Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-12-21
HONOR OF THIEVES.
Wisconsin Jail Breakers Stick to a
slPal" to the Death.
TiruuxF Hhra slffpx4 and. Urn nge rssthe
Lawlcxs. Fngitives Renderly.
Nurse and Care for Thew"
Lying Companion.

Occasionally an incident shows up on
the bobbin Of time, recalling or accentu--
ating an Old saying.
In the woods of northern Illinols,~the
other day, something occurred which
proved that there is 'honor among
thieves An official from that state,
in Brooklyn on business, told a reporter
of the Eagle the story
Four prisoners broke from the Jail
of Waukegan, the capital of a county
contiguous to the southern boundary
of Wisconsin. One of the prisoners had
black. mark against him in nearly
every city Of the country. Even in
l}rooklyn, where criminals have few
reasons, to congregate. Tom Meyers
was known is a smooth man in the
confidence line, and in forgery"
The escape of prisoners from the Jail
of small town is an exciting event.
and in this case citizens joined officers
in their pursuit and search, and blood
hounds, something unusual in the
north, were turned upon the trail. They
were unsuccessful. One Of the prison
ers was capt ured ,but not in the woods.
lie was found in the street in Chicago
The first question asked of him by the
s.euths of Chicago was: where is Tom
Meyers?" The reply was short:
Dead" ..
For q day or more that was all the
captured man would tell. but when the
sheriff from Waukegau went down to
the western metropolis the prisoner
talked to him. AS the visiting official in
Brooklyn remembers it the prisoners
story to the sheriff was like this:
THE first day of freedom Tom Mey
ers was taken sick. lie couldn't travel
we couldn't leave him. lie had planned
the escape. Then we found a big pile Of
underbrush and crowded into it,. 1t
raired pitchforks the first night, and
poor Tom got worse. He was as tender
as a spring chicken, Tom was, and the
exposure told on him fast. He wanted
us to leave. him, but we told him we
would stickto him as long as we lived,
and if he was taken we would all go to-
gether. We took off our coats and made
him Il bed. and one night when the rain
run through the brush as it would
through sieve, VIC took turn about
hoidinga hat over his face so it wouldn't
get ducked. Once we heard the blood
hounds bark, SO close did they come.
Poor Tom had been doing Il good deal
Of barking himself-coughing, ] mean.
and when it was necessary for him to
keep quiet he done it like soldier, he
did.
"One of us craw1ed out next morning
and stole some bread from q farmhouse
and went back to our shack and di-
vided the loaf. We would have gone
hungry and let poor Tom have all of it
if he could have eaten it, but his hunger
was growing less all the time, and he
swallowed mighty little Of the stuff.
THAT night while it was my turn to
hold his head on my lap he asked me in
whisper that wasn't as strong as sick
woman would have said it toput my car
close to him, and 1 did, and he, said
to me:
DuA AAC ACASj civ lACA W Shh Co
cape. Some day, when it's safe; you can
tell my friends. Don't wake the boys
sand before could even say good-by
to him he was deader than mackercl.
l don't remember in all my life that 1
ever saw a man die before. I've seen
most everything but that. And ac-
tually Held Toms head after he was
dead for long time, but can't tell how!
long. But I see the daylight breaking
through the brush before called the
other boys to wake up.
Men in our situations had no time
to pass any resolutions or make any
speeches, and men like us amt up in
such things nohow, but we said a few
words about his bein gritty, and then
we buttoned his coat and turned up the
collar. Two of us dug out a place with
our hands; and then we all laid his body
in it, and we wrote his name on a bit of
paper we, had and put it in his pocket.
Then we covered the body with leaves
and throwed on the dirt, and then COW
cred up that with more leaves and
branches. One Of. the gang said he re-
membered something he learnt at Sun
day school and said it over Tom, what
ever it was, and then each man struck
out for himself.
could find the place where we
buried him? You bet, in the dark. A
man amt likely to forget such thing
in all of his life.'
''The sheriff of Waukegan told me-, y
said the officer in Brooklyn, that he
never heard such a story as the prisoner
told him, and that it beat anything he
ever saw in theater. And that the
toughest job he ever had was to take
his man back to Jail" -Brooklyn Eagle.
UnxOlvcd Mystery Of the Maine.
81 do not believe the details of the
1,Jo,x.,,r ,,,> IF ho No;p will o1-oy. l,n