Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-27
YOUNG THIEVES BREAK JAIL
Quintet Of Bad Boys Effect Their Escape
from the Bastile.
FOUR FROM OMAHA AND A CoLoREO LAD
Pry on Iron Bars with Bed Stats and
Crawl Out over the Transom-
Get Across the
River.
FOUR FROM OMAHA AND A CoLoRED la

| Inc TOUR young lads from Omaha, arrested
Saturday for tearing up and stealing the
copper rods connecting the rails on the
motor tracks, effected their escape from
| the city Jail yesterday afternoon. Their
escape was not noticed for a short while
and they had a considerable lead of Jailer
James when he started in pursuit. He
caught sight of them on Seventh avenue and
South Fifteenth street but the boys scat
tered when they perceived the officer and
J he was unable to overtake them. They
managed to catch a passenger train on the
Union Pacific dump and got across the bridge
safely to Omaha.
1t is the old story OF locking the stable
door after the horse has gotten away AL
: terations in the upper floor of the city jail
were ordered by the city council several
months ago which IL carried out by the
! committee on police and health would have
made yesterdays Jail delivery impossible.
| Now that is over Chairman Christensen Of
! the committee notified Chief Albro yester-
| day that work on the alterations and i'm
provements would be commenced without
! fail this week
Owing to the youth of the four prisoners
they were placed in the room reserved Cor
female prisoners on the second floor, in
| stead of being locked in with the other
prisoners. In the same room Albert An
derson, young colored lad serving out
thirty-day sentence for stealing brass be-
longing to the Northwestern railway, was
confined. He Joined the other four in their
flight from the jail and up to late hour
last night had not been recaptured, and it
is thought he accompanied them to Omaha.
Pry on Iron Bars.
over the door leading into the corridor
from the room in which the boys were con-
fined is a transom protected on the inside
by three iron bars riveted into the frame
of the door casing. The boys effected their
escape by prying off two Of these bars with
a slat taken from the bed To reach the
transom the boys piled up on top of one
another the two large boxes used for con-
tanning COAL
The stairway from the second floor leads
directly to the entrance of the jail and
the young lads evidently made very little
noise in making their descent, as they were
not heard by Jailer James, who was inside
the office.
James discovered the boys escape when
he went up to their room to remove their
dinner dishes. The door was securely barred
and locked on the outside and the transom
was closed but to his surprise when he
the prisoners had flown. The appearance
of the interior was almost indescribable
In one corner was the large wooden bed
stead denuded of everything. The Stats lay
scattered around on the floor, two of them
broken in half, showing that the boys had
had considerable trouble in prying off the
bars over the transom, The coal that had
been in the two boxes was scattered over
the floor. while the bed clothing and mattress
were piled up in heap in one corner. over
the bedding, the boys had evidently out of
spirit Of mischief, scattered a quantity
OF ashes and cinders from the stove. The
empty tin plates and mugs showed that the
lads had not neglected to eat their dinners
before taking their leave.
Names of the FuGitives.
The names of the boys who escaped are
Harry McCowin, Arthur Wagner, Alfred
Hamming and Harley Allsup. They were
caught Saturday in the act Of stealing the
copper connecting rode The motor COM
pany has recently experienced much annoy
ance and loss by this kind of thieving. The
boys, it was learned had been tearing off
these rods for some time past and selling
them to the junk dealers, both in this city
and across tho river Saturday morning
they offered some to a Broadway junk
dealer, who notified the police and a watch
was set. The boys were caught on Sixteenth
street stealing the rods on the tracks leading
to the Driving park. They had also in their
possession q brass cap taken from one of
tha fro hydrants.
1t was learned by the police that McCowin
and Wagner, the eldest OF the four lads,
had been in Council Bluffo since Thursday,
during which time they accumulated a large
amount OF copper. The age OF these two
lads, who appeared 10 be the ringleaders.
is about 1G years, while the other two are
not over IL or 1% years of age.
Chief Abro is in favor, when the altera-
tionG are carried out at the Jail. OF having
tho stairway to the second floor changed
so as to lead down into the main office,
which would make it impossible for a pris-
oner or any one else to get out of the build
Ing without fret going through the main
room downstairs.
New Neckbands put on shirts free OF
charge for regular customers at the Bluff
City laundry. "a North Main.
FORT DODGE S OMAHA ROAD.