The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-03
[Sketched by a =" Cal

Wednesday about o'clock in the after
noon. They selected spot a few inches
above the floor. They moved their hunks
away from the wall and set to work, and
for eight hours they dug and scraped the
mortar from between the bricks. The
loose dirt and mortar were thrown into the
sewer.
The approach OF the night guard was
easily noted by one of the youngsters, who
was kept on watch at the cell door. When
rays of the deputy's lantern were thrown
into the cell it revealed four youths APP
parently in deep sleep. In less than a
minute they were all busy again scratch
ing out mortar and removing bricks from
the old rotten wall.
At l o'clock at night they ceased their
operations The reason they worked in
the early part of the night was because the
noises in the streets and the racket in the
sailor dance halls near by prevented the
noise they were obliged to make from be-
ing heard by the officers in the jail. At l
O'Clock the dancehouse music ceases and
there is less noise in the streets.
The lads to prevent detection replaced
all the loose bricks and covered the wall
where they had been digging with paper,
In little while all evidence of their la
bors was removed and the knife was at
tached to a rag and poked through a crack
in the cell floor. Then the boys slept.
On the following evening they set to
work again and again ceased when the
dancehouse noises ceased. Friday night
again found them at work like gophers.
The work was much harder as they ap-
preached the outside wall, for the bricks
had to be removed endwise. Their prog
ress was necessarily SLOW, they being
obliged 20 work with the least noise posi-
BILE and being frequently interrupted by
the patrol of the guard up and down the
long building.
On Saturday morning their work was
discovered by the chief jailer.
Mr.. Sattler had been suspicious for day
or so that something was wrong on that
corridor, and he warned the guards to be
more careful. At last his attention was
directed toward the four young culprits
simply because they behaved themselves in
the daytime better than usual. Besides,
two of the mum Der were very anxious to eX
ercise in the corridor, and two other boys,
who evidently knew what was going on
and who were locked up in the inside cells,
were very DESTROYS of being transferred to
the outside cells He became SO suspicious
of all these circumstances that he made
thorough search of the outside cells and
found the hole that the boys had dug. The
chief jailer asked them to tell him what
they were doing, but the lads protested
that they knew nothing about the hole,
ana SdlO IL WAS CleTe NHeD tuey eDIeTeu
cell So.
The chief jailer kept them in the dark
cell until Sunday noon, when one of the
number said he would tell ali about the
business. He said the plot to break jail
was discussed for several days before the
first work was done. The knife, which is
forbidden article in the Jail, was left there
by q boy who had been released the
previous week. He had received it from
his mother, the informer said. The chief
taller at first suspected that the boys
expected help on the outside when they
cut hole large enough, for this cell is six
teen feet from the ground. He Is now con-
WINGED that the lads were at work entirely
on their own account.
Yesterday Hess, Forrest'and Smith were
committed TO the reform school at Whit
tier by Judge Belcher, but Walsh's case
was not disposed of. Walsh spoke freely
when questioned about the part he took in
the attempt to break out of Jail.
at was Just this way" said the STRIPPING,
who is only 17.years of age. Some lawyer
chap told friend of mine that if Teller
gets out of Jail an goes back to his job the
cops can't touch him. So | wanted to get
back to my Job, and when the other fcllers
said Well dig out was with them. We
intended when we got the hole through to
tear UP the blankets and make rope. We
could climb down the rope to the alley and
scoot There want no one outside to help
US. You bet we had to be foxy to keep