The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-26
IT BEATS PUNCH AND JUDY
FRANK BETLACH THINKS JAIL
IS PREFERABLE
He Has Tried Both, and While He
Did Leave the Winona Prison
Without Saying Goodbye, He
Has Since Put Himself in the Way
of Getting Behind the Bars With
out succeeding.

A week ago Frank Betlach was en-
joying that freedom from care and ut
ter disregard for the oppressive con-
ventionalities that is popularity sup
posed to be the portion of the man
who delights the innocent soul Of the
rural youngster by depicting the woes
Of Mr.. Punch.
Yesterday he was in the Ramsey
county Jail and was rather solicitous
about his future. He wanted some
badly to assure him that he would be
permitted to spend the rest of his life
comfortably in jail and never be oblig-
ed to go back to the show business
He is charged with counterfeiting
and jail-breaking, and Is not likely to
be obliged to take to the Iowly pursuit
of working on the feelings of the pop
ulace by exhibiting the troubles of the
Punch family for some time.
Mr.. Betlach is professionally q
Punch and Judy man. He has been
at 1t all his life, and he has murdered
the sheriff and hung Mr.. Punch so
often the thought of being obliged to
go on doing it always led him to give
himself up to the authorities to an
swer the charge Of counterfeiting $40
bills. He said that he had often, on
rainy days when business was bad,
| wished that he had never broken out
did last August
He confessed that the bane of his
| life was a desire for change; that he
always wanted to get out of the side
! show business, and as he could not
get show of his own and life at a
hotel he was satisfied to stay within
! any four walls that he could get be-
tween even though they formed the
! enclosure of Jail. Since he broke out
| of a ia n q
! last August, he has been trying to get
| back again into JAIL He has laid
awake nights under his canvas cover
ing and devised plots for giving him
self up. Once he met Capt. Walsh,
who used to be the treasury agent
here. on the streets of a Wisconsin
| town, and told the captain that he
was Betlach who broke Jail at Winona
and wouldn't he please arrest him and
send him back to Jail. The captain
was out of the service and he thought
Betlach was Joking. He told him to
be quiet and stop smoking, or some
thing like that.
| But the other day when Capt. Walsh
met some of his old friends in the
treasury department he told about the
man who wanted to give himself up
| and they went after Mr.. Betlach.
| They caught him redhanded, in the
! very act of garrotting Mr.. Punch,
without any sort of legal excuse for
the same. 1t was at Oshkosh last
| Tuesday. 1t had been raining for
many days, and the side-show bust
ness was about at it's worst. A dep
uty marshal pushed his head under
| the canvas of Betlach's booth and
told him he wanted him.
"Who are you?" asked Betlach.
I'm deputy United States marshal,
and don't you dare resist" said the
| officer.
"Resist," said Mr.. Betlach, with a
touch of indignation in his tone, "why,
if you attempt to lose me, I'll have
you prosecuted" And he pushed the
Punch and Judy booth over into the
crowd and went to Jail with the officer.
He was sent to st. Paul and arrived
here yesterday morning in charge of
Deputy United States Marshal Vial, of
Oshkosh, and Assistant United States
Attorney Anderson, of the same place.
He will be held at the Ramsey county
Jail until the fall term Of the United
States court at Winona, and then TAX
en- there for trial on an Indictment that
was found against him last December
| for counterfeiting and uttering coun-
| terfeit money.
In July last Betlach and John Rodd
went into the town of Grand Meadow
this state, together and Betlach made
his way to drug store and bought 4C
cents worth of soap, rendering a ten
dollar bill in payment Phil Shleiger
the druggist, gave him the change, and
the next morning when he got a look
at the bill he went out and sounded an
alarm. Marshal P. H. Conley, of Wye
koff, was notified of the matter, and
Rodd was captured. He told the mar
shall that his pal was down the track
a half mile or so. Conley found Bet.
ZACH and came upon him unawares
The prisoner stumbled and fell in the
railroad ditch, and, soon after he got
up, the marshal had a desire to lool
over the place where he fell, and he
there found roll Of eighty very ba6
counterfeit ten-dollar bills. Betlacf
was put in Jail at Winona, but says hi
didn't like the place, and once he an6
his friend and neighboring murderer
, went out into the world through a sky
light.
; The other prisoners have never beer
heard from, and Betlach might never
, have been captured If the Punch ant
Judy business did not have such a de-
, pressing effect.
Building Plans.
A building permit was issued yesterday t.
q. H. Lempke for the erection of one-stor,