Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1868-01-16
- ',sl AE a8
THRILLINGPRISON INCIDENT.

ITHltlLLlIxGThN hNUh HvGlDENl
EBY THE GOVERNOR OF AN ENGLISH JAIL
Comparatively honest rogues-
men who have been sent to prisol
lfor their term of Imprisonment
and who feel the bitterness ant
shame of tLeir position-men VIII,
Eshudder as the barber's scissor
crop their hair-soon show by thei
appearance how their punishment
lis telling upon them. They dom
look fat and sleek and jump t
make bows when you enter theil
cell, but hide all their troub
les in their hearts, and go about
their duties silently and doggedly
1 had such a man here not lone
back now-Amos Riding, in fol
poaching-and how that poor fel
low beat against his cage bars! Poor
fellow, l believe he was not a bad
one at heart, but he had got him
self mixed up with gang Of poach
ers, and a keeper having been
half killed, Amos was taken and,
rightly or wrongly, sent here for six
months. When | see a poor fellow
taking confinement to heart, why,
knowing how it tells on his mind,
i do all l can for him to brighten
him up-setting him at odd jobs
about the place, gardening and so
on; while, if he knows trade, one
that can he worked at in here,
| set him to do something in that
way,ueverletting him stand still for
tools or material. But this poor
fellow was unmanageable; he
would work as hard as | liked and
as long as l liked, but the moment
he was by himself he was pining
again, fretting 4or his wife and
children, and wearying himself a
way to skin and bone. | did not
know what to do with him, and
grew troubled at last; for l began
to be afraid Of having summons
from one of the warders telling
me that in a fit Of. that weary, de-
spairing madness which comes up
on men, poor Riding had made
away with himself. @
The summons came at last, but
in a different form; for one morn
ing I was reused at five O'Clock to
be told that the bird had beaten
down the wires, and had escaped,
"Why, how did he manage itY"
I exclaimed angrily. "Come and
see, sir," said the warder, and |
went to the cell where the prison
er had been locked in the night
before ateight o'clock, and then
apparently he must have gone to
work at once with an old nail at the
setting of one of the iron bars in
the window till he picked it slowly
ouf, and wrenched out the first
one and then another, leaving a
passage big enough to allow his
bodyto pass. The blankets and
rug were gone, while piece of one
of. the former yet hungto the bars,
evidently having been used to let
the prisoner down in the yard be-
low. We were not long in reach
ing the lesser yard, which was a.
bout twenty feet beneath his win
dow, and surrounded on all sides
by high buildings. Here it was
evident that he had made his way
intotlie long passage between the
q place covered in for
the whole length with iron bars.
But about half way down WEI
found where he had leaped up and
caught the bars, and evidently BY
placing his feet against them and
forcing. while he held on with hisE
hands, strained till the iron gave
way, sufficiently for him to force
ais body through when he would 70
De able to. lower himself into the
arge yard, where the high wall
5, whose top is covered with |
DOSE heavy bricks, which are1
iure to fall if an attempt at
escape is made. Not Q brick wasi
,ut Of place, though, as far as I
,oulds see, till ono of the men
pointed out where three had tall
n, and then, satisfied in my own
mind that the prisoner had ,es-
.aped, Ireturned to mysoffice, and /
ent out notices to the police. ALI 1
It once one Of the men ran In.
-