The herald., 1894-04-20
HIS BRAIN FULL OF MORPHINE
Frank BusIIs Extraordinary
Tale of Cruelty.
A Fiend Who Objected to Being
Forced to Be Quiet.
Ho Escaped From tho OhalneanK. Then
keturned. and Now Tells
oueor Tale ~ Woe
in COURT.

The trial in the city Justices court,
before Justice Seaman, OF Frank Bush.
on the charge Of escaping from the
chaingsng on the 10th OF March, while
working on the First-street cut, deyel-
oped large-sized sensation.
Frank Bush Is q man who some years
ago WAS not the abject wreck that he ia
today. Before he fell a victim to the
hypodermic syringe and solution Of
sulphate of morphia be worked for q
living and his name was not recorded in
the police blotter. Now he is CON-
stant, albeit reluctant, guest at the city
Jail, and his leg is disgraced with ball
and chain when driven out with the
herd of t-ansgressora who labor for the
city against their will.
On the 10Th OF March, Rush took
French leave from the ohaingang while
undergoing 30 day sentence. His SUI
ferings were intolerRble and he needed
a shot from hypo 90 bad that he was
willing to risk q shot from q revolver in
order TO obtain the only thing that could
still his nerves.
Several days afterwards he approached
the officer who had originally arrested
him on the charge for which he was do
ing time and surrendered himself. He
WAS returned TO the city Jail and osee
more put on the chaingRng. A COM
plant, however, was sworn out against
Rush for escaping from the chaingang,
and it was upon this charge that he was
tried yesterday.
The prosecution presented its case and
left no doubt in the mind of the court
that Rush was an escape. The defense
then placed the prisoner on the stand.
His appearance, until he opened his
mouth, was almost idiotic. His eyes are
deepsunken and dull, his mouth largo
aud the under lip prominent and over
hanging, while his fGce ID cadaverous
and his cheek bones very prominent.
After narrating his escape, which he
said WAC due to an uncomfortable crav-
ing for morphine, which had to bs satis.
fled at sll hazsrds, because the lack of
the drug was worse than death, he
added: my life in the city Jail was
perfect hell. Better thousand times
be dead than be subjected to the bar
barities that have beiallen me there.
While was crazy for the stimulant an
irrational being for the want Oh it, l
would cry and sob like ON insane per-
son.
Il have no recollection OF all that l
did, nor of all that was done to me, but
know that was treated worse than
brute. havo been gagged with a stick.
1t WAS thrust so deep and 80 violently
in my mouth that it drew the blood,
and my lips have been distorted for days
after 1 was 30 maltreated. My hands
having been drawn tight behind nv
back and bound, and with nay feet
bound, too, deprived of my shirt, have
been flung like dog upon the cold flags
of small celia hole.
''I have been thrown into tup full
of ice-cold water, aud havo been kicked
| out of il again with my clothes dripping
wet. | havs been refused medicine
when | needed it, When | asf ed for
cathartic pills 1 was put off until Sat-
urday night. That is the time the chain
gang is physicked. On Sundays VS. do
not have to work. The man who treated
me thus was the night jailsr, aided by
TRUSTEES"
Deputy City Attorney Crutcher said
while this matter of ill-treatment had
nothing to do with the case on trial. yet.
az it somehow had got mixed up With it.
he believed that in juatice to all con-
cerned an investigation there and then
would be in order. The attorney for
Bush agreed and several witnesses who
are now prisoners in the city Jail were
called up.
One Mccarthy stated that Bush would
be screaming and begging for a shot OF
morphine and praying for q rope with
which to hang himself. Then he would
| be carried out of the big cell by order of
/ the lailer This occurred several times.
Witness did not see what they did to
Bush but he would scream as If some
thing was being done to him. Once
Bush was returned to the big cell with
his clothes all wet and dripping.
Another prisoner, an expert in hypo
matters, as observed upon himself, said
that Bush was irresponsible at the time
OF his escape by reason OF the lack of
cocaine or morphine. He had not seen
! any OF the crueltiea peEpetrated upon
Bush but he had received similar tre-t-
ment himself. The remembrance OF his
wrongs made him below loudly, and he
was with difficulty choked off from tell
! ing his own tale OF woe.
Night Jailer Coutts had been sub
poensed by the prosecution and was in
court during the deposition OF tho two
last witnesses.
The city attorney at this point asked
for continuance until the afternoon,
because Mr.. Coutts had been summoned
to appear before the grand jury. The
court granted the continuance.
Bush, whose eagerness while making
the REQUEST wac painful to behold,
begged the court to let him out on his
own recognzance until 4 O'Clock in the
afternoon, and pleaded that he had al
ready been kept in durance more than
IL DAYS over his original sentence.
When Justice Seaman permitted him
to 90 he made a mad rush for liberty
and a shot with the hypo, and was gone
in twinkli1g.
Jailer Coutts is one of the ablest and
most reliable officers on the force. and
no one who knows him can believe that
he was unnecessarily severe. A howl
ing. drunken prisoner, or one whose
b rain is befogged by morphine would
consider cruel probably any of the Gus
tomsry methods used to control and
keep quiet refractory prisoners. Mr..
Coutts, in speaking of the ch lrges made
bv Bush, said THAT he had orders to
keep the jail quiet at night and to take
necessary precautions to prevent OUT
cries by drunken and other prisoners
who are in the habit of making night
hideous with their rsvings." So long az
he was in charge as iailer he intended
to carry out those instructions. He
treated every prisoner alike. he added,
and is not brutal toward any of them.