The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-08
JAIL GUARDED BY A DESERT.
Death From Privation Almost Sure to
Follow Escape From Yuma Prison.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
The Arizona penitentiary at Yuma is
unique among all the prisons of the coun-
try in its situation. 1t has the usual
prison wall and the customary guards,
but these are merely for dumb show In
side its walls are nearly 100 convicts,
more than half of whom are serving long
terms for very grave crimes. They are
nearly all frontiersmen, quick with the
pistol, and ready to take any risks to
secure their freedom Fully one-Quarter
of them are Mexicans or half-breeds, and
there is at least score of Apache In
dams who are regarded as more dangerous
than any of the other inmates. These fell
lows rage against confinement with the
passion of n wild beast in cage, and
were it not for the extraordinary isolation
of the penitentiary, escapes or attempts
at escape would be recorded every week
AS it is the couvicts know the almost abb
sUlute certainty of capture should they
get beyond the prison gates. The con-
victs, who come from various parts of
Arizona know that in the thirty years of
the prisons existence only one man has
reached freedom across the fearful des-
erts that surround the prison, while the
bones of at least fifty who have tried to
gain old Mexico now lie whitening in the
desert.
The prison stands on a high bluff at the
junction OF the Yuma and Colorado
rivers. The only feasible avenues of
escape to civilization are along the line Of
railroad or by the Colorado river. To fol-
low the river is TO be certain of capture
before the convict has gained a distance
Of fifty miles. To go up or down the river
is to be sure Of recapture, for with the
telegraph and the telephone the authri-
ties may head off any fugitive in a few
hours. The only chance for q desperate
man who yearns for freedom is to strike
across the desert to the south of Yuma
and make for the line of old Mexico
This is distance of nearly 100 miles over
the most God-forsaken territory included
within the bounds of the country. The
mercury, even in the winter, rises to 500
or go in the shade, and in summer it
frequently goes up TO 1902. There is alb
solutely no water, save at a few points,
which can be reached only by one init
mately acquainted with the country
To add TO the terrors of pursuit across
this dreary waste the prison officials keep
under regular pay two or three trained
Apache trailers, who are notorious for
| their bloodthirsty character. Those fell
lows receive the same pay for bringing in
the ear or the scalp of fugitive that
they get for returning him alive The
consequence is that when their passions
are aroused by pursuit the invariably
are fully aware of this deadly Apache
trait, and they fear pursuit by these saw
ages more tlan they dread the heat and
thirst Of the desert
No one has ever escaped these Apache
fends except a half-breed Mexican, who,
about five years ago, escaped from the
prison ground, threw the trailers off his
track by devices which outWitted even
their native cunning, and reached old
Mexico after almost uncomfortable hard
ships. This fellow, who was man Of
unusual physique and stamina, owed his
escape to the kind-heartedness of an
American rancher, who lives near the
line. This ranchman, in telling the story.
said that one morning he was surprised in
going out TO his cattle corral to find a man.
with face shriveled like an Indian mummy
and with clothes hanging In tatters about
him, standing by the corral fence gnaw-
ing a green hide like famished ami
NAL. He took the fellow, whom he sus-
pected at once to be an escaped convict
from Yuma, fed him with a little milk and
brandy, and after the fugitive had slept
forty-eight hours, extracted from him
the story of his hardships. He had abso-
lutely nothing to eat in his four days
tramp, except the interior of the yucca
plants and a lew Of the plants that grow
on the Mesquite. His water was OK
hausted on the second day, and he could
only alleviate his thirst by chewing on
small pebbles which he gathered along
his route. He escaped into old Mexico
but died soon after, as result Of his
hardships