Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-27
THE GREAT LARAN REBELLION
WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING STAR BY
NYM CRINKLE.
Copyrighted. 1S94.)
CHAPTER I.

-
academy and his fellow students, decarnped.
The significance of the circumstance at
he time arose from the discovery of the de-
iberate and ingenious method pursued by
sench to accomplish his purpose. He had
conceived some kind of a town celebration
and induced the young men to write home
for funds. He also succeeded In getting
them to make him the depository of the
money. which, according to the books.
amounted to 1914. He disappeared from
Lexington and all the efforts of the faculty
and the authorities to trace him failed.
1t is now known that when he left the
academy he struck across country to the
Salt river, where he had skin in hiding
and presumably a negro confederate With
characteristic Kentucky impulse, the young
men of the school held an indignation meet
ing and offered the $500 to any one who
would capture him and turn him over to the
authorities. This reward put upon his trail
several western deputy sheriffs, who tracked
him TO Cairo. Ill. where it was suspected
that he had changed his boat, bought am
mrnition and supplies and set off down the
Mississippi. travelling generally in the night
and hiding in the bayous during the day.
Deputy Sheriff Col. Abner Petingill of
Frankfort published in the Louisville Jour
nal year later a communication setting
forth that his party had tracked Bench to
a bayou somewhere between Tfptonville
and Fulton, on the Tennessee shore. where
the fugitive had sunk his boat and struck
through the wild tract of country extending
TO what is known as the Highland RIM"
in Henderson county. This communication
is curious in one statement. 1t says: We
discovered. after much tedious searching.
the sunken boat and then struck his trail in
10 had foIlo ir for h..
fore We came to the conclusion that he was
accompanied by a woman"
Col. Petingill then states that 1t was his
belief and the belief of his party that
Bench met with an accident somewhere on
the Rim, for all traces of him disappeared,
and after camping out for two weeks in the
wilderness and discovering no new trail
the party returned.
The fact is, Bench had accidentally dis
covered the Laran cave.
In his endeavor to escape from his pur-
suers he had struck straight UP the Rim.
and in jumping from one of the upturned
cretaceous strata he had landed upon a de-
preston, which gave way beneath his
weight. and he fell perpendicularly into a
crevice twelve feet deep. This crevice has
since become famous as the Laran portal.
At its bottom he discovered the descent
which led to the arena, and having ex-
plotted the place he and his companion
lived there until the following winter. AS
soon as he felt satisfied that the search
was given over he sent the woman out for
supplies, and built brush house over the
opening to conceal it from the negroes who
brought them game and provisions.
They must have remained in and about
the Laran cave very nearly three months.
n bar inns
investigation Of it. and prepared maps and
typographical diagrams of the surrounding
country. Some of these drawings may now
be seen at the government museum at Rock
Island, and. considering the rude means at
Bench's command. they are singularly care
1ul and accurate specimens of cartography
In those three months Bench had con-
ceived and worked out one of the most
astounding and gigantic schemes with
which the history of audacity and indomit-
able will makes us acquainted.
CHAPTER II.
He Is not heard of again until five years
have elapsed, and the second event of
which it is necessary briefly to make men,
ton here occurred exactly three months
before he came to the surface in the fur
therance of his vast project
In the winter of IS occurred the revolu-
ton in Venezuela known as the Vargas
rebellion. A Spanish bark. the Valencia,
carrying arms and supplies for the iDsur-
gents, which had been bought in England,
encountered a heavy storm while off the
Gulf OF Maracaibo. and sprnging a leak
ran Off past Point Gallinas. and the cap
tain, in order to relieve his craft threw
over at food tide two four-inch breech-
loading. rified steel guns, at a point called
the Bahiata bank The mate Of this YES
sci claimed to be an American, and when
the Valencia was captured two days later
ne managed to escape by connivance of
the authorities and went straight to New
Orleans II is supposed that he met Bench
there At all evenLI. he went back to Car
acas as soon as the revolution was over
and is known to have bought up, on some
plea or other. the shells and ammunition
originally shipped with the guns that were
lost and for which the government had no
use.
The guns. however. were not lost. They
lay In plain sight on the Bahiata bank at
low water, and, having been carefully seal
ed. had suffered little damage.
CHAPTER III.
Three months later Bench comes to the
surface at the Moyamensing prison, now a
federal penal establishment. He arrived
there as the representative of an infiuen-
tial New York paper with a letter to the
goverECr-the officer that under the old
system We knew as the warden
And here the story of the great conspi-
racy properly begins.
"A card was brought to the official bear
ing the name of Andrew Kent" with the
title of the New York newspaper in the
corner, and it was followed by we'll
dressed man of about thirty, whose easy
dignity and informal heartiness impressed
the warden favorably.
You are Gov. IXtel. 1 presume?"
The governor smiled and said he was
i am from the New York newspaper
whose name you saw on the card. L have
been sent on an errard whiSh this letter
will explain"
The governor put on his glasses and read
the letter that was handed TO him 1t ran
as follows.
10 the Governor of the Federal Prison
etc, etc; The bearer of this. Mr. Kent is
connected with The staff of this paper and
Is sent TO You to obtain. if possible, an in
terEleW with the prisoner Jean Laport now
under sentence for manslaughter The in
tereSts OF the political party now in power
can De materially advanced if this man can
De induced 10 talk, and. il possible furnish
some information concerning his confed-
crates IN q vast scheme to rob the govern
fnent- II IS assumed that the prisoner who
Is virtually under life sentence can have
no good reason for longer keeping silent
and IL is thought by the managers of this
paper that an adrOit man. like the bearer
CT this. II furnished the facilities may sue
ceed IN ellcitiHS the il formation. which will
De OF great service in the coming campaign