Tombstone epitaph., 1892-04-03


 Tombstone has not furnished a sen- sation for a long time that created such furore as the one that occurred last night. When it was rumored early this morning that ten prisoners had broken jail, it was thought that April lst was SO near at hand that the jokers had commenced their foolery early. But il proved to be A serious joke.
 A visit to the court house confirmed the report that ten of tine eighteen prisoners confined in the jail mad es- capped, and no one had any clew to their whereabouts. An inspection of the rear of the court house revealed a square hole, about ten feet from the ground, cut clear through tine Is inch brick wall and about l2xl4 inches in size, through which the escapes had squeezed themselves. An inspection of the inside of the jail showed who did the work and how it was done. Two Americans, l.. E, Mitchell and G. D. Davis, who were sent from Will | COX, Feb. 24th to await the action of the grand jury, on aeharge of bur glary, occupied the cell in the rear of the right wing of the jail. It was in this cell that the work was done, and 1t Is due to these two men that the other eight owe their liberty. The work was not done in 8 night or week, but the most conservative con- cede that it must have been going on for three weeks. There Is lining of 2x4 scantling laid one on top of the! other and spiked so that it is solid piece of wood from floor to the top of the jail. Between this and the brick wall Is space of about an inch. and next to this Is tine brick wall l6 inches thick. There seems to have been an oversight in the construction of the walls, and where the space between the wood lining and brick is, was evil dently intended for plate of some metal that would have stopped any further progress when reached. In fact, every one who visited the hole in the wall to-day expressed astonish- ment that there was nothing to pre- vent \ man with & jack knife from cutting his way out.
 The wood had b en cut with piece of thin metal which was origin ally the handle to stew pan, which had been fattened out and was about inches wide and six inches long. It seemed that this would have been inn possible, unti! picking 1t up and using it as saw on the wood it wen; into it as though the wood were cheese. A common tin tablespoon, and piece of wire about the size of telegraph wire, were all that they had to work with, and they did their work we'll.
 Everything was in readiness last night for escape. The night was stormy and the wind howled. Every thing had been cut through, with the exception of the last layer of brick. which only needed push with the hand to open daylight into the cell.
 McDermott, who was on watch gave the keys. to his trusty, who was one of the prisoners, and he went the rounds as usual, made noise at each cell door as he apparently locked each man in for the night. returned the keys to the keeper, who blissiully passed the night in ignorance of what was going on.
 If the trusted prisoner had been doing his duty to the county instead oi the prisoners he would not have left each cell door unlocked, and instead of ten men crawling through the hole, but the two occupants of the cell would now be st large. IL is tn fought that the men gained their freedom at about II o'clock. The first one out enlarged the hole trlfie for the bal ance tn get through more easily. He used the ax that lay near b., to work