Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-07-07
AN ESCAPE FROM MILLBANK.
brilliant Feat of q Troublesome
London Prisoner.

captain ArCnur OrllHCnS, WIlen
appointed four years ago Deputy
Governor of Millbank prison, was
placed in possession Of the official
records of that establishment.
Among these records are accounts
of certain remarkable escapes,
which he has incorporated in his
recent history of the building.
Pickard Smith was the most
troublesome inmate ever honored
with a residence in Millbank prison,
in the old days when it was a peni-
tentiary. He defied and derided
everybody. from the governor and
chaplain down to the keepers and
patrols. He was in the place over
and over again, the result Of new
committals for new crimes. One
morning his cell was found empty;
and inside the door was chalked
this doggerel rhyme:
Londoni is the place where was born;
| Newgate has been too often my situation;
The penitentiary has been too often my dwell
And New South Wales is my expectation
(Botany Bay penal settlement was
one Of the institutions of those
days.) When the circumstances
came to be closely inquired into, it
was found that " the mode of es-
cape was ingenious, daring and
mastery; though the prisoner was
only eighteen years of age, there
was combination of sagacity,
courage and ready resource, indi-
eating extraordinary powers, both
mental and bodily" Smith had
secreted an iron pin used for turn
ing the handle of the stoye-ventila,
tor (the handle not being wanted
or used in summer time), and with
this he made a hole in the brick
arch which formed the roof of his
cell, scraping and looSening until
the hole became large enough to
admit his body. The pin, a hook
and a short ladder made of shred,
Of cotton and coarse thread
enabled him to climb through the
; hole he had made in the roof OF
arched ceiling of his cell; he crept
) along the space between the cell.
roof and the outer slated roof
then finding a place where
the battens were sufficiently
, wide apart to admit his body, hi
: broke away a few states and emerged
on the top of the building. Thel
came the descent, for which h,
5 made some ingenious preparations
}. The prisoners received their clear
clothes on Saturday evenings, ant
the warders were late in entering
IS the cells on Sunday mornings. Il
y selected his time accordingly, es
a pecially as the dirty clothes wer
( not taken away till Monday morn
Q ing. One Saturday night when hi
! store at hand comprised two shirts
> two pairs Of stockings, two hand
! kerchiefs, a round towel, blanke
q p and rugs, he attired himself in
clean shirt, and cut up all the othe
articles into strips, which he tie
!, or sewed end to end. Thus pre-
IL vided, he made his way out upo
D the roof through the openings h
Il had made, fastened one end Of h
b patchwork rope to a rafter, slun
J. himself down to thesill of the att
!" window; and so, stage by stage,
- Che second story and terra firm,
!. His rope was not in one long piec
but in four sections for the for
stages of descent, fastening the
in succession to the bars of I'll
windows. His difficulties were n,
vet over; he had still to scale ii
boundary wall, Much rebuildir
a and repairing were going on in Il
garden, and he removed a long al
heavy ladder from the scaffoldini
I and dragged it to the iron fence
- q small burial ground separate
I from the garden. Finding he cou
not raise it to the full hight of Il
boundary wall, he ayailed himst
:. of two planks, lashed them firm
together with a piece of rope he
pied near at hand. made an inclin
y plane upon which he walked
uI- crawled to the top of the wall, dr.
up his double plank after him, q