The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-22
MIKE DASH FOR LIBERTY
PRISONERS At FORT SMELLING
LEAD PURSUERS AN Elk
CITING CHASE
GUARD FIRED HIS RIFLE
0'ROurIke and Rocks, Serving Sem
tence for DesertiOn, Ran Across
Bridge-CharIes Kartak Is
Knocked Down and Hurt.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to
escape by two long term prisoners. nam
cd O'Rourke and Rocks, at Fort Smelling.
at 1:S0 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The
two men with two other prisoners, under
Private Melting as guard. were engaged
in cleaning out several houses at the fort,
not far from the entrance The men had
just finished work at one house and were
going to another. C'Rourke and Books
were ahead as they entered the second
house, and We're closely followed by the
other prisoners and the guard. The for
mer couple did not stop when they got
inside the house, but quickly getting out
of sight of Melting jumped through
window and made, for the bridge. Nett
ing saw them as they got to the bridge
and fired three shots after them and
turned in an alarm. He then followed
and continued shooting. At about the
middle of the bridge the fugitives met
Mrs Charles Johnson, 65S Case street,
who with two of her children was walk
ing towards the fort. They seized the
frightened woman and, pushing her on
ahead of them, hurried her across the
bridge. For fear of shooting the woman
no more shots We're fired. but at the or
Ger of Lieut.. Healey, officer of the day,
a company was turned out in pursuit.
When the runaway prisoners reached the
end of the bridge they pushed Mrs. john
son to the rail, and were about 10 make
for the stairway leading down to the bot
tom from George Harris. place.
On the balcony at Harris hotel Charles
Kartak. Sam Newman and Dave Wall
blOm were enjoying dinner. They saw
the men seize Mrs. Johnson, and diVining
what had happened; Kartak jumped up
and exclaimed: Watch me stop them"
He ran to the bridge and just reached
the men as they were making for the
stairway. Before he had a chance to delay
them, ORourke, who is q powerful fell
low, swung on his jaw and knocked
him to the ground. Rocks then jumped
on Karta4's body several times, and the
two then ran down the steps. For time
the pursuing party lost track of the
conVicts and was led a long chase
through swamps and marsh, and in order
to spread the men out as much as possible
they were separated. Roy Weiner, a pr1-
vate in company A, finally discovered
the two men in tree. He was alone
but stood his ground and ordered them
to come down At first they refused,
but Weiner fired his gun in the air sew
eral times, and others Of the pursuers
were attracted to the spot. The two
men were taken, and at the muzzles Of
a number Of guns led back to the fort.
When they reached the bridge one Of
the spectators remarked: "Too bad, fell
lows too bad" Never mind, better
luck next time" answered O'Rourke.
Lieut.. HeaIey ordered them placed in SOL
i,ary confinement. and Netting, the guard.
was also placed under arrest pending III
vestigation. ORourke was serving a
sentence which expires in August of next
year for desertion. Rocks is also de-
serter, and was serving a sentence which
expires next May.
Mrs. Johnson was picked up by Dave
Wallblom in a very nervous state and
carried to the hotel, where she soon re-
covered sufficiently to go home kartak
did not fare so well. He was still gasp
ing for breath when the prisoners had
been caught. For about two hours he
was not able to get away from his bed
in a room at Harris place. Later he
recovered, and, resuming his seat on the
balcony, explained to his friends that so
far as he was concerned the whole Unit
ed States army could escape next Tune
and he would not interfere.
Sergeant Sanbuck was just crossing the
bridge as the two men escaped. After
a long search for a revolver he came
painting to the scene about twenty min
utes late.