The St. Johns herald., 1900-01-20
HONOR OF THIEVES.
Wisconsin Jail Breakers Stick to a
 "Pal" to the Death.
Through Hnrdships and Dangers the Lawless Fugitlves Tenderly Nurse and Care for Their
 Dying Companion.


 Occasionally an incident shows up on
 the bobbin of time recalling or accentu-
 ating an old saying.
 In the woods of northern Illinois, the
 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 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 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 CTS was captured, but not in the woods. lie was found in the street in Chicago. The first question asked of him by the sieuths of Chicago was: "Where is Tom Meyers?" 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 it the prisoners story to the sheriff was like this:
 'The first day of freedom Tom Mey- CTS was taken sick. He couldn't travel with us, but he was such smart guy we couldn't leave him. He had planned the escape. Then we found big pile of underbrush and crowded into it. It 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 if he was taken we would all go to- gether. We took off our coats and made him bed, and one night when the rain run through the brush as it would through a sieve, we took turn about holdinga hat over his face so it 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 nimself-coughing, I mean and when 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 di- yided the loaf. We would have gone hungry and let poor Tom have all of it # he could have eatenit, but his burger was growing less all the time, and he swallowed mighty little of the stuff.
 That night while ii was my turn to hold his head on my lap he asked me in a whisper that wasn't as strong as sick woman would have said it to put my ear close 10 him, and I 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 I could even say good-by 10 him he was deader than a mackerel. don't remember in all my life that 1 ever saw a man die before. I've seen most everything but that. And 1 ac- tually held Toms head after he was dead for long time, but can't tell how long. But see the daylight breaking through the brush before 1 called the | other boys to wake up.
 'Men in our situations had no time ! 10 pass any resolutions or make any ] speeches, and men like us ain't 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 l collar. Two of us dug out place with | our hands, and then we all laid his body 1 n it, and we wrote his name on bit Of | paper we had and put it in his pocket. Then we covered the body with leaves | md throwed on the dirt, and then GOV cred up that with more leaves and ! One of the gang said he re- nembered something he learnt at Sun lay school and said it over Tom, what 1 yer it was, and then each man struck put for himself.
 Gould I find the place where we buried him? You bet, in the dark. A nan ain't likely to forget such thing n all of his life"
 1.-The sheriff of Waukegan told me-" .aid the officer in Brooklyn, that he iever heard such story as the prisoner old him, and that it beat anything he yer saw in a theater. And that the i toughest job he ever had was to take