The Red Cloud chief., 1899-12-22
HONOR OF THIEVES.
Wisconsin Jail Breakers Stick to a
opal" to the Death.
Throush Hardships and Dangers the
LawIess Fueitives Tendsriy
Nurse ana Care for Their
Dying Companion.

the bobbin of time recalling or accentu-
nting an old saying.
In the woods OF northern Illinois, the
other day, something occurred which
proved that there Ia "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 n county
contiguous to the southern boundary
of Wisconsin. One OF the prisoners had
a black mark against him in nearly
every city of the country. Even in
BROOKLYN, where criminals have few
reasons to congregate. Tom Meyers
was known ms a "smooth man In the
confidence line, and in forgery"
The escape Of prisoners from the jail
of a 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, but not in the woods.
lie was found In the street in Chicago.
The first question asked Of him by the
sleuths OF Chicago was: where il 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 Waukegan went down to
the western metropolis the prisoner
talked to him. As the visiting official In
brooklyn remembers II the prisoners
story to the sheriff was like this:
The first day Of freedom Tom Mey-
ers was taken sick. He 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 a big pile of
underbrush and crowded into II. II
rained pitchforks the first night. and
poor Tom got worse. He was as tender
as u 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 IL he was taken we would all go to-
gether. We took Oft our coats and made
him n bed, and one night when the rain
run through the brush as IL would
through a sieve, We took turn about
holdinga hat over his face so ii wouldn't
get ducked. Once we heard the blood
hounds bark, SO close did they come.
Poor Tom had been doing q good deal
of barking himself-coughing, / mean
and when IL was necessary for him to
Keep quiet he done il like q soldier, he
did.
zone of us crawled out next morning
aud stole some bread from a farmhouse
aud went back to our shack and di-
Sidcd the loaf. We would have gone
hungry and let poor Tom have all of il
il he could have eaten II, but his hunger
va growing less all the time, and he
swallowed mighty little of the stuff.
"That night while il was my turn to
hold his head on my lap he asked me in
a whisper that wasn't as strong as a sick
Woman would have said ii to put my ear
close to him, and | did. and he said
to me:
BURY me here, and then you car es
cape, Some day. when it's safe, you car
tell my friends. Don't wake the boys
And before ! could even say good-b,
To him he was deader than n mackerel
| don't remember in all my life that
ever saw a man die before. I've seeI
most everything but that. And ! ac
tually held Toms head after he wa
dead for u long time, but | can't tell how
long. But ! see the daylight breaking
through the brush before | called tn
other boys to wake up.
Men in our situations had no tim
TO pass any resolutions or make an.
speeches. and men like us amt up il
such things nohow, but we said a few
words about his bein gritty, and the
we buttoned his coat and turned up tn
collar. Two of us dug out Il place will
u hands, and then we all laid his bod,
in 1t, aud we wrote his name ON a bit o
paper we had and put il In his pocket
Then we covered the body with leave
and throwed on the dirt, and then co,
cred up that with more leaves an,
branches. One OF the gang said he rs
membered something he learnt at Sun
day school and said it over Tom, what
ever II was, and then each man struc
out Tor himself.
could find the place where W
buried him? You bet, in the dark.
> man amt likely to forget such a thin
! in all of his life."
|. "The sheriff of Waukegan told me,
J said the officer in Brooklyn, that h
. never heard such a story as the prisone
told him, and that il beat anything h
d ever saw in n theater. And that III
Z toughest job he ever had was 10 tax
his man back to ail.'-Brooklyn Eagl