St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-04
Il "Lifer'' in the Penitentiary Makes a
Statement.

Il "Life1'' IN, the PenitentiGry Makes a
Statement.
To the Editor of the Globe:
SALTWATER, Mimi, Feb. 90, 1SS4.-It
was reported and published in the GLOBE
that ''but one of the 800 prisoners wanted to
make break'' Ito their discredit), the night
the prison burned. As 1 am the man that
that false report is intended to injure, and
believing my conduct on that night was such
that if anything is to be said about it the
truth should be told, l ask hearing. The
fact is, Mr. Editor, on the night of the fire,
''the one man out of the 32O'' that the GLOBE
correspondent singled out to abuse, wor ked
hard on the fifth gallery, unlocking cells with
Guard Browns key, Brown having been over
come by the binding smoke. l did not give
up unlocking until l was nearly exhausted.
until my head began to swim and legs trem-
BILE, and when / unlocked cell PAL, self-pre-
servation asserted itself, and Notwithstanding
the weak and excited condition / was in, my
blood turned cold and cold shudder went
through every nerve in my body as / turned
nv back to the cries of the poor fellow in
cell 242 Gemeke), and those in cells beyond
him. Their cries had made pandemonium
of the building. After getting out of the
killing smoke, collected my senses, as best
could, and went to the store floor and urged
others to the rescue of the men yet in the
cells on the west end of the fifth gallery.
And officers and convicts know that had it
not been for nv appeals in behalf of the men
in those suffocating cells, they never would
have left them alive. had been sick some
time before the fire, and quite seriously so on
the day of the fire, and when 1 left the cell
room was quite exhausted / was locked
on the so-called safety chain after leaving
the cell room. After 1 was locked
on the chain, word was passed for
us to go into the large wooden build
ing west of and close to the end OF
the cell building. The stairs up
which we were expected to go, were very
narrow and full of ice, no hand rail and had
been partly burned by the first fire. Be
leving that the wooden building would burn
when the fire on the roof of the cell room
reached the west end, and believing, that
chained as we were, that if the building took
fire, and us in it that in the confusion and
excitement, there would naturally be, to get
out and down the narrow icy broken stairs,
many of us would be injured if not killed.
l called to the men not to go into the build
ing and explained the danger to them. War
den Reeds attention being called to the dan
ger he ordered us to the foundry.
Now, Mr.. Editor, the above are the facts
about the 'sone man in the three hundred
and twenty that wanted to make a
breal1'' the spark thrown into the powder
magazine, etc., and that gave his enemies
very tlimsy excuse to run to the reporter and
have him report to the GLOBE the outrageous
falsehood he did, and in justice to an unfor-
tunate man that has no one to defend him
against his bitter enemies, that are contin-
ually circulating falsehoods about him, l
must respectfully ask you topublish this COM
munication. Respectfully yours,
CONVICT CoNEY.
Forwarded with the approval of the prison
authorities, Warden Reed kindly furnishing
me the paper, also approved by Governor
| Hubbard.