Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-29

present there are about 800 men employed
making door mats rugs, etc, in the manu-
featuring department of the penitentiary.
The building is a large three-storv brick
where the goods are made up, after which
they are packed in one-story building
across the prison street, ready for shipment
The packing work is done usually by four
men who are selected from the ones who
are known to be obedient and less liable to
rebel or to instigate an uprising. They
were occasionally helped by three other
men, who assisted in moving the mats by q
truck from the mandatory to the packing
room. Men of ordinary intelligence and
with some idea of arrangement and system,
were preferred in this department, and
there were just of that character.
Had Plenty of Leisure for Digging.
| The duties were not arduous and they
had lots of leisure time in which to sit
about and talk while waiting for another
batch of mats from the works. These were
sometimes alone without q guard or over
seer for an hour or an hour
and one-half, SO much confidence
was put in them. They, therefore, as
is shown by the underground work,
improved their time. Warden Wright
said last night in his judgment the men be-
gan their operations over three months ago,
and under the circumstances, while they
were favored, have not made extraordinary
progress. They had the best point of van
tage in the whole institution to begin, be-
cause the packing room is the only one
which has board floor and no cellar under
it. Therefore they had only to take up
board, cut hole and work along the
joist. until the foundation of the
building was reached. That was the
point the difficult tunneling was begun.
They would carry it on at intervals, and
Warden Wright said he knew there was
something wrong going on In the packing
house, because the mems faces showed
guilt. "They watched me more than 1
watched them," said he, "and therefore 1
had examinations made of the place they
were working in at intervals. One day this
week q casual looking over of the room was
made, but yesterday afternoon / had the
officers make thorough investigation. This
was after work was done and the
men had gone to the prison proper.
L personally superintended the
to escape After removing many of the
mats. Deputy Warden Mexican, in ripping
up the first board in the floor, struck the
top of an embryo tunnel
'The hole is about 12x1S inches, and it
would really seem quite difficult for one to
work in the passage way. The men worked
turn about evidently, but one of them, who
is coal miner, shows that his former voca-
tion was relied upon for a greater part of
the rapid work.
How the Dirt Was Disposed Of
'The dirt, as it accumulated, was easily
disposed of by being scattered between the
joists as they went along. The men showed
poor engineering knowledge, as the line
while working under the building was kept
straight, but when the exterior was
reached it took a sort of curve to the
left to the point where their escape was
frustrated in discovery. The tools used
were a brickmason's hammer with both |
ends sharpened, two or three rods of iron, |
brace and bit, small saw, but no special |
tools Where the tunnel began at the edge |
of the building it measured about % inches |
high and is inches wide. It varied at |
times and was very irregular. 1t sloped I!
very much, and at the point where work |
was stopped-12 feet from the prison wall
it was seven feet from the surface |
OF the ground. In the mlscarrylng |
of their judgment underground the |
course of the digging would have brought |
up against the most invulnerable piece of |
wall and foundation in the whole prison. |
Before that wall was built slough or |
marshy piece of ground was right und er it. |
In order to make it substantial it was |
filled up with stones, and would |
have given them until January 1, and felt |
sure that they could not have gotten |
through the adamantine barrier.
''They would have just begun their labor. |
What they have gone through is
child's play compared with the next IS feet
of tunneling."
"There was good deal of system about |
their operations, and their watchfulness in
order to avoid discovery was most vigilant. !
There are so many windows in the packing
room that the guard could be seen at any
time from the four sides of the building. /
In order to notify the man who was
working underneath, a strong string
was stretched along with him and upon the
officers approach he would be duly told of i
and make haste in coming up to the surface.
"There were some garments found in the
tunnel, consisting of underwear. old vests
and several other small articles. The rude
contrivance the convicts had for removing
the dirt was most novel. 1t consisted of a
small box, to which was attached, a string.
By this, when it was loaded with dirt, It