The Topeka state journal., 1897-10-09
MISS CISNEROB' ESCAPE.
Plans Were Well and Carefully Laid
by Her Friends

| Plans Were Well and Carefully Laid
by Her Friends
/ Havana, Oct. 9.-The escape of SenOr-
| ita Evangelina Cassie, otherwise Cas-
| sio Y Cisneros, has caused quite a SEN
sation in Havana.
The investigation made by the au-
| thorities has developed a number of
| additional facts in the case. It is now
asserted that the young woman es-
| capped between IL o'clock and midnight
| over the roof of neighboring house
| and through it to the street below,
| O'Farreu lane, and not into the street
| where the police found a hand ladder.
! On the roof of the adjoining house the
! authorities found three pIanks, each
about three feet long and Is 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 authorities also found on the roof
Smith & Wesson revolver of large
calibre, having its six chambers loaded,
and a new knotted rope, which had eV-
identity been used as life line or guld-
ing rope to enable the escaping pris-
oner to cross the plank bridge which
had been extended by her accclnphces
from the house near the Casa de RecO-
jidas, to the roof of that prison.
The revolver, the knotted rope and
the portable bridge, as we'll as other
discoveries made by the police, show
long and carefully planned.
She must have been in constant COM
municatiOn with those who enabled her
to escape from the Casa de RicOjidas,
where she was imprisoned with II other
women.
Some of the details of the young Gu
bans escape are quite romantic. 1t ap-
pears that a real estate agent named
MarienO Fernandez, who was in charge
of the house No l, O'Farre1 lane, de-
clares that he recently rented that
building to two well dressed young
men. The latter seemed to be highly
respectable, hired the house for two
months and paid the rent in advance.
The building was poorly furnished, 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 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
sensation in the United States, was
imprisoned. When the rooms at No 1
O'Farrell lane were searched, the pO
lice, in addition to the articles already
described, found a bag of lime, a can
of paint and a large brush which might
be used for the application of either
lime or paint.
Inside the window through which Sc
norita Cassie escaped, the police dis
covered a bed sheet, and as this apart
ment was her sleeping room, the au-
thorities are inclined to believe that
the sheet was used by the escaping
prisoner to enVelOp herself, with the
object of deCeiving her roOm-mates. if
she was uniucky enough to awaken
them, in the belief that she was NOV
ing about in her night clothes. The
quarter of the prison which was Occu-
pied by SenOrita Cassie, is known as
the new hall, for the reason that it was
constructed only seven months ago. 1t
was set apart for the use of political
prisoners and was quite cOmfOrta BILE
compared with other Spanish prisons.
The com paniOnS of the young Cuban
woman, whom she left behind. say that
the day before SenOrita Cassie escaped,
she received 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 the day of her escape
when she urged each of them to par
take of the cOnfectiOns. The prisoners
did so, and they express the conviction
that the sweets were drugged, for they
soon afterwards fell into a deep sleep
and did not awaken throughout the
night although the fling of the iron
bar of the senoritas s bed room window
must have caused enough noise to have
awakened the prisoners under ordinary
circumstances.
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
Spanish authorities along the coast
have been communicated with, in the
belief that an attempt may be made to
embark the senorita upon some vessel
leaving Cuba for the United States or
elsewhere.
Fernandez. the jaiIer in charge of
Casa de RecOjidas, and four employees
of the government, who were on duty
there, have been arrested and are con-
fined incOmmunicadO, pending the re-
suit of the inquiry being made into the
escape.