The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-12

him while he was in the hospital, and
that he used it to bride a guard who
allowed him to escape. When question
ed yesterday as to how he eluded the
officers after leaving the hospital, How
ard said:
II won't tell you what did at once,
but within day or so I went back to
Mound City. There remained hidden
for two days, and finally went to st.
Louis, where my wife and baby here,
who had been born while / was in
prison, Joined me- We proceeded to a
little town in Iowa where 1 had an old
friend, and remained there for a time,
but he thought officers were watching
me and advised me to leave. He sug-
gested that as the Cherokee Strip was
about to be opened it would be a safe
place for me. He said no one would
ask there where 1 came from.
Il went down there, leaving my wife
and baby here in Iowa. I formed
township company, 1 had considerable
money at that time, and we afterwards
sold seventeen lots at 800 each. They
had cost us only filing fees of
couple of dollars each"
Marshal Trigg explained here that
the purchasers of these lots afterward
found their title to these lots to be
worthless. and Howard admitted this,
but insisted he did not know this when
he sold the land.
BECAME A PHYSICIAN.
1t seems that while in the peniten-
tiary and hospital, Howard became in
tereSted in the study of medicine He
the ear and eye, because his own trou-
bled him. After conducting a real
estate office in Arkansas City for some
months, all business on the Cherokee
Strip in this vicinity being transacted
there, he began the study of medicine in
earnest. He paid for instruction by
mail, his instructor being the professor
of a school in Kansas City. Five years
ago Howard left Arkansas City for the
only time during his residence there
went to Kansas City, took an examina-
a hi S diTA10 Il
uated physician.
His wife had come to live with him
soon after he reached Arkansas City,
and having saved a considerable sum
erected a pretty little home and began
the practice of medicine. He has ac-
cord1ng to reports from Arkansas City,
been wonderfully successful, especial
~ in diseases of the eye and ear of
which he made a speciality.
During these years Howard never be-
came public man in the little town.
He appeared to shun notice and was
apparently wrapped up in his domestic
life. This was so unusual in the border
town, however, that it made the man
more prominent, and last fall he was
asked to receive the nomination for
mayor. He refused it and no entreaty
on the part of the townspeople would
make him alter his determination
In the meantime his mother-fn-Iav.
Mrs. Earl, was working to have How
ard pardoned. She wrote a number of
letters to the attorney general at
Washington but that officer would not
listen to the proposition, he said until
Howard surrendered. He intimated
that after that he might use his inf1u-
ence to obtain the pardon for the man.
Mrs. Earl was in some doubt as to how
to reply to this. She wrote a letter to
the attorney general, and, doubling
whether or not it was what Howard
wanted her to say, she mailed it to him
at Arkansas City. He approved it and
mailed the letter to a. clerk in the Eb-
bitt House, Washington, asking him to
renal it to the department of justice.
HOW HE WAS RECAPTURED.
1t was here Howard made his fatal
mistake. The secret service depart
ment sent a man to this clerk, and he.
strange to say had saved the envelope
in which the Enclosure came. Its post
mark showed the letter had been mail
ed on the Oklahoma division of the
Santa Fe system.
United States Marshal Trigg was put
to work on the case. He followed sew
eral trails that did not bring him to
success, and finally requested that
picture be sent him. That taken when
Howard was admitted to the Chester
penitentiary nearly eight years before,
was forwarded to Trigg.
He had for some time suspected his
man was in Arkansas City, but he had
not thought of DR.. ClawsOn. He SEEM
ed man above such a thought. But
when he received the picture he decid-
ed DR.. ClawsOn was the man he want
ed lie sent Tor Harry sutton, one of
the best detectives in Kansas, and with
him they called on the physician. They
compared notes after leaving and de-
cided he was the man for whom they
were seeking. Determined not to make
any mistake, they looked up DR.. Claw
sons record, so far as possible, and
were convinced the seven years search
was at an end.
Shortly after Trigg and. Sutton
knocked at the door of DR.. Clawson's
office. He seemed pleased to see them,
for when they called on him before
they intimated they wished to purchase
a tract of land the doctor owned. He
them to be seated and then, sitting
down in his desk chair, asked what
they had decided to do about the land.
I'VE came on another errand today"
said Trigg, fumbling in his pocket. In
fact, doctor, we are looking for George
B. Howard, an escaped convict. L have