The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-04-13
A CONVICTS' PICNIC
TRANSFER OF PRISONERS REGU-
LAR HOLIDAY EXCURSION.
Trains, Having $50 Men in Irons,
Made without a Hitch.
TRIP REQUIRED EIGHT HOURS
FORMAL EXCHANGE EFFECTED AT
CARMEL, NORTH OF THIS CITY.
Hert Delivered 36S Men to Harley,
Who Gave Back Only 231, Getting
.7 the Best of the Bargain.
SEVERAL PATHETIC TOUCHES
MOTHERS AND SWEETHEARTS WHO
FAILED TO SAY GOODBYE.
History of Some of the Notorious In
mates Who Had Their First Sight
of Green Fields in Yearss

of Green Fields in YearS
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
MICHIGAN CITY. Ind. April 12.-The
transfer of convicts between the Jefferson
vile and Michigan City prisons made
necessary by the new law converting the
former into the Indiana Reformatory, was
accomplished to-day without a ripple of
trouble. 1t was done by means of special
trains starting simultaneously from the
two institutions, the north-bound train
rying 36S older criminals, and incorrigi-
bles from Jeffersonville and the south
bound carrying 2gi younger men from the
State Prison. The methods pursued by the
managers Cf both institutions were the
same. The men were shackled in pairs i'm
mediately after being fed at breakfast and
marched on board trains that had been
backed into the prison yards. A company.
OF militia accompanied each train and in
each coach of convicts were three guards,
one at each end and one patroling the aisle.
The trains were hauled over the Pennsyl-
vania and Monon roads and passed each
other at Carmel, sixteen miles north of In
dianapolis. There were no slips in the ar
rangements and each train arrived at its
destination practically without incident.
The Jeffersonville train reached Michigan
City at ,4:2O o'clock. and the northern train
arrived at the Reformatory at 3:l5 o'clock.
The run north was made in eight hours
and FIVE minutes.
There was a general air of detection
among the prisoners a. Jeffersonviie last
night. Many years spent within the
darkened walls of the prison by u large
number of the men to be moved had ac-
customed them to condition and disci-
pline that they were loath TO give up. Under
the dispensation of the past few years
many of the prisoners had learned to hope
for more congenial future, and while the
Older prisoners would still receive good
time benefits in their new home, they
looked with disfavor on change that new
environments would inevitably make awk-
ward.
SO well had the secret Of the time of de-
parture been guarded at Jeffersonville that
there were not hundred people gathered
about the Reformatory this morning to see
the departure. One resident OF Jetfersonville
however, was alert very early. This was the
wife OF Thomas Callihan, who was seat
from Jackson county for manslaughter in
1892. He Is a man of seventy years and
so crippled with rheumatism that he had
TO be carried from the hospital to the train
on stretcher. His aged wife shortly after
his conviction moved to Jeffersonville TO
De near MIN. IhlS morning by O'clOck she
was in front of the prison hoping TO catch
q glimpse of him as he was carried out.
She did not know that the men were to
be put on the train within the prison yard
and that IL would then be pulled out of
the new railroad gate at the rear. She kept
up her pathetic vigil until somebody told
her that the train was pulling out over
the main track and she turned jusc in time
to see 1t disappearing from view Silently
she turned and walked away weeping.
When the train finally started on its jour-
ney across the State-a train which would
have precedence over every other train on
to %th each Ter etSer TSs prv
lege, together with the fact that twelve
hundred ham sandwiches and three barrels
sumption, might have given to an unin-
formed passenger the impression that a
great excursion exc a,I PA party E was moving along p
and the prison stripes. The little kindnesses
which Warden Hert had granted the pris-
oners were only in line with his reform dis
his two years at Jeffersonville and made
the prisoners loath to leave.
MANACLED IN PAIRS.
Within the walls there was much hurry
and rapid work, but no confusion. All with
in the prison. convicts, officers and visitors
were stirring by O'Clock and the men were
given a good breakfast of homny, coffee
and bread. and Immediately afterward the
work of manacling them began. This was
done at the south end of the big dining
hall by four trusted convicts. The men
were told off in lunches of eight and seated
on strip of carpet at the end of the hall
Here they were manacled in pairs and
again told off TO their seats. The men sub
mitted meekly to the operation and many
of them seemed 10 regard it as a joke. They
sat quietly while the convicts acting as
biacksmiths riveted the manacles on their
legs. 1t awkward at first when they
arose and tried 10 walk and some of them
air fell dinr nf arffair, .1,
other close by the arms they managed to
stand up and get along in a half hObble
manacied they were directed to seats near
the door and when the shackleS were on
| thirty they We're marched to the train,
the Pennsylvania Company. in the mean
time the five men for the hospital car were
stretchers and comfortably fixed there. The
work of manacling the prisoners required
an hour and twenty minutes and at exactly
| big engines provided TO haul the coaches
| up the steep incline 10 the main track of
the j.. NJ * i. puffed back into the yard.
| The men left in the Reformatory raised a
| little farewell shout as their fellows pulled
| out. The men We're counted and all We're
| present 36S in number
| on the main track a coach containing
! Company a, of New Albany. under COM
mand of Captain Coleman, and the same
! parlor car in which Bryan crossed the State
| were hooked on. The parlor car contained
| Superintendent Hert and Assistant Super
intendent GarVin, OF the prison, Superfn-
! tendent Bonebrake. George T.. Rockwell
| Charles Hagerty and other officials of the
Pennsylvania Company; Director Henry. of
| the Reformatory board; United States Mar
| shal kercheVal and number of newspaper
men. Eight coaches We're filled with the
| convicts, about forty-five being seated in
| each coach. A guard stood al each end OF
| each car. while another patrolled the aisle
| The bell cords We're taken Off the doors
taken from the closets and the windows
| nailed down. IL was not believed necessary
| TO bar the windows or doors. No pilot en-
/ gine was sent out The company had in
| structed all It's section men 10 patrol the
track thoroughly and they could be seen at
| every point along the track The triD to
Indianapolis was made absolutely without
| incident. the train moving along smoothly
| al the rate OF forty-five miles an hour
| The most interesting convict in the hos
| Dital car was Benjamin Musgrave. who at