The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-05
LIKE A SIEVE
Is Shawnee COunty's Beautiful
and Picturesque Jail.
Two More Prisoners Made Their
Escape Last Night.
FOUR IN FOUR MONTHS
The Pair Dug Through a Is
Inch Wall.
Both Had Been Sentenced to
Terms in the Penitentiary.
The Policy of Rewarding Ones
Political Friends Who
ARE TOTALLY UNFIT
For Jail Officials Seems to Be
Responsible.

Prisoners have begun leaving the
county jail in pairs. Two took advan-
tage of the darkness last night to
break out OF course, they were men
doomed to the penitentiary-
The men who escaped last night were
w. S. Childs. under sentence to the
penitentiary for three years and Wey-
man Clark, cOlored, under an eight year
sentence. Their departure was found
out about 1870 O'Clock this morning
when JaiIer Larry Sheehan and Deputy
John Jones came down to the Jail and
saw a front window gone.
Deputy Sheriff Al Kuykendau was in
charge of the prison last night
The escape Of the two men was dead
easy" and yet it showed thorough
knowledge of the Jail
The prisoners emerged upon Fifth
street and saved themselves the walk
around the jail which would be nee
essary had they let themselves out in
the back yard
There is a long porch or veranda in
front of the jail which runs from the
Jail Office to the sherff's residence.
One wall that supports this porch is
the jail wall and the front is a nice one
with two large windows in it close TO
the ground These windows have no
bars across them. The two prisoners
'thabeased cOrDused' themselves out by
digging through the first wall and jerk
and walked down Fifth street prOfUseIy
whistling WIN You Miss Me When I'm
Gomez"
This was between y and 2 o'clock this
morning. according to the prisoners
who stayed behind.
Childs was the trusted corridor man
on the lower floor. He is an old man of
AZ who stole a livery rig from Lodge &
Colvin, in North Topeka. and was
brought back from Kansas City, kan,
by Chief John Wilkerson and placed in
the county jail on February 2. He is
the deceitfuI old jay who wept copious-
ly and told Judge Hazen that ne was
a respectable man until he was 35 years
old, when he began suddenly to go
down. Childs has been in the peni-
tentiary; so has Clark.
So trusted was Childs that he was left
in the corridor not only in the day. but
at night as we'll He is said to have
locked the prisoners in the lower cage
at $50 last night Childs followed sAn
in
But they weren't all in. He had
concealed Weyman Clark. aged p, in a
hole in the wall known as the air shaft
1t develops now that he had done this
for the last four nights, but the coup
had never been successful before, be
cause Clark always got tired Of his
cramped quarters and came out to rest.
While he was resting the jailer came to
lock up, and before the prisoner could
take 20 his air shaft he was seen and
had to go inside the cage.
Clark's mother has been calling on
him every day and that's the reason he
was out in the corridor in the day time.
One morning last week when John
Jones opened the jail he found Clark
out in the corridor with Childs
They had probably worked on the Jail
wall at night.
After Kuykendau had locked up and
gone to the jailer's room to sleep last
night, Mr.. Highwayman Clark left his
hiding place with DlaSe ana al Biatz
manner, and with Childs began to cut
through the wall with a pocket knife
and broom stick. A gunny sack and old
clothes We're spread on the stone floor
to deaden the sound Of the falling NOR
tar and plaster.
The hole was made near the floor,
and under the dozen small steam pipes
which run along the wall A tobacco
box cuspidOr served to hold up the two
lower steam pipes out Of the way The
wall is IS inches thick, and the stones
in it are small and it was snap to dig
out
When they got the hole dug they
sfr41ggIe5 through leaving the debris
and broom stick on the inside floor.
Then they jerked the beautiful half
moon window out of the outside wall
and departed.
Bill West viii be mad as a hornet
/ when he hears of this. He went to the
trouble of saving an iron bar in two
I when he might just as well have used
a little strategy and departed by the
1 hole in the wall route.
Clark is the genius who tapped on
/ the hen coop owned by George w.
/ Veale. Jr, and the chickens therein
ran out into a sack he held for them
I Judge Hazen didn't believe the story
when Clark and Skeggs told it in the
/ district court. and told Clark he was
/ but a stranger here; Lansing was his
| home.
/ The prisoners We're laughing and jOS-
! ing about the escape this morning
/ All these old milk boys are getting
out" laughed one, as ne stretched his
arms. Il am going to get on a milk
/ diet myself They began feeding Bill
/ West milk and he left, and then Childs
/ took his turn at the pan"
/ The escape seems to be due to the
/ custom in vogue at the jail of leaving
| men out on the corridor at night. The
/ prisoners are not locked in their cells.
If each prisoner were locked in his
| cell at night the jailer would know
whether they were all inside the cage
without having to take anyOne's word
| for it.
The present force has been in four
months and there have been four es-