The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-03-08
Sensation at Sunbnry.

A prisoner escapes from the New Jail by
Squeezing Himself through Ndrrow Aper-
ture--Another Attempts 10 Escape in the
same manner, bat sticks fast and is coptwcd
Considerable excitement prevailed at Sun.
bury on Thursday and Friday of last week
in consequence Of the discovery that prison.
er named Peter McMaguire had escaped from
his cell and Rufus Dawcss, another prisoner,
had made an attempt to escape. The men
stripped themselves naked and soaped their
bodies well, and then tnc ior cd himself
through the narrow iron spaces used to admit
light into their apartment. The attempt was
made between | o'clock on Wednesday night
and O'Clock on Thursday morning. M'Guire
being the larger man soapel his body thor
oughly and made the attempt first, as they
supposed If the larg II man could get through
the other, as Il matter of course, would have
no difficulty in f,llowing him. Pushing his
body through the aperture, which is about
50: inches in width and eighteen inches in
length, same as the iron castings Of the sky
lights in the cells Of the Dauphiu county
prison, he made the eff ri and got through,
letting himself down distance of IL feet into
the ja, yard by means of blanket, Dawess
next made the attempt, but proving to have
larger hips did not get more than half through
before he was completely jammcd in, and
could neither get backward nor forward NJ
guire took the end of the blanket and gave
two or three strong pull, but thi, course ap-
pears to have made the matter only worse,
wedgng Dawcss still firiner between the un :
yielding surface of the iron casino. In this
terrible predicament Dawess remained for
several hours until another prisoner heard his
groans and acquainted Mr.. John Peeler, the
turnkey, of the fact. The latter Immediately
procured assistance, aud after using plenty of
soap, attempted to remove Dawess, first by
filing off some of the surface of the hange or
outer edge, but making no progress and fear
ing the man would die if not speedily reliev-
ed, he sent for blacksmith. Dawess was re-
leased, after having been in the window about
: hours, and his body was much swollen.
Dawes after having been properly attended
to, revived sufficiently to tell the following
story:
Mcguire waited outside of the cell in the
prison yard for two hours tugged at the
blanket hard several times, but finding it
only tortured his comrade he desisted He
went into the engine house in quest of tools,
thinking he could in some way enlarge the
aperture and release his companion, but failed
to find anything to work with that he hcs-
tated about going over the Jail wall and leav-
ing his friend behind him in such miserable
plight but finally with the aid of wash
line and a hook got on the top Of the wall.
From this point he gained the outside of the
wall, by means Of the same rope and hook
and made his escape before being discovered.
The escape of NJ Guire was Immediately tele-
graphed to different points, and yesterday Mr..
Peeler received telegram from this city that
a man answering to the description of NJ
Guire had been arrested here by a Harris
burg detective. When Mr. p arrived he dis
covered that it was not NJ Gure, and he left
for Sunbury again last evening.