San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-17
A PRISON BREAK.

as to be a very sooiable little institu-
ton. The warden's apartments, the
guards quarters and the convicts' cells
and dining room were all under one
roof, and the whole constituted long
two story stone building, which in it
self formed the front wall of the stone
quarry and workyard. This circum-
stance, together with the comparatively
small number of prisoners, many of
them personal acquaintance of the
prison guardians, tended to induce a
sort of family feeling and made prison
life, as have remarked. a very sociable
affair. As may be readily imagined,
discipline was not SO rigid as it has
been known to be in other institutions
of the kind, and "breaks" were fire.
quent and often successful The favor
lite method was to escape through the
top of the cellroom, creep along be.
tween the ceiling and the roof until
over the apartments of the warden and
break through into these. This accom-
plished, no barrier lay between the con-
victs and liberty save the guards, al
ways few in number.
1t is with the most famous and sue
cessful of these breaks that we are now
concerned. One Sunday evening in Sep
TENDER, when the twilight shadows out
side were deepened to darkness inside
the gloomy cellroom where the prison.
ORC xvora coporauafod tho oapto;p 20
the guard went in to lock them in their
cells for the night. As soon as he was
fairly within the iron door one of the
prisoners struck him over the head
with bottle, and almost at the same
instant another dealt him blow with
a slungshot He fell to the floor, and
half dozen of the wretches rushed on
him to complete the work of death,
when one of the conspirators, a small
but powerful man, seized him and
threw him into the nearest cell and
closed the door upon him, thus saving
his life. All this was the work of ten
seconds and was accomplished in utter
silence without alarming any one ON
the outside. 1t was the work of only a
few moments more to climb to the top
of the upper tier of cells and cut through
the wall separating them from the other
part of the building
The first intimation that any of the
guardians had of their escape was when
the lath and plaster ceiling was broken
through with crash and 80 reckless
men dropped into the room occupied by
the ladies of the warden's family. Every
one of them was armed with a slungshot
and a few with knives of their own
manufacture. The warden rushed to the
scene, pistol in hand, but was instantly
felled to the floor with his scalp laid
open in two places. The convicts then
rushed ON him, seized his pistol and
commenced shooting at him as he lay,
wounding him in the thigh. He would
doubtless have been killed but for the
heroism of young man named Dead
man, in for life, who was acting as
waiter in the family dining room. He
caught up chair, and, standing over
the PROSTATE body of the warden, fought
like tiger until he, too, fell disabled.
Meanwhile the main body of the pris-
oners rushed down stairs and seized the
armory and were, to all intents and
purposes, masters of the prison. 1t be-
ing Sunday and at time when the con-
victs were supposed to be locked in their
cells, but few of the guards were on
duty or even about the premises. These
few stood to their posts and fought like
heroes till they fell, disabled with
wounds. The way to freedom was now
open for 80 as desperate men as ever es-
capped from bondage. Some of them
were severely wounded, but their COM
rades carried them along, and the band
marched off in body, two abreast, and
disappeared over the sagebrush covered
hills into the thickening dusk. They
took with them two henry rifles, four
double barreled shotguns, five six shoot
ers and nearly 5000 cartridges. That
they were incumbered with irons afford
ed the only hope of their recapture, but
these they evidently got rid of during
the night. One squad of six appeared
that evening at solitary blacksmith
shop few miles distant and compelled
the smith to remove their irons, but the
remainder did not apply for aid.
The alarm of the community may be
better imagined than described. There
were mastering and arming in haste, the
militia was called out, and the telegraph
wires clicked the night long, sending
the warning to all parts Of the country
Messengers and aids-de-camp rode to
and fro, and by night an organized posse
was mounted and Off For four days the
country was secured, and the result was
solitary captive, who was wounded in
the leg. Plenty of people saw the fugi-
tives, but they kept together, were
known to be we'll armed and were not
to be molested with IMMUNITY. Most of
them, however, were recaptured during
the next few months, as cold and hun
ger or in some instances wounds forced
them to seek for succor. Some few made
their escape for good and all, and still
others were hunted down after the lapse
Of several years.
1t is with one of the latter that we
Iarn 60 10 TaoIy