The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-09
SEN0RITA'S SMOOTH SCHEME.
HER ESCAPE FROM CASA DE RE-
COJIDAS WE'LL PLANNED.

Cuts the Iron Bars and FIees Over
House Top While Her Fellow
Prisoners Sleep From n Drug.
Friends Give Her Assistance From
the Outside-JaiIOr Hernandez and
Employees Confined IncOmmuni-
cadO Pending Investigation.
Havana, Oct. S.-The escape of Senorita
Evangelina Cossio, otherwise Cassie
Cisneros, exclusively reported in a cable
gram to the Associated Press last night,
has caused quite sensation in Havana.
The investigation made by the authori-
ties has developed a number of additional
facts in the case. 1t is now asserted that
the young woman escaped between II
o clock and midnight on Wednesday. over
the roof of a neighboring house and
through it to the street below, O'Farrell
lane, and not into the street where the
police found a hand ladder
On the roof of the adjoining house the
authorities found three planks, each about
three feet long and eighteen inches wide,
Joined together by strong hinges, so as to
serve as a bridge, enabling a person to
pass from the roof of the prison to the
roof of the house referred to. The author
ities also found on the roof a Smith &
Wesson revolver of large caliber, having
its six chambers loaded, and a new knot
ted rope, which had evidently BEEN used
as a life line, or guiding rope, to enable
the escaping prisoner to cross the plank
bridge, which had been extended by her
accomplices from the house near the Casa
de Recojidas to the roof of that prison.
The revolver, the knotted rope, and the
portable bridge, as we'll as other discove-
rles made by the police, show that the es-
cape of Senorlta Cossio was long and
carefully planned.
She must have been in constant COM
munication with those who enabled her to
escape from the Casa de Recojdas where
she was imprisoned with eleven other wo-
men
Some of the details of the young Gu
bans escape are quite romantic. 1t appears
that a real estate agent named Mariana
Fernandez, who was in charge of the
house, No. l O'Farrell lane, declares that
he recently rented that building to two
well dressed young men. The latter SEEM
ed to be highly respectable, hired the
house for two months and paid the rent
in advance. The building was poorly fur
ing only an old table, a washstand, a
| wardrobe, an antique sideboard, six old
| chairs, six plates and two cats. But the
young men seemed to be perfectly satisfied
| with their surroundings, and little or no
notice of them was taken by the neighbors
or by anybody else, in spite of the fact
that the house was situated close to the
prison in which young Cuban girl, whose
story caused such a sensation in the
United States, was confined. When the
rooms of No. l o Farrell lane were search
ed the police, in addition to the articles
already described, found a bag of lime,
can of paint and large brush, which
might be used for the application of either
lime or paint. Inside the window through
which Senorta Cossio escaped, the police
discovered a bed sheet and, as this apart
ment was her sleeping room, the authori-
ties are inclined to believe the sheet was
used by the escaping prisoner to envelop
herself, with the object of deceiving her
roommates, if she was unlucky enough TO
awaken them, into the belief that she was
moving about in her night clothes.
The quarter of the prison which was oc-
cupied by Senorita Cossio is known as the
new hall, for the reason that it was con-
structed only seven months ago. 1t was
set apart for the use of political prison.
ers, and was quite comfortable, compar-
ed with ether Spanish prisons.
The companions of the young Cuban wo-
man whom she left behind, say that the
day Senorita Cossio escaped, she receiv
ed a package, believed to have contained
drugged candies.
In any case the senorita, contrary to her
usual custom, did not at once distribute
the candies to her prison companions, but
waited until Wednesday night, wher she
urged each of them to partake of the con-
fections. The prisoners did so, and they
express the conviction that the sweets
were drugged, for they soon afterwards
fell into deep sleep and did not awaken
throughout the night, although the filing
of the iron bar of the senorita's bed room
must have caused enough noise to have
awakened the prisoners under ordinary
circums tauces.
People living in the vicinity of the Casa
de Recojidas have Informed the authorities
that they heard the noise of carriage
wheels shortly before midnight on We'd
nesday, and this fact is supposed to have
a connection with the prisoners escape.
There is a division of opinion as to
whether the escape of the senorita was
effected by Americans or by Cuban in
surgents. The police are hard at work
investigating the escape, and all the Span
ish authorities along the coast have been
communicated with in the belief that an
attempt may be made to embark the Sc
norita upon some vessel leaving Cuba for
the United States or elsewhere.
fernandez, the Jaller IN charge or the
Casa de Recojidas and four employees of
the government who were on duty there,
have been arrested and are confined in
communicate pending the inquiry to be
made into the escape.
Madama Ana Milan de Bendou who has
been In charge of the new hall al the Casa
de Recogidas, where Senorta Evangelina
Cossio was confined, and in whose house
in San Rafel street the police several
months ago, found trunks containing dy-
Mantle and cartridges. is one of the four
employees who, with the jailor, have been
arrested, and confined incommunicado,
pending the result of the inquiry being
made into the circumstances of the escape
of Senorlta Cossio.
COUNTERPART OF HOLMES.