of the Board of Control to these matters, but under the law we know they can do but little to remedy these evils. We believe they will do the best they can. We are not to be understood as condemning the lessees in person for these things, but we do inveigh against the principle and system of this great State taking a poor creature’s liberty and turning him over to one whose interest it is to coin his blood into money.

As a fair sample of this system, on January 6, 1887, two hundred and four convicts were leased to McDonald up to June 6, 1887, and during this six months twenty died, nineteen were discharged and escaped and twenty-three returned to the walls disabled and sick, many of whom have since died. God will never smile upon a State that treats its convicts as Mississippi does. After a full examination and conference with the kind-hearted prison physician, Dr. Johnston, we find the following persons in the hospital almost in a dying state, some of them with hopelessly incurable diseases and others badly afflicted, and all of them confined for minor offenses, comparatively speaking, and who have long since suffered the full penalty of the law in being beaten and so cruelly mis-treated, and whom we here earnestly beg the Governor to pardon immediately, so that they may at least die free.

Then follow the names of twelve persons, all colored, who, in consequence of the abuse to which they were subjected in prison, are now suffering from incurable diseases. Oh, for some John Howard to arise in the South and become in God’s hand the instrument of wiping this terrible evil out of existence.

FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING
of the
American Missionary Association.

The Forty-first Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association convened in the Second Parish Church at Portland, Maine, on Tuesday, October 25th, at 3 o’clock P. M.

Owing to the recent death of its President, Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, of Massachusetts, the Association was called to order by one of the Vice-Presidents, Alexander McKenzie, D.D., of the same State, who, after the singing of “Coronation,” read the Scriptures—Mark vi, 30–56—and led in prayer.

Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts, was elected Secretary, and Rev. Edgar M. Cousins, of Maine, Assistant Secretary.

In the unavoidable absence of W. H. Fenn, D.D., Rev. Charles H. Daniels welcomed the Association in behalf of the churches and the city of Portland.

Response was made by Vice-President McKenzie.

The following committees were nominated and elected:

Committee on Nominations.—A. S. Walker, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. Rufus K. Harlow, of Massachusetts; W. L. Gage, D.D., of Connecticut; Rev. Arthur Shirley, of Maine; Charles Peck, Esq., of Connecticut.

Committee of Arrangements.—Rev. Charles H. Daniels, Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, Rev. Frank T. Bayley, William H. Fenn, D.D., Dea. E. F. Duren, all of Maine.

Business Committee.—Rev. Geo. M. Howe, of Maine; J. D. Kingsbury, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. Geo. E. Hall, of New Hampshire; Rev. Geo. E. Street, of New Hampshire; Dr. Luther B. Morse, of Massachusetts; James G. Buttrick, Esq., of Massachusetts.

Secretary Beard read the portion of the Constitution relating to life membership and delegates, and the roll of the Association and Visitors was prepared, as follows;