Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1899-12-30
HONOR OF THIEVES.
Wisconsin jail Breakers Stick to Z
opal" to the Death.
Through nardships ana Dangers the
Lswlsss rusitives rsndssiy
Nurss and Care for Thsis
Dying Companion.

-
Occasionally an incident shows up on
the bobbin Of time recalling or accsntu-
sting an old saying.
In The woods of northern Illinois, the
other day, something occurred which
proved that there 10 '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 a 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 as a smooth man in the
confidence line, and In forgery"
The escape OF prisoners from the Jail
OF a small town 10 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 is Tom
Meyers" The reply WA short:
Dead"
For a day or more that was all the
captured man would tell, but when the
sheriff from Waukegan went down u
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. 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 a big pile of
underbrush and crowded into it. IL
rained p%itchforks the first night, and
poor Tom got worse. lie was as tender
as a spring chicken, Tom was, and the
exposure told on him fast. lie wanted
us to leave him, but we told him we
would stick to him as long as we lived,
and II he wa taken we would all go to-
gether. We took Oft our oats 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 a good deal
Of barking Understanding, I mean
and when ii was necessary for him to
keep quiet he done il like a soldier, he
did.
One OF us crawled out next morning
and stole some bread from farmhouse
and went back to our shack and di-
vided the loaf. We would have gone
hungry and let poor Tom have all of IL
II he could have eaten it, but his hunger
was growing less all the time, and he
swallowed mighty little OF the stuff.
THAT night while it wal my turn to
hold his head OF my lap he asked me in
n whisper that wasn't as strong as a sick
would have said il to put my ear
close to him. and l did, and he said
to me:
"'Bury me 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 a mackerel.
| don't remember in all my life that |
ever saw a man die before. I've seen
most everything but that. And ] ac-
tually held Toms head after he was
dead for a long time, but | can't tell how
long. But | see the daylight breaking
through the brush before ! 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 turned up the
collar. Two of us dug out a place with
our hands, and then we all laid his body
in il, and we wrote his name on a bit of
paper we had and put it in his pocket.
Then We covered the body with leaves
and throwed on the dirt, and then COW
cred up that with more leaves and
branches. One OF the gang said he re-
membered something he learnt At Sum
day school and said II over Tom, what
ever il was, and then each man struck
out for himself.
"Could find the place where we
buried him? You bet, in the dark. A
man amt likely to forget such n thing
In all of his life"
"The sheriff Of WaukeRan told me-"
laid the officer in Brooklyn. that he
never heard such a story as the prisoner
told him. and that il beat anything he
ever saw In a tbeater. And that the
toughest job he ever had was to take
his man back TO ail."-Brooklyn Eagle.
Breeding Hares for Their Fur,