Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-07-19
ALMOST FREE.

ALMOST FREE.
A Wholesale Delivery from the Ramsey
County Jail Averted
There was only the eighth Of an inch be-
tween them and liberty when Sheriff King
discovered the prisoners, yesterday morning,
saving out an avenue of escape from the
jail. But miss is as good as mile, and
the prisoners made mess Of it in their
calculations. Ever since the GLOBE dis
closed Exclusively some time ago,
the conspiracy among the pris-
oners to effect jail delivery, there
has been continued uneasiness among
them. Their former plot being discovered,
they wentto work to fix up anof her scheme
by which q rush for outdoors might be
made. The former affair was engineered by
VIM. Cody, horse thief, and he has been the
master spirit to agitate his fellows to the eff
fortnight along. Lately he has had ardent
supporters in Harry Williams, the man who
stole MI. Fishers (of the American Express
company clothes, Joe Carr and Barney
Murphy, the street car robbers, which by the
way was also exclusively mentioned in the
GLOBE. These choice comrades gained q
kindred spirit in Louis Evans, the Owatonna
postoffice robber, .who was committed few
days ago.
With such lot of disciples in jail, Sheriff
King has been alive to the importance of
keeping them in. Then too, to certain ex-
tent, their manifestations of a big something
in the near future, put the sheriff on the
alert.
NRro CHI Ia H.
against their will, has made him look we'll to
been his habit to pay frequent
visits to the interior Of the iail, not
neglecting more than occasional SURVEYS of
the outer walls and view of the basement.
Yesterday about o'clock he was making his
tour Of observation, and had accomplished
it to his satisfaction until he reached the
basement. Here he saw the shadow, as it
were, of CLEAN of light through the Jail
floor. Intently looking to discover where
the ray came from, he heard gnawing
noise, which, on closer attention, he located
at the rear of the basement, overhead. Seiz-
ing ladder, Sheriff King put it against the
end of the furnace, assembled, got within q
foot of the sound, and ascertained that a
man overhead was making the noise with
the help of saw or some such instrument.
Softly getting down from his perch, SO as
not to discover himself to the industrious
worker, in great haste he got into the Jail.
His eager approach was perceived by Will
liams, who, in no little haste, sauntered to
the rear of the corridor. Sheriff King Or
dered him to stop, and he replied in very
surly tone.
Hawever, he stopped, for all that.
r In the meantime Deputy Sheriff Harrison
came in.
Two or three Of the ringlead-
ers seemed disposed to dispute the
right of these officers to be Just
where they were. They didn't continue
long in this mind, for Cody, Williams,
Evans, Carr and Murphy were hustled off to
the upstairs corridor and locked in separate
cells.
Then search began to discover where the
worker, now quiet, had een1aboring. he
was discovered under the water sink at the
end of the corridor, and hauled out.
Mr.. Henry Wilson was Disconnected, and
looked decidedly cbagrined at all his labor
lost.
The sink, where the prisoners wash, is To-
Gated at the rear of the cell walls; and the
bowl or iron trough, some four feet long,
stands upon frame boarded at both ends
and front with tongue and groove matching.
A board or two had been deity removed
in such manner as to be replaced and
evade detection. Through the
aperature thus made Wilson had crawled in,
and did his work on and through the board
floor of the jail; underneath the flooring
zinc is laid. Wilson and his fellows had cut
hole two feet square in the floor, and Will
son was saving away at the zinc lining
when Sheriff King was attracted by the
CLEAN of light and the grating sound of the
saw.
Wilson being brought to his feet, his
working place was searched. A razor, case
knife ground and cut into saw, piece of
putty, used to deaden sound, and a coal
miners lamp vert found. The lamp gave
out the light which led to the discovery of
and complete overthrow of the plot to es-
cape.
Only ne-eighth of an inch more, through
the zinc, and every prisoner in jail could
have dropped to the basement, and then
there was next to nothing between them and
fresh air.
HNS, n. r