Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-06
A HORDE OF HYENAS
Scattered ever the Mountain Regions
of Northern Tennessee.
LIBERATED CONyICTS STARVING.
When Given Food They Devour It Unlike
Human Beings.
ONLY ONE.THIRD OF THEM REcAPTURED
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DrsrArcH.1


CHATTANOOGA, Nov. 5.-Of the 450 con-
victs turned loose by the mountaineers only
about 15O have been returned to the posses
sion of the State authorities, although yes
terday and to-day the most vigorous efforts
have been made, and it is unfortunate that
most of these $50 are petty criminals
whose terms of punishment would have
been over shortly. The most of those con-
demned for bold thefts, arsons, the crimes
of personal violence are still for the most
part at large, and are either safely con-
cealed in Tennessee until their next crimes
reveal them, or are safely across the border
in Kentucky. Of those captured, the most
gave themselves up and express great de-
light at return to confinement when lib
erty was so painful.
There were until noon to-day about so
convicts in the Jail yard here in Chatta-
nooga, petty thieves who gave themselves
up at Wartburg, in Morgan county. They
were retaken yesterday by the expedition
sent out from Knoxville by the wardens,
and were in such sorry condition that
they hailed the arrival of the State officers
as a sort of rescue expedition. They reached
Chattanooga in time.for supper.
Eating Like a Pack of Hyenas.
The jailor said this morning that never in
his long experience had he seen men eat as
these wretches ate. They said they had
eaten nothing but some green stuff found in
the woods for over a day, and this must
have been true. The iailor provided a
supper of beef and bread, with
coffee of a most Indifferent quality.
The .convicts fell upon the meat
which was given them and tore it and
swallowed it as a pack of famished hyenas
would have done. They lay upon their
stomachs in the yard and gnawed at it until
even their guards, who are by no means
profound students of table manners, re-
marked the lack of good manners in their
conduct
They were allowed to sleep as long as
they pleased, and few of them awoke before
10 o'clock. They told most pitiful story
of what they had suffered. Most of them
are men from the lowlands of West Tennes-
see, not at all acquainted with the noun
tain region. When the miners told them to
strike for the north, they at once set out
and found themselves lost in the wilderness
of sleeps and forests.
One of the convicts told THE DISPATCH
correspondent that as he and companion,
who was in for stealing COW, were stum-
bling along in the darkness, the stones
and earth gave way under them. He caught
at tree, and heard his companion rolling
on down the mountain side, shouting
and cursing. Soon there was
sound of trembling stones, and then loud
cry and faint sound of a fall. He climbed
painfully up the mountain side, and as soon
as he could muster strength and courage, he
went on. Another left the convict he was
travelling with dead in hollow where they
had taken shelter from the cold and had
built a small fire
AS soon as the convicts got out of the i'm
mediate neighborhood of the mines they
were treated as convicts are ordinarily
treated. The miners families, past whose
houses they were going the first day out,
gave them food and sometimes a little
clothing But these farther mountaineers,
who knew nothing of the miners, turned
them away from their doors, gave them
nothing to eat, forbade them to sleep any
where near their cabins and saw them to a
safe distance at the front of shotgun.
Suffering Written on Each Face.
The least hardy were soon looking for
officers of the law, who were hard to find in
the midst of the mountains. So, whether
hardy or not, all pushed on, going round
and round, making no progress, having no
place to go, and deathly sick from hunger
and cold. AS they lay about the Jail
yard this morning, their sufferings were
written on their faces. Convicts are sell
dom healthy-looking men. These, even the
colored men, had peculiar pallor and a
shrunken appearance of the cheeks and
about the eyes. Their clothing was tat
tered, their bare feet projected from their
shoes, and in one or two cases there were
no soles to their shoes except the heel.
One Of these men, forger, described the
way the guards acted at Oliver Springs. He
said that with the first knocking at the door
all the guards fell to trembling, and that
they made not the slightest show of response
He said that one guard, whose bodily
appearance betokened courage, had great
chattering of the teeth, and that each time
jubilant miner would fire off his gun this
guard would drop upon his face He said
everyone was Laughing at this guard, and
that the miners joked him and took good
deal of trouble to frighten him.
Tracy City Not Considered Unsafe.
they heard the miners saying that Tracy
City would be their next point of attack.
ALI the convicts firmly believed Tracy
City would be attacked. They had a
great opinion of the miners prowess.
This, however, is not at all prob
able, as Tracy City is SO far
from the other mines around which these
rioting miners live. Even if there was an
attack the miners would in all probability
be repulsed, as the lessees have agreed with
the Governor, and have put strong guard