These chain-gangs are formed by fastening together two women with
a chain about ten feet long around the waist of each, and in this
situation they are driven about the city day after day as street
scavengers, and among them are often many fine appearing and delicate
looking mulatto girls; yet they are here driven to the hard toil of
shoveling dirt, and doing the heavy labor of a beast; while the proud
and chivalrous southern gentleman will pass by and see these women
thus degraded and brutalized, and never have thought or feeling of
shame, nor a blush come over them, that such scenes are an outrage
upon humanity, and a deep and damning disgrace to the civilized world.
And yet here too, in this christian land, will _christian_ men and
women, witness this more than savage brutality, and heed it less than
they would if the women were dogs, while at the same time these pious
_ladies_ will contribute money and means to civilize and christianize
the poor heathen in some far distant land. And more than this, they
will indite long prayers and repeat them time and again, that heaven
would prosper the great cause which lies so near their heart, of
turning the _brutal heathen_ from his _inhuman_ practices; and yet
these same heathen, if they could promenade the streets of this city
with these pious ladies, they would be shocked at sights of barbarity
and cruelty, such as savages would never inflict, unless to punish
their most deadly enemy. And here let me ask, in view of such scenes as
are daily witnessed under the sanction of public authority; if there is
any sense of propriety in men, or any regard for common decency, should
not public opinion frown upon such men who make these regulations with
a force that would drive them into the haunts of savages where they
properly and _constitutionally_ belong.