Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-03-14
A CoNvIcr's CLEVER RUsE.
ignorance Through Which He Missed Half
His Life, but Gained Liberty.


ignorance Through, Which He Missed Hall
His Life. but Gained Liberty.
When the present oldest inhabitants
of Sing Sing were boys, there were no
walls around the prison, as there are
now. The convict's only satisfaction in
winter was the chance it gave him for
mating Il dash upon the ice for liberty.
Il those far back days the winters were
uniformly rigorous, commencing early
II November and continuing until late
in .[arch. Livery season it used to be a
familiar sight to see the guards out on
the ice. solne distance from the shore,
pStroll.nS regularly prescribed beats and
hIving sentry boxes, in which they took
refuge i'll stormy or exceedingly cold
weather. Sometimes convict messengers
went out to the guards to bring them
their lunch OF all order from the warden.
It was on one of these visitations of a con-
vict to guard that the frozen bosom of
the Hudson presented an animated scene.
The guard. like most of those who had
ice beats, was provided with skates, that,
should occasion arise, he could chase in
tage over a fleeing convict having only
his shoes to depend upon.
The guard in question was circling
about, cutting pigeon wings, rings,
figure eights and all the fancy figures,
when he suddenly stopped in front of the
convict messenger who had come out to
him, a young, athletic fellow, and in
quired if he could cut those figures on
the ice.
The convict said ne never had a pair
Of skates on in his life. Nothing would
tempt him to risk his head with those
slippery blades on his feet He said he
had been brought up in the south, where
they do not have any skating. When he
came to New York, he was too old to at
tempt to learn anything requiring so
much skill. He thought it was neces-
sary to grow up with it as a sort of Sec
ond nature.
The guard told him he had "missed
half his life'' in not learning to skate and
offered to give him little preliminary
lesson, "just for the fun of the thing" to
relieve the dreary monotony of guard
duty.
The convict expostulated and said it
was no use; he would have to be carried
back to the prison hospital ON a stretcn-
er with a broken head or broken bones
if he tried any such performance.
While this conversation was taking
place, the guard had taken off his skates,
and as he unbuckled the last strap he
told the convict to strap them on his
own feet, and he would hold him and
give him a lesson in the graceful art.
The convict obeyed and soon hal both
skates on his feet. Then came the fun
for the guard. He would let go of the.
convict every few minutes and let him
tumble and scramble back as best he
could to his feet. They both laughed
merrily over the sorry attempts of the
novice.
This had gone ON for 10 minutes,
when, like flash, the convict dashed off
over the smooth surface of the ice, no
longer a novice, but complete master
the art. He had been pulling the wool"
over the guards eyes and pretending not
to know how to skate only to get
chance to get the skates on his feet in
order to reach the inviting woodland on
the opposite side of the river.
Away he sped, like shot from riff.
The river was frozen solid to Rockland
county, opposite. The guard was dunn
founded. He gazed in blank amazement
for period long enough to make any
thought of pursuit hopeless. He fired his
carbine, but that only had the effect IF
warning the other guards of the situa-
ton. They, having skates on, gave
chase, but it was of no use
The convict had everything to gain
and sped away like the wind Before ally
systematic pursuit was instituted, his
figure was quito a distant speck upon the
horizon. He effected his escape. 1t was
for a long time spoken of as one of the
cleverest and most daring escapes in the
history of the prison.-New York Times.