The New York herald., 1873-11-20


infamous to-day.
The Detectives Are Looking After
After Himself.
Justice is like Lazarus she may not be
dead, but she sleepeth, and sometimes the
sleep is so profound that she lets the wicked
go free while she prolongs her snooze. Yes
terday afternoon, at about half-past one
O. clock, William j. Sharkey, the condemned
murderer of Bob Dunn, escaped from the
Tombs. In this age, when wreath of
romance is woven for the brow Of almost every
crime, it is affecting to discover that pictu-
resqueness is not wanting to the environment
of felon awaiting death upon the gallows
Involuntarily we recur to the novels of Aims
worth, and find ourselves again getting under
the spell of Jack Sheppard and his mistresses
Long before this the friends and admirers of
.Sharkey are congratulating each other upon
deed which deserves to be placed
within the category of Jack Shep-
pardism, and which proves that our
felons are stronger than the prisons
built for their accommodation. It is saying
nothing to claim that such an escape should
be an impossibility in properly managed
jail 1t could only be the result of long con-
coction. The details will be found elsewhere.
The substance is that yesterday morning, at
ten, q girl, named Maggie Jourdan, called to
see Sharkey and was admitted, going out again
at one. At half-past twelve a woman, calling
herself the wife of Wes' Allen, was admitted for
the same purpose, and on attempting to come
out, two hours after was detained because
she claimed to have lost the pass which it would
have been necessary for her to give up before
stepping outside Meanwhile, at half-past one
half an hour after Maggie Jourdan had left,
and half an hour before the other woman at
tempted to do so-a person, dressed in the
guise Of a woman and wearing a green veil,
passed through the four doors and the long
corridor which intervened between Sharkeys
cell and liberty, and, making rapid progress
toward Elm street, entered car belonging to
the Bleecker street line This individual was
William j. Sharkey. The four doors through
which he had to pass were locked, and
at the hour when the escape was
made the long corridor was ira
versed by many people. Mrs. Aliens
attempt to go out without pass was
the occasion $50 runs the tale) of suspicion
being awakened and of search being made.
1t was then that Sharkey's cell was found va
cant, and his mustache freshly shaved of,
lying with the lather on it on a shelf The
fact that the door of the cell in which Sharkey
when temporarily opened to allow of the pas
sage of food, and that all communication be-
tween him and his visitors took place through
the moveless bars, only heightens the suspi-
cion of collusion.
There are times when the most belligerent
of those Of US who wage war against villany
grow tired of expressing contempt and disgust.
The escape Of Sharkey is almost sufficient
occasion for reaction of this nature. It
is enough to excite the bitter testing OF
the wisest and strongest of u.s. that 80 san
culinary and brutal a criminal should find it
possible to get free by means 80 hackneyed
The story would, of course, be incomplete
unless it were added that the detectives are
looking after him. But Sharkey, we fear,
will look after himself much better than our
detectives can. Where was the genius of de-
lection in the Tombs, that such an escape was
possible? Let the Warden, and the keeper
on the second tier, where Sharkey's cell was
located, answer that