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T —sscow xenon— rr tlmcm 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.