The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1894-07-21
BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE.
Sensations Experienced by Two Prisoners
Set at Liberty A fter Twenty Years

BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE.
Sensations Experienced by Two Prisoners
set at Liberty After Twenty Years.
At o'clock on Sunday morning
Warden Chase of Lansing, Kan, I'M
locked the cells of Arthur Winner and
Charles McNutt. He took Winner and
McNutt to the prison barber shop and
after they were shaved gave them two
government suits, which did not fit at
all. Winner, who worked in the prison
shoe shop, had brought two pairs of pat
ont leather shoes. The men put these
on. with the highly japanned and styl-
ishly pointed footgear and with the
rldlculously cheap and awkward clothes
they, IN company with ex-senator O.
L. BENTLEY Of Wichita, stepped outside
the great stole walls
FOE 20 years they had seen neither
tree, shrub, bird, flower, grass nor do
nestle animal Two of Warden Chase's
daughters met them just outside the
door and presented them with two..beau-
tiful flowers. Several trustees approach
ed them, beaming, and presented them
with bouquets as they went down the
path.
Tears were in both mems eyes.
"See!' cried Winner, the more de-
monstrative Of the two ''There is a
town, There was no town here when
went in -
"That is lansing" said Mr. Bentley.
"Let's not go there, said Winner Il
want to go to those woods -
McNutt agreed, and they went over
to a thicket by the roadside. The two
came across a COW.
sis that a cow" asked Winner hest
tatingly: Don't go on. Lot me look at
it,
And he circled around the animal.
Then he approached her timorously
and laid his hand on her hack. ''This, -
he said, sis. the only COW have seen in
20 years. -
arthur, said McNutt very slowly
and deliberately, do you notice how
queer it is to talk loudly? How quee,
the words Gomez"
II wonder if l could sing. guess
not, - said Winner. And he did not try.
Both men curiously felt the bark of
every tree they came upon. Finally,
with their arms filled high with green
twigs and flowers, they went to the
hotel III Lansing
Later in the day the whole party went
to Kansas City. The long imprisonment
had dulled the mems minds. They asked
about everything they saw McNutt
wanted to know what grapevines WERE
When they reached Kansas City, they
both began to place things that they had
read about in the newspapers
McNutt could not distinguish between
a cable car and electric car. He insisted
upon trying both and finally got it into
his Lead which WAS which. Winner
was 10 years old when he went to the
penitentiary and McNutt 20 years of
age. McNutt has secured job Of deco
rating in Leavenworth and will open a
shop there
Winner will go back to the peniten-
tiary as general manager Of the Burr
company's shoe business there, that
company having the convict labor OF
the Lansing prison.
The Winner and McNutt case is prob.
ably the most famous in the history OF
Kansas. EARLY in 1878 Winner and
young McNutt came to Wichita and
started paintshop. Soon after McNutt
insured his life in favor Of Winner for
$4,000. Ono night few months after
the young men settled in Wichita some
one discovered that their shop was on
fire. The people of the town turned out
and extinguished the fire, but McNutt
was missing.
The partly burned body of man was
found in the ruins of the building
Winner declared that it was McNutt,
but the people Of Wichita did not be-
lieve him. The body was recognized as
that Of a tramp known as ''Texas. -
The sudden departure Of McNutt and
the fact that his life insurance was in
favor Of Winner, though McNutt was
married and the father of a child, ex-
cited so much suspicion that Winner
was arrested the next day. A few days
later McNutt was captured in the woods
in Newtown county, Mo.
They were tried for murder: The evil
dence was SO clear that they were con-
victed and sentenced by Judge W. P.
Campbell, now department. commander
of Kansas. Under the law they went to
the penitentiary for life - Wichita
Eagle.