Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-02-28

JEFFERSON CRY, Mo-, February 3d.
The mutiny and fire at the penitentiary
caused great excitement. John B.
johnson, safe-blower by record, who
was sent up for twelve years, from
Shelby County, last November, on q
conviction for highway robbery was the
ringleader. He has repeatedly declared
his intention to beat the prison and
from the first he was set down as dan
gerous man. The desperate act of to-
day was his third attempt to escape.
The men had just marched back from
dinner to the shops and were seeking
their various benches when, IN recOgni-
ton of some preconcerted signal, eight
men, employed in the harness shop of
Jacob Strauss & Co., seized the formld-
able leather cutting knives and the re-
volt began. Four of them seized the
foreman of the harness shop, and strip
ped him of his clothing; the other tour
ran to the floor below, seized Van
Horne, foreman of the collar depart
ment, and with knives at his throat, or
dered him not to resist. He did not.
Then Johnson ran back into the collar
stuffing department., set on fire
y lot of loose straw, and salts
fed that the flames had taken hold,
the desperate man dashed out of the
building and ran to the saddle tree fac
tory of John Sullivan, with the intention
of starting revolt there. At the main
entrance to the shop he met Pat Krump,
one of the guards, who, seeing him with
knife and club in his hand, warned him
off. At that moment the flames burst
from the windows of Strauss factory, and
Krump saw what was up. He was not
armed, but he yelled to Johnson, "One
step more and you are dead man." The
desperate turned, ran towards the north
east corner of the grounds with the in
tention of scaling the walls. On his way
he ran against Jessie Tolin, the "dresser
IN of the prison, who had sought the
courtyard at the first alarm. johnson
paused, stood defiant with his knife and
his bludgeOn threatening, to brain Tolin
1t he came near enough. TOlin Is a
small man while the convict is a giant in
build and strength, but the plucky guard,
looking his man square in the eye, walked
up TO him and, placing the muZzle of a
cooked revolver against his ear, ordered
him to walk to the blind cell. The con-
vict lost his courage and obeyed. Deputy
Warden Bradbury came up at this juno
ture, and the promptest efforts were
made to capture and confne in blind
cells Johnson's companions. One of
them was Jerome S. johnson, serving
twenty-five years for murder In the Sec
ond degree from Clay County, and an
other, Perry Martin, one of the stage
robbers, who last summer terrorized
southwestern Missouri, and "heId up "
several stages between Seligman and
Eureka Springs, and Williams, of Kan
sas City. who organized revolt III the
Jail there last spring, was another of the
party. They were all desperate men.
While the guards were attending to
the discipline of the prison, the alarm
was blown and the great bell clsnged
out warning that there was mutinv IN
the prison. The telephone informed the
people of the town Of the state of affairs.
Great volumes of smoke ano flames shot
out from the building and attracted at
tentlon and there was general move
ment to the penitentiary. Adlt. Gen.
Waddell employed an armory of guns,
which, with ammunition, we're inmedI-
ately loaded in wagons and hurried to
the prison, where plenty of willing hands
were ready to receive them. In less
than ten minutes time they were formed
surrounding the prison walls. The walls
were covered by armed men, and from
the roof of the prison building the guns
frowned IN warlike and threatening
manner. Luckily there was no neces-
sity for using these weapons, for the
convicts, seeing the hundreds of armed
men ready to assist the prison officials,
at command of Capt Bradbury fell into
line, and were marched to the old cell
building, near the south wall, were
locked In, and all danger of further re-
sistance or escape was passed. About
1850 of the 400 convicts in prison were
thus disposed of. The remainder were
trusted to assist in controlling the fire.
At the outset the mutineers cut the
fre-hose as fast as it was laid by the
prison guards, but finally the whole
force of guards, " it'll pistols and Win
chester rifles, oyerpowered the oonvicts
and streams of water from the prison
hose and the city fire department were
turned on the flames, and after desperate
efforts the fire was brought under con
troll. Four convicts in Strauss & Co.
factory, who were seriously burned, are
now IN the hospital.
The fire completely destroyed Strauss
&Co s harness shop and collar and whip
factory. Their loss is 500, 900; Geisicf
& Co. Is boot and shoe company lose 800,
900; the Mysenburg Shoe Company
$4,000; the State Weaving and State
Machine Shop, $780, 900; the Excelsior
Loom Factory, $40, 900. The total loss
with the damage to the minor stat
huiId1rUc will he 9300 00O
Wat a Deer Sees and Hears.
When deer is much hunted his ear