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VOLUME XCVII1. " 181#
' v teJcr »* Union Eotablllbnd in 1823
Milledgeville, G*„ Dece.be, IS, 1927
jtATE rARM OVERCROWDED;
immediate action asked
OstiiMi Problem That Faces
That Body in Matter
MACON telegraph bureau
105 Kimball House
ATLANTA, Dec. 11.—The cane of
C. E. 1'nderwood, of Americus, is
by .w means the only one in which
u j . <-r hay had to be rejected
by the tate prison authorities at
Milled^ ville. Underwood, a for
mer business man at Americus, sen
tenced to c prison term, is physi
cally u: ible to do road work. In
fact he is said to be in a bad phy
sics' 'indition. Information from
Anu: u us, through Underwood’s
counsel, is that the chairman of the
prison commission notified the coun
ty authorities no further prisoners
can be taken at the state farm, be
cause of over-congested conditions
c.nd the fact that there are now so
many prisoners in the prison all kinds
of make shifts have to be provided
for sleeping.
One of the officials of the state
prison commission made the state
ment to this correspondent today
tha:, unless some unforseen and un-
c'j-ccted relief can be afforded, it
looks very much to him ns though
an extraordinary session of the gen-
earl assembly will have to be called
to handle the situation.
Many Rejected
“For sometime we have had to
reject prisoners sentenced to the
state farm by the trial judges.
There have ben a number of these
prisoners repected simply because
we have no way to care for or han
dle them at the farm. It Is true that
there are makeshift arrangements in
almost any manner possible, for
sleeping the prisoners already there.
The number at the farm now is
more than the facilities were ever
intended or expected to take care of,
and the place is simply taxed far be
yond itecapacity.
WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST CHRISTMAS THRILL?
Number 17.
wii
Do y ( »u want to promote the
spreading of happiness?
Then here is a suggestion for an
early December game—which is
mot* interesting, great fun—and
the mo - remarkable phase' of the
whole affair is the fact that you—
who start* the ball rolling—are the
only on- who knows that it is a
game—with a purpose.
When conversation lags at some
early December party or social group
gathering bring up the Subject of
Chris:ma>. Any little everyday re
mark about shopping, giving, mail
ing, etc. Some one naturally will re
ply in relating his or her experiences
as likely will others in the group.
At the first opportunity, however,
the conversation will ease up—and
then is you oppo.iunity. Put the
question to some one individual—
or *imply address it generally to the
whole group. This:
“Which Christmas in your life,
stands out as having brought the
greatest thrills?"
You’ll be surprised how willingly
almost all will be to tell of their
“greatest Christmas thrills.”
Human Interact Stories
There will be many most interest
ing—and some very amusing recitals
—and with it all, you will find, that
the mere telling of these "greatest
Christmas thrills" expereinces—al
most. always will bring forth a story
which will drive* home the fact that
the giving of "big" or "expensive"
gifts is not at all necessary in the
spreading of human happiness.
The reaction on almost every per
son present will be to give some one
or two little additional giftH to the
lonely and needy—not planned.
The writer—only last year—tried
out the plan as outlined above, the
idea having been passed on to him.
In the very first discussion came
forth a human-interest story—so
simple—no appealing—that he him
self was moved "to go out and do
ing something extra in gift giving."
The story came form the iins of
a quite well-to-do publisher. A man
very successful in life having for
years conducted a very prosperous
business—a man who now at Christ
mas :ime receive* gifts costing hun
dreds of dollars. •
The Family Poor
“Mv greater thrill came when I
was about seven or eight years old,"
he said as he settled back in a chair,
eyes half closed and a very real
smile playing urountl his mouth.
"That's been several yearn ago,
about 1870 I guess.”
“I never have been ashamed to
tell any one that I came from a
very poor family—and to me then,
when I was just growing old enough
to realize how really* poor’ we were,
it seemed that our family had abso
lutely nothing. As I remember now
—the holiday season always brought
that strange pathetic look to the face
of my good mother and father.
“Well, this Christmas, the small
community where we lived was hav
ing a Christmas tree at the little
church—where all families were to
bring all presentw for the children,
hang them on the tree—and old
Santq was to come—in person—
take them from the tree, call off the
thereon, and each child was to
go forward and receive the gift.
“We went; father, mother, my two
sister.w and I. 1 can recall yet silting
on mother'* lap,—because all pews
were filled;—recall my intense ex
citements as the sleigh-bells were
heard outside—and in came Old
Santa, laughing and stamping the
snow from his shiny boots.
“Soon he was on the platform by
thet great beautiful tree and mak
ing ready to hand out the presents.
Did Not Expect Gifts
“There was doubt in my mind that
ha really was going to give presents
to EVERY little boy and girl. I
couldn't conceive how possibly I
could be included—and receive a
‘present.’ Oh, but I was thrilled—
nevertheless—thrilled to the very
toes. I remember how mother pat
ted me on the shoulder and whisper
ed *
wait.’
“Santa was now into the very
midst of calling off names and hand
ing out packages. In my interest at
the wonderful toys, oranges, candy
and glittering packages being
brought back down the aislu.* by
other boys and girls, I lost track
of self—and did not realise that my
name had not yet been called—that
I had received nothing.
“Then it happened. .My name—
and I was shoved from my
mother’s lap and found myself
marching down the stale toward that
great s.n—who stood smiling—
holding out a packa^t toward me.
In the other hand an orange and a
bag of candy.
“I took the package, orange and
candy and stood dazed—turning the
package over and over—because it
was wrapped und I couldn't know
what was inside. I was so interested
—but with no thought of opening it
—that it was necessary for mother
to send one of my sisters down to
fetch me back.
His Greatest Thrill
“In the family seat again—the
realization began to dawn upon me
that I had received a Christmas pres
ent from Santa—and oh the thrill
of it—the happiness—so happy that
I did not want to open the package.
“Finally—all members af Ih: fam
ily prevailed upon me to unwrap the
package. I was so excited that
mother had to assist.
“It was the most beautiful object
I had ever set my eyes upon—even
to this day. A little brown tin horse
with black mane and tail hitched to
a little red cart—und wheel* that
turned. It was tin and small—a toy
which perhaps sells for 10 cents to
day—little more then—but thnt toy
horse and cart brought the greatest
happiness to my life it has ever
known."
FIRST BASKET EALL
GAME FRIDAY NIGHT
Milledgeville All Stars To Battlo
CadsU At Sports Arana In Curtain
RaUor. Caadjr Givaa Froo
The G. M. C. Cadets will meet the
Milledgeville All Ktars, a team com
posed of ex-prep and college ttars,
to usher in the Basket Ball season
next Friday night in the Sports
Arena on the campus.
The cadet team has been busy at
practcie this week and many byight
stars have shown up in the initial
work outs. Coach Rentz without the
services of the stars of his Lust years
is working to build a new fiva
that will compete in the Association
tournament that will come later in
the spring.
The Milledgeville team headed by
John Massey former star of the red
and black team has .u fast and ag
gressive five. The game Friday
night is expected to be an excellent
exhibition and will give the local
fans their first opportunity to see
the Rentz team in action.
A box of candy will be given away
to the holder of the lucky number
between halves.
“Besides that, we are in eerious
financial fix to meet the excessive
burden put upon ns. If it were
not for the fact that Jap. 1, and
then we appropriations, for 1928 are
very nearby, here, we would simply
he up against a proposition stop
ping everything at the prison farm,
and no telling how we could even
feed the prisoners. Lately we have
just been sliding things along un
til the new appropriation becomes
available, and already it is appar-
ent that this fund is far from suf
ficient to run the prison through
1918. The estimates made, on which
our appropriation waa baaed, are
going to fall down badly; in fact
they already have fallen down, and
possibly the same thing is going
to be found in respect to other de
partments but those do not concern
This official expressed the opinion
that necessity will compel the gen
eral assembly being convened in
extra session as a matter of emer
gency.
Sometime ago two members of the
prison commission, commenting on
present conditions at the farm made
th« statement that the institution was
getting overloaded beyond further
possibility of accommodation, because
of the increasing practice among
judges of the state imposing state
prison farm sentences on convicted
people of whom the law never intend
ed should go there—able bodied
not at all ; hysically handicapped or
incapacited—and misdemeanor con
victs The law provide* that all able-
bodied prisoner* except women, shall
be worked in the county gangs, but
when a state farm sentence is im
posed the state commission h&a had no
option in th« premise*. Now it has
reached the point which compels it to
take a stand.
The matter ha* not yet, so far
as c§n be learned, been brought to
the attention of Governor Hardman,
but the suggestion has been nua« by
a prominent member of the assembly
that it is the governor’s duty under
the existing condition to have an indi
vidual survey made of every prisoner
at the farm, to determine what cases
are meritoious of clemency, and that
this should be done on the ground
that those in the penitentiary who
are able to hire lawyers to work on
clemency petitions whether they are
meritorious or not, get considera
tion, which those eonvicts who
have no friends or money to hire
lawyers; seldom if ever have any
consideration given them in the di
rection of clemency.
JOHN W. HAMMOND.