The terms of imprisonment for minor offenses are cruelly excessive, while the food and shelter furnished and the punishments inflicted would bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of a savage.

The convict systems of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Arkansas are a burning disgrace to the Christian civilization which we boast.

Nothing short of a semi-barbarous public opinion would permit them to exist.

Governors have "called attention" to them; legislatures have "investigated" and "resolved" that they should be purified, and a _few_ newspapers here and there have held them up to the scorn and contempt of the world; yet they not only grow worse year by year, but the number of them steadily multiplies.

And so they will.