The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-03-03

| lug UGOuDlb Will JuC CIOWQ OF prisoners
working under the supervision of Ellis and
himself. He was hardly prepared for such
| sudden break, but as soon as he heard
| the shots fired by Ellis, he realized that he
had to act quick, so he pointed his rife at
the two men he was escorting to the
! boat and ordered them to move. The
men started for the boat on
run, and as soon as they were safely
aboard he turned his horse and went on
gallop up the hill for the purpose of head
! ing off any convicts that might have
escaped. AS his horse broke away
through the short brush growing on the
| hillside he caught glimpse of mans
| legs going through the dense chaparral
! The man was drawing himself along
on his hands and kuees. He Immediately
ordered him to halt, and the convict
replied: 81 surrender. For Gods sake
don't shoot me any more; / am all shot to
| pieces now" 1.-THE man came out of the
| brush and | saw that it was the Mexican
| Garcia. A few seconds later I saw Ellis
coming down the river bank with the rest
of the conyicts and called to him. He or
dered the convicts to come up to where |
was, and they carried Garcia down to the
| boat"
Guard Spencer was on post duty on the
prison side of the river when the break
occurred. As soon as he heard the shots
fired by Ellis he spTang into boat and
rowed across. Springing to the shore he
started on a rapid run up through a
ravine that led to the top of the hill, at the
base of which the shooting was talking
place, his intention being to get ahead of
the escaping convicts. AS he gained the
summit he ran directly on to two men who
were seated in a shallow ditch and par
! TALLY surrounded by dense brush. The
men were negroes. Anderson, who is a
mulatto, was seated on the ground and
had the head of the other negro pillowed
on his knee. He ordered both of the men
to come out in the open under penalty of
| instant death. The convict Anderson i'm
mediately replied: 'Tll come out. boss;
| but for Gods sake, don't shoot.
am wounded and my poor old part
ner is done for. Don't shoot no more
| We quit. We give up" Spencer then
made Anderson assist Turner to his feet
and started them down the hill in the
direction of the lapding place for the boats.
The men stumbled along for some distance
until the effort became too much for human
endurance and with the blood squirting
| from his mouth in a crimson stream
Turner pitched headlong to the ground.
By this time they had arrived in Sight of
the landing and in a few seconds some con-
vict trustees arrived with stretcher and
Turner was carried down TO the boat and
conveyed back to the prison he had given
up his life to escape from.
| On a white covered cot within the prison
hospital, propped up into semi-sitting
position with the aid of heap of pillows,
| the great beads of sweat caused by intense
/ pain rolling down his black face, slowly
gasping his life away, Tune in broken
accents told the following to a CALL re-
porter, who asked him for his story:
''Well, all | got to say is that l made a
break for liberty, and I've got it. | Just
don't care nohow. I had rather die than
stay in this place. l tell you, boss, it is
h. l never got square deal since have
been inside the walls. l have nothing
particular to say against any one of the
officers. It's the life. It's all work for
some, and | was one of them that gets the
hardest deal of all, so l made up my mind
to get out, either over the hill or by death.
Another thing that made me more
reckless about the result of this attempt
was the fact that my life was not safe a
minute within the walls, for a convict
named ConnerS had sworn to kill me- He
made one attempt, hit me over the head
with an iron bar, and they gave him soli-
! tary for a while, but that did not do any
good. He was bound to get me anyway.
They could not keep him off all the time,
| 60 l-nnyyipcr II n
cluded to take my chances with the guard
line, and I will tell you one thing,
If the other fellows had stood in and done
as they said they would some of US would
have made rifle, but they did not do it
and we got shot down. | knowed the
minute was hit that it was good-by for it,
| but [ knowed, too, that my chum Ander-
son would never leave me, and seeing that
! he had not been hit to hurt, and was still
a-running, / just shut my teeth together,
jumped up, slapped my hand over the hole
where the bullet went in, and kept on run
ming.
"And say, boss" he gasped, "maybe you
don't think it didn't hurt; but I kept a
| running for my chum's sake l made to
get out over the hill, but there / had to
quit. 1 guess l lost over three gallons of
blood. When / fell Anderson ran back to
me and said, For Gods sake, pard, are
you hurt bad? l told him to never
mind me, as I was done for any
way, and urged him to go on, but he
wouldn't do it. He just sat down and took
my head on his knee and cried like a child,
and that made me break down, and then
we both cried like whipped kids. Poor old
pard, he will have to part with me now.
anyway, but amt going to die if I can
help it, just for his sake cause just know
he will go crazy if l do.
81 can't talk no more now, cause it
hurts me, but l just want to say that life
in this prison is terrible, and things amt
as they should be. That's all''
| Turner, who was serving term of i'm
| prisonment of ten years, is shot in the left
| side, the bullet entered below the armpit.
and came out near the center of the breast.
DR.. Surbaugh, the surgeon in charge, has
no hopes of his recovery. He had but two
years to serve to complete his sentence.
Garcia, serving a term OF eight years for
grand larceny, is shot through the right
forearm, and has his hip dislocated. His