Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-16
HOW CONNECTS ESCAPED
sOLDNEss AND INGENUITY DISPLAY
ED IN CERTAIN CASES.
english Prisoners Love Liberty just
as Much as Their Fellows i'm Amer
Ica-An UnIucky IndiN iduni.
From the London Express.

From the London Express.
I have had TO dea4 with several escapes
from durance vile, and have heard or read
OF many more.
one of the boidest that came within my
own knowledge was lhaS of man in the
old Nottingham prison. Nho got out OF his
cell window and c.inlJso ny The lightning
conductor to the roof VI the PRISON, from
which he jumped ON - the roof OF the
police station adjuiL..g. and then stole
down the stairs unobs -rved iI,o the street
The jump thus made IN mid-air at
height of ~ or 30 feet must have been -
feet wide.
Courage of more patient but hardly IN
ferior kind has been shown in the heroic
endurance that supports men bricked up or
buried alive for hours awaiting the iaFoT-
able opportunity for getting away scot
free.
Built Up in a Chimney.
OF this there are numerous cases on rec
ord. One of the oldest was that of french
war prisoner at Dartmoor in the beginning
of the century. He was one of a party of
stonemasons building chimney fiue and
by arrangement with his fellows. when the
work had been carried up high enough to
form recess in which man could stand
he entered ii, allowing the rest or the work
to be continued upward till he was en-
tombed. That night. when all was quiet, he
threw all his weight against the green
masonry, broke 1t down. eXtricated hlmsef
and made off. He was never recaptured
| can remember q similar case at the old
Chatham convict prison, when a large
party was engaged in carrying bricks,
building them up, that is 10 say, into a
stack for storage till required A convict,
evading his warder's eye, lay full length In
side the stack. and was quickly covered
over by his comrades. The keenest search
this hiding place. and in the night he broke
out and got away.
BayOnet Discovered Him.
Another convict at Portland was not so
fortunate with the same method, In which
he had, however, allowed himself TO be
buried underground. The search had long
been fruitless, but the warders could not
believe that the fugitive had got off the
island, and some of them took to prodding
the ground with their bayonet points. A
sudden subterranean yell, followed by the
starting up Of a man through the soft earth.
was the end of this escape
Whole volumes might be filled with the
clever devices of prisoners In the fabrica-
ton and use of keys and picklocks. Any
scrap of iron, bit of crinoline wire (when
hoops were worm, steel from woman's
stays will serve.
1t Is within my experience how a man at
Wakefield escaped by using a key which
of iron filed away from the rim of a small
tub he was allowed to keep IN his cell for
the soaking Of leather, he being employed
as shoemaker. This strip was bent and
twisted till II would serve his purpose,
which was to open his cell door.
But the locks of cells are on the outside,
and there Is no keyhole within. To gain
access. this man cleverly utilized the trap"
or square opening in the center of the door.
an old plan for inserting food or watching
the occupant of the cell. The trap had been
screwed up. but he extracted the screws,
conquered the spring catch, let down the
trap door at will, and had the outside lock
a. his mercy.
His later proceedings were successful:
when free of his cell bolts he went up into
the roof out through a skylight, slipped
down water pipe and was soon over the
boundary wall.
A Tip From the Authorities.
Almost every captive's thoughts are con-
centrated upon the possibility of escape.
and an astute prisoner is ever on the alert
to turn the smallest advantage to good ac-
count Sometimes the authorities them
selves betray the opening.
mus. the man Jackson, who was after
ward hanged for numbering his Warder at
Strangeways. had previously escaped from
Wakefield prison. He was employed in rhe
reception ward, which margined the outside
road, and in the ceiling was a circular ori-
flee leading up to the roof. Some official
had discovered that this opening might
facilitate escape, and orders were given TO
close II with a grating. Before this could
be liked jackson, who had heard the discus
sion' took the opportunity of proving that
the official was right, and climbed up and
out, and was gone.
Any such weakness or neglect will sooner
or later be detected by the Gagged bird [
remember the case Of man named Kelly
in Hull prison. who was confined for mis-
conduct in a semi-dark punishment cell, the
iron shutters of which were closed by an
open bolt with insecure catches.
Kelly knocked off the catches with the
heel of his boot. and thus secured for
midabie iron weapon eight inches long
With this he knocked out the cell window
ventilator, and climbed out through 1t into
the prison garden. but he was recaptured
before he could get further away.
An experienced old convict. who was de-
tained on suspicion in a country goal soon
found that the fresh air inlet to his cell Just
above the floor was ineffectively closed by
a grating; the mortar around the bricks
that held the grating so soft and per-
ished that Il could be picked out by his tin
(regulation) knife.
The whole of the bricks were loosened
and could be taken out at Will but he re-
tained them in their places by a new NOR
tar made of chewed bread. One night he
went through the hole he had made In the
wall, and, dragging his blanket and sheets
after him, was provided with the means of
getting over the boundary wall.
Escapes mt Borstai Prison.
The Borstal system Is not without risks
a. the escape Of Soar and King has proved
The labor gangs proceed to forts two or
three miles distant from the prison, travel
Ing to and fro In trains running on a narrow
gauge line. drawn by diminutive loco
motives which had been built long ago for
the abortive Suakin-Berber railway.
The passengers are locked In and kept
safe by chain extending from end to end
OF the train, and wardens armed. keen
guard all along the carriages. There is not
much hope OF escape in transit.
Once, however, when work was ended and
the convicts We're returning to their train
a prisoner slipped out of the ranks on leay-
Ing fort and dropped straight into the
ditch, forty feet deep.
By means of timber clamp" not I'M
Ike schoolboy's climbing iron, he scaled
the counterscarp. gained the glacis, and
made for the Midway, where he took at
once to the water. Before he could swim to
the far side he was caught by Sramp and
was nearly drowned. Still he got ashore
and wandered as far as Gravesend where
he was recaptured, to spend some months
In the Borstal hospital with rheuma tic
fever.
/ should myself be inclined to think that
the two convicts, Soar and King now
thought TO be at large in Kent. have really
gone to ground in London. where they are
far likely IN oh ba