The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-03-28
4E WOULD Ho3 LEAVE THE COLONY.


= PRISONER VINO Clt,ltea u Cocnanut Tree
and fsefrd "a Regiment.
II Is she custom in the British army
THAT Whenever a r. inleat ii transferred
from one colony To another prisoners
who may be III the jail are handle! over
10 the outgoing corps anti continue their
sentences nj the new station. In one
ease one Of these iailhir3s made up lis
mind that he would not leayethe cotony,
Private Johnson was one If the smart
.st men in the corps, and furthermore
ne WAS IN excellent Sro0.n and alniost
a Gordon hieu." He had enc sad fail,
ing. He was IA thief. His peculafions
had. however. been generally small, and
lie had escaped serious punishment. One
night a large store III the Owl WAS bro
ken into and Il considerable amoant Of
money stolen. 1t was c~onrlusiTely
proved that johnson was the thief. and
he was sent to Jail. When tie regiment
was leaving the colony. Johnson, with
some other soldier prisoners, was TO be
handed over according to custom. When,
however, his cell WAS visited, it was
empty, and there was not a sign of
Johnson anywhere.
a search was made in every direction.
and at last IA prisoner pointed to a cocoa
nut tree which grew in the middle of
the prison yard. and there comfortably
seated among the tuft of leaves was
johnson. The warden at first tried to
get the man down by quiet persuasion,
then he TIN eatened, her stormed and
swore. Johnson laughed contentedly at
every mood, but did not move. The fact
was reported to the colonial secretary,
who recommended that the fire engine
be called out and the man washed down.
The chief of the fire department hardly
thought it was c%onsonant with his dig
nifty to wash a prisoner out of a cocoa
nut tree and reported that there wa not
pressure Of water enough to get IA stream
to the top OF the tree. This wa proba-
bly, true, for the tree was a tall one.
The case was again referred to the CO.
lonial secretary. who took it before the
governor. His e~xcellency was having
luncheon with some of the departing
officers and their friends and was having
a good time. He was vexed that at such
a time he should be troubled with official
work, as hastily CHANGING over the docu-
ment he added the following i~nstruc-
tons: Cut the fellow down. mean
the tree"
This could only be done by the engi-
neering department. SO orderlies were
sent out to find the chief engineer.
While all this was going on, time was
slipping away. Almost all the troops
were on board the troopship. and as thes>
vessels wait for no one the escort which
had been sent to bring johnson down to
the ship had to hurry off. not to be late
itself. johnson beloved a farewell, and
despite the strong language of the ward
en- still laughed and did not move. Be-
fore the engineer department had come
to a conclusion as to how to cut down
the tree and lower it gradually, the
troopship had up anchor and was steam
ing ont of the harbur.
Then johnson climbed down the tree
and finished his sentence on the island,
to which he had taken a fancy. His con-
yiction had carried with it his discharge
with ignominy." He settled in the island
and was soon in easy circumstances. He
had undoubtedly hidden his stolen prop
erty. and after his release dug it up and
started in business. When johnson was
last seen, he was Furnishing and had a
large cocoanut grove around his cottage.
New York Tribune.