The San Francisco call., 1896-02-09

criminals within its walls are thought to
have been implicated, and that the most
desperate break for freedom in the history
of the prison has not occurred is due to the
sagacity and unceasing vigilance of
Warden Hale and his officers.
A hole through the prison wall below
ground a tunnel running dozen feet
along the wall and shaft reaching to
within few inches of the surface fur
nished means of exit in the proposed
fight and bore the startling testimony to
the cleverness of the plotters. The work
had been so nicely calculated that the top
of the shaft was covered only by cement
gutter, which, while it prevented prema-
ture cave-in, would form but slight bar
rier to the desperadoes when they had
decided that their time for escape had
come.
The works were big enough to permit
the passage of the largest man, and their
extent is thought to indicate that many
men were involved.
The tunnel started from the fireroom of
the jutemill, where the brawniest and
most vicious of the conyicts are kept at
work. This room has great boilers on
either side. They are bricked in, lie aving
narrow passages between them and the
outer walls, and in a center aisle the con-
victs feed the fires.
In one of the passages between the
boilers and the south wall of the prison
are situated the pumps which supply the
boilers, and the dim corner beyond fur
nished the plotters an opportunity. No
one had business at that spot, and it was
seldom visited. So there they worked
while confederate kept watch.
One by one the bricks were loosened in
the wall, patient fingers picking the IN ortar
from between them. Handful by handful
the earth was removed and thrown be-
meath the boilers through an iron door i'll
the rear brickwork, put there for use only
during the annual overhauling. Each
night and at the least alarm the loose
bricks were replaced, but finally the work
was finished, and the conspirators waited
only for foggy day to make dash for
liberty.
But the attempt was frustrated through
the keenness of Warden Hale.
One morning several weeks ago that Off
cial passed hurriedly through the mill
door and started for the fireroom. A con-
yict standing in the doorway Of that room,
NAA
though to warn some one inside This the
Warden noticed and he suspected some
thing wrong. His officers were notified
and since then that department has re-
ceived special watching.
When the mill was shut down for the
annual overhauling the officers found the
earth beneath the boilers, and then know
in what to look for were not long in dis
covering the tunnel. This was filled in
a nd the wall was rebuilt and yesterday
when the Prison Directors were taken to
view the spot nothing was to be seen save
the patched brickwork.
The desperate nature of the attempt to
escape, which would undoubtedly have
been made except for the timely discovery,
is revealed by survey of the outside sur
roundings. The shaft came to the surface
near the foot of Calling gun tower, in
which armed guards are stationed night
and day. and the attempt must have inevi-
tably been made in the daytime, since no
conyicts are permitted in the mill after
5 o'clock. But the head of the shaft is so
close to the tower that the escape might
not have been Witnessed by the guards
therein, and the conyicts may have hoped