whence he is frequently graduated a far worse, more hopeless enemy of
society than when he matriculated.

And the brutality of the convict systems of Southern States is equaled
by no similar institutions in the world, if we except the penal system
enforced by Russia in Siberia. 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. How is it to be otherwise? To prevent such ulcerations upon
the body you must purify the blood. You cannot root them out by
probing; that simply aggravates them.

A system of misrepresentation and vilification of the character and
condition of the Southern Negro has grown up, for the avowed purpose
of enlisting the sympathies of the charitable and philanthropic people
of the country to supply funds for his regeneration and education,
which the government, State and Federal, studiously denies; so that it
is almost impossible to form a correct opinion either of his moral,
mental or material condition. Societies have organized and maintain a
work among that people which requires an annual outlay of millions of
dollars and thousands of employees; and to maintain the work, to keep
up the interest of the charitable, it is necessary to picture, as