The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-06-06
DYNAMITE IN THE JAIL.
A Plot to Release the Pierce County
Prisoners Discovered.

Tacoma, June 5.-Special.-What to all
appearances is a two-pound dynamite
cartridge was found in the county Jail
Monday afternoon about o'clock by
Under Sheriff Paulhamus. The fact OF
the find, up to this time, has been care
fully kept quiet and the find itself has
been carefully slowed away in the vault
wrapped In the under sheriff's best night
shirt. II is believed that big Jail break
has been contemplated and that to that
end portion of the building was to be
blown UP.
Whether the cartridge is full of dyna-
mite or whether IL is a dummy is yet I'M
determined. Some newspaper men start
ed pryigg at its top today to investigate.
but were stopped TO avoid a panic that
was imminent in the small crowd that
had gathered.
The cartridge. for such 1t evidently is.
whatever IL may contain, is about eight
inches in length and about two and one
half inches in diameter. The shell is of
thick pasteboard The top is of metal
and contains two small screws. 1t is
evident that the cartridge is to be OK
ploded by electrical wires attached TO the
screws.
Under Sheriff Psunlhamus discovered the
cartridge on window ledge on the Tenth
street side OF the Jail near the G. street
corner. 1t stood just within the bars and
ledge. The window fronts on a terrace
which terminates on Tenth street. Be
tween Tenth street and the window there
is no obstruction. The window is open
most of the time as are those on G. street
which open almost directly on the street.
These windows are I'm a large corridor
in the center of which is large steel
tank containing a double row of cells. IL
is just such tank as that from which
Tom Rlanck escaped in the King county
Jail So small Is the corridor that pris-
oners in the tank can converse through
the bars and windows with people on the
street The sides of the tank are on the
Tenth street side but two feet from the
windows and on the G street side but
four feet. For months past the prisoners
have had morphine and various things
smuggled in to them at night. One
scheme they had was 10 pass a broom
through the bars of the tank to the win
dow and receive on il the article TO be
passed In, then draw II back. All these
facts have necessitated rigid watch be-
ing kept both in and outside. but never
theless the prisoners have managed TO Sc
cure many more articles than are allowed
by Jail regulations.
In connection with the find of the cart
ridge the officers several days ago found
that a prisoner had been saving on n bar
I'm the cage and had dug into II about
one-sixteenth of an inch all around The
saw mark had been filled with soap. The
prisoner occupying the cell was Pomeroy,
a man regarded as a desperate criminal.
He IS Federal prisoner and is charged
with stealing the entire stock of a grocery
store on the Columbia river. near Van
couver. He took the stuff across the river
and cached ii in a false bottomed bin IN
his barn near East Portland.
After the cartridge was discovered the
Jail was thoroughly searched, but moth
ing else was found 10 indicate that gem
eral jallbreak was on. The officers believe.
however. that such was contemplated.