Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1899-12-21
HONOR OF THIEVES.
Wisconsin Jail Breakers Stick to a
opal" to the Death.

Through HardshlDs aAA Dangers the
Lawless Eugitlvss HenderIy
Nurse aAd Care Cor Their
Dying Companion.
Occasionally an incident shows up on
the bobbin of time recalling OF accentu-
ating an old saying.
other day, something occurred which
proved that there is honor among
thieves" AN official from that state,
In Brooklyn on business, told reporter
Of the Eagle the story.
Four prisoners broke from the jail
Of Waukegan, the capital OF county
contiguous to the southern boundary
Of Wisconsin. One Of the prisoners had
Q black mark against him in nearly
every city Of the country. Even in
Brooklyn, where criminals have few
reasons to corgregate. Tom Meyers
was known as a Smooth man An 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 captured, bu. not in the woods.
He was found in the street in Chicago.
The first question asked of him by the
sleuths Of Chicago was: where is Tom
Meyers7" The reply was short:
Dead"
For a day or more that was all the
captured man would tell. but when the
sheriff from Waukegan went down to
the western metropolis the prisoner
talked to him. AS the visiting official in
Brooklyn remembers 1T the prisoners
story to the sheriff was like this:
"The first day of freedom Tom Mey-
ers was taken sick. lie couldn't travel
with US, but he was such a smart guy
we couldn't leave him. He had planned
the escape. Then we found big pile of
underbrush and crowded into it. 1t
rained pitchforks the first night, and
poor Tom got worse. He was as tender
as spring chicken, Tom was, and the
exposure told on him fast. He wanted
US to leave him, but we told him we
would stick to him as long as we lived,
and II he was taken we would all go to-
getliar. We took of our coats and made
him p bed, and one night when the rain
run through the brush a. 1t would
through sieve, we took turn about
holdlnga hat over his face SO 1t wouldn't
get ducked. Once we heard the blood
hounds bark, so close did they come.
Portion had been doing good deal
Of barking himself-coughing, mean
-andFwhen it was necessary for him to
keep quiet he done it like soldier, he
did.
"One Of us crawled out next morning
and stole some bread from farmhouse
and went back to our shack and d.
vided tho loaf. We would have gone
hungry and let poor Tom have all Of It
II he could have eateni II. but his hunger
was growing less all the time, and he
swallowed mighty little OF the stuff.
"ThEt night while it was my turn to
hold his head on my lap he asked me in
a whisper that WASH t as strong MS sick
woman, would have said 1t to put my ear
close tolhim, and / did, and he said
to me:
'Burysme here, and then you can es-
cape. Some day, when it's safe. you can
tell my friends. Don't wake the boys
"And before / could even say good-by
to him he was deader than mackerel.
l don't remember in all my life that
ever saw n man die before. I've seen
most everything but that. And ac-
tually held Toms head after he was
dead for long time, but l can t tell how
long. But see the daylight breaking
through the brush before l 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 .tNR,Ad.ap TIE
collar. Two Of us dug out 9aplaes with
our hands, and then we alf iaid IFS body
In it. and we wrote his nnp 1sSdtt1t of
paper we had and put It ilf4tfFs Pocket.
Then we covered the body with leaves
and throwed ON the dirt. fhd then COW
cred up that with more and
branches. One of the ganeA1he re-
membered something he learpthf Sun
day school and said it over T6ni, what
ever 1t was, and then each man struck
out for himself.
Gould i find the place where we
buried him? You bet, in the dark. A
man amt likely to forget such thing
in oil Of his life"
'"rhe sheriff Of waukegan told me-"
said the officer in Brooklyn, "that he
never heard such story as the prisoner
told him, and that 1t beat anything he
ever saw in theater. And that the
toughest Job he ever had was to take
his man back to Jail. Eagle.
uaselvea Mystery Of the Maine.
II do not believe the details of the
blowing up Of the Maine will ever be
revealed, and no man ever worked
harder to probe the mystery than l."
remarked Capt. Lucien Young, of the
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