The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-19

ROYAL BAKING POWDER CO.,, NEW YoRR. \ enough to find out that he was Frank Steadman, who had become notorious even at that time as a successful jail breaker. He had four or five escapes from prison in southern Indiana credit ed to him, and got away from Joliet, and had still seven years to do at the Illinois prison, had also been at San Quentin, and had escaped from there with five years unfinished.
 "Steadman was a machinist by pro- fession, and a burglar by inclination. When he was sent back to San Quentin to finish his time he was put to work with other convicts in the engine room. It was here that an idea came into his brain that for absolute daring and fear lessness was typical of the man. He had noticed that every evening at the time the men working in the engine room were lined up to be marched l away, the machinery was stopped at exactly the same moment He had ob- | served as we'll that window leading to an adjacent roof was not far from l the top of the big driving belt of the NlIElllC II lOIll llldI iOOt IL NcAo POooAbiS | to reach the outer wall of the prison
 Beyond the wall was freedom. He had escaped so many times that his mind reverted again and again to the window high up on the wall of the engine room | Apparently it was beyond all possibility | of being reached. No ladder was to be | obtained. Had such a thing been even l standing in place against the wall to | break from the line and scale it with 1 cat-like deXterity, although the work of 1 but a few seconds, he well knew would l be futile, possibly fatal. Bullets travel l faster than legs, and the guards were 1 not bad shots. But desperate deeds de- l mand desperate means. Some minds 1 may work with an ingenuity born of l despair, but Steadman's was of a diff 1 ferent calibre. His plans were the out | growth of steadfast optimism. He nev- CT ceased to scheme, as he never ceased to hope for liberty.
 "One day there came to him, as if by l inspiration, the thought that the big | belt might be the means of carrying him to his goal. He found that it was impossible to count the revolutions of the driving wheel. but there were lac |
 able to distinguish as a sort of blur as it passed a given point For days and
 days he counted, and In his cell at night
 he spent his time in calculations. He
 discovered the exact number of revolu- | tions the wheel made per minute. He l learned also, by constant observation, 1 just how many times the belt went l round after the engine was shut down. "One evening, when the line had l been formed as usual at the close of 1 the days work, and as the big wheel
 began to lose it's momentum, suddenly l a convict sprang from the line, leaped
 to the belt with outstretched arms l grappIing both edges of the broad i leather. had calculated well the
 strength that would be required, for
 the terrific wrench did not loosen his
 grasp Outward and upward he swung
 until he reached the topmost point of
 the circumference. The nicety of his
 calculation had reaped its reward. The belt stopped. He leaped to his feet,
 sprang through the window, and was
 gone before convicts or guards had re- | covered from their astonishment. He l caught up a guards cost and hat, | dropped from the wall and got away in the dusk of the evening. I am in- | clined to believe that as mathemati- cal proposition that was about as per-
 feet a piece of work as any man ever accomplished"
 And did he get away without re-
 capture?" some one asked.
 No, I am almost sorry to say, he did l not" answered the Los Angeles Chief, flor that ought by rights to be the de- nouement of such story, which com
 pines so much of daring and clever ness. Steadman was taken again in a short time and put to work at his old job There are bars over that high
 window above the big drive belt now.
 Now long after this Steadman cut and
 nearly killed one of the other convicts,
 and is now serving out an additional
 sentence, for attempting murder, at
 the Folsom prison, which is situated some twenty-eight miles from Sacra-
 mento."
 Sometimes you hear of one man sim gle-handed and alone arresting four or five people" said superintendent Of an eastern city, "but that slender man
 over there with the black mustache and bronze face ought to hold the rec l oEu, anu dul inclined CO DelleVe lHat he does. That is w. G. Baldwin of Roanoke, Va, and he is chief of de-
 tectives for the Norfolk and Western
 railroad, and chief of the iron and
 coal police of West Virginia. He took
 seven men with him at one time and
 brought back an average of thirty-nine prisoners for each man. About two