The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-02-08
THERE IS NO CAVE
Mayor Funk Has Lived in
Belle Plain is Years.
KNOWS OF NO SUCH PLACE
Gives the Officers Who Came
There a Hot Roast.

l
Since the escape Of the jan-breakers
from the county jail about two weeks ago
many startling reports of suspicious char
acters have been telegraphed and tele-
phoned in to the office OF Sheriff Simmons.
and in most instances they have been fol-
lowed by volunteers who have been
anxious to run the criminals down and re-
cover the rewards offered by the sheriff.
At the beginning they came fast and furi-
Gus, necessitating the detailing of as many
men to investigate. ands If any Of them
proved worthy of following after getting
to the starting point, the search was con-
tinued until there wa no further use.
Some Of the best sleuths in the county
placed their services at the command of
Sheriff Simmons and in a few of the cases
some o fthe deputies were very anxious to
be allowed to follow clues they had OBJ
tanned from various sources In one OF
these instances two men went to Belle
PLANE one day last week and sought the
mayor out for further information to en-
able them to pursue the search for the
men they were after. They returned with
out making any captures and reported that
they had met with obstacles in their line
of duty which baffied them and caused
them to lose tter game
Mayor Funk of Belle Plane read an ac-
count publishedin the Eagle and sends the
following letter in explanation Of the So
called grievances of the officers:
Belle PLANE, Kan. Feb 6. 1899.
Editor Eagle:
IL In
you quote Deputy Sheriffs Jones and Lee
gueneir as saying that they would have
captured Tackett and FItz Simmons If the
mayor of Belle PLANE and not thrown
them off their track by refusing informa-
ton about robbers cave near this city.
The insinuation does a great injustice,
not only to myself, but to the little city
Of Belle PLANE, of which have the honor
TO be mayor.
I am the proprietor of the Linden.
house. On the morning mentioned these
men hunters" came to my place. They
told me wonderful cock and bull" stories
about being so close TO the criminals
asked them why they left the trial to come
to town, and they replied that they had
como to town to telegraph the chief of
police.
About noon they took another team and
drove to Wellington, but returned here the
same evening and remained all night in
my house.
That evening, under cover of darkness,
they made practice of stopping our citi-
zens on the street at the point of a gun,
and demanding an account of themselves.
NJ. L. Hayworth the banker and a menu
Der of the city council, and Mr.. Henry
Glaman, agent at the Santa Fe depot,
were so held up by the brave, clustering
deputies. They asked me about the ''rob-
bers' cave and one of the braves said
that he had seen maps Of the county and
plans of the cave in police departments of
St. Louis and New York; that 1t was
known to all the criminal hunters of the |
have lived here eighteen years and In |
Ill that time 1 never heard OF such q |
ave. Sam Smith, the desperate, at one |
lime, It seems. was In hiding in a dugout |
about two miles from here on the farm of |
ais father-in-law, who is one of our best |
:itizens. There is not a robbers cave in |
his county, and as far as Tackctt being |
'amiliar with the rough country. Will say |
hat there is not an acre of land within /
i've miles of this town that is too rough |
o cultivate.
These 'tmen catchers." while IN the city, |
old different stories and took a great |
,ride In showing their guns. I am of the |
opinion that they never had clue and /
old this story as an excuse for their boot
ess expedition. They did not leave the
louse to search for the cave the next |
morning until after 9 o'clock, although |
hey learned OF this cave the night before, |
recording 10 the stories they told some of
'ur citizens. I do not think that you In
ended to do me an Injustice or to SANDER
ur city by publishing the report OF these
nen and hope that you VIII publish this