The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-09


might not disturb him In the morning.
She did not undrsss. She merely clipped
her nishteown over her clothing to de-
oeive the children II any Of them woke up.
And one OF them did wake up and ler
his bed to get a drink OF water. f"r' No.
more, his sharp eyes detected the or'"r
way his mamma was wearing her light
gown without undressing. and he sleepily
spoke about IL, but he soon wal fast asleep
again. with the incident TO remain In
oblivion until recalled by questions
about his mothers movements on the
night she deserted him and all the rest
Of them to fee with vile murderers.
THE cAP
From the very first OF their plottings
there appears a curious vacillaton ana
incoherence In all the plans OF the con-
! spirators, for their movements after once
getting clear OF the jail. First Mrs. Sonel
was to 20 with them and then she was not.
She was to precede them In her hight
to Toronto. and then again she was TO lie
/ concealed In Pittsburg somewhere and go
to Homestead and there get letters adj
dressed TO her In a fictitious name. Then
again Edward, In the letter which was
found upon his person, which, 1t would
seem, he never gave her. urges her to go
with them.
And 80 It went. with first one plan and
then another, until when the crucial time
came and they found themselves free and
In the streets, there they were aimless
wanderers, with no other plan arranged
!, than to get a long distance between them
and Pittsburg as quickly as possible.
So far as the plans for the actual escape
from the Jail were concerned, they had
studied them down TO a nicely and they
were executed exactly as they had cal
culated. With the bars of their cell doors
sawed through they got one OF the guards
who had the keys to the cell room on his
person near them on artful pretext,
Then they broke through their cell doors
seized him and in the struggle he fell over
the gallery railing to the floor below, but
not until they had taken his keys from him.
OF the other two guards one was shot and
then inundated with a pistol at his head,
and the other was similarly intimideted
without being shot. All three were bun
died into cells and looked up.
Meantime all the other prisoners were
raising pandemonium, which Mrs. Sofel
heard and knew the meaning OF but which
her husband and her children slept through
from beginning to end. Sofel has since
said that he Ia confident he was drugged
by his wife and there are others who
share this belief. At all events Ia" knew
nothing Of the Jail deli ~ until he was
aroused and told Of 1t a morning watch
man, who came to biz .ty at a little before
7 o'clock.
The imprisoned w~atohmen, two Of them
badly but not MORALLY injured, were re-
leased. the police were notified and then
poor Sofel for the first time found that
his wife was missing and began TO suspect
something Of the full nature OF the disaster
that had fallen upon him. He had gone to
bed serene and contented with things bright
and clear in his worldly surroundings.
He awoke to find himself and his children
disgraoed, his home wrecked, his wife
worse than dead, and the office from y hich
he derived his support no longer tenable.
SOUGHT AN coo MPLrcE's LIFE.
And while his chaotic scene was going
on at the prison the three fugitlves. two
Of them separated from the deaths Of dogs
by barely forty-eight hours, were hidden
away over In Allegheny in a house where
they were more than suspected and where
they obtained temporary shelter only by
paving q heavy ransom. In their wild
scramble for liberty after empowering
the guards they lost the key TO the warden's
house which Mrs. Sofel mad given them
and burst In the look by sheer force, as she
has since related.
Edward, she says. insisted on her going
with them, and she went. They had omitted
to do one thing before leaving the jail which
there Is reason to believe they had planned
to do. In one Of Edwards letters TO Mrs. |
Sonel he said that II things were much
longer delayed he and John would break
out and kill everybody. including Dorman.
Dorman Is the former a~ccompllce whose
testimony convicted the Biddles and he
was In the jail with them awaiting sem
tence. Even In the wild excitement Of
their hurry to be away and following their
struggle with the three guards they did
not forget Dorman.
They called his name several times and
had he answered and had they located his
cell there IL little doub they would have
gone to It and then and there shot him to
death. But Dorman wisely did not answer,
and. as there was no time TO lose In hunting
him up, he escaped with his life from what
undoubtedly was a moment Of imminent
peril to him.
THE rLIoHT. .
From the warmth and comfort OF her
home, from the love Of her husband and
her children, Mrs. Sofel, when she closed
the door behind her and her two murderer
companions that bitter winter morning,
went to the life Of a hunted mad dog, TO
cold and hunger and misery. the whole to
end with her two companions shot down by
her side like rabid ours and she herself with
a bullet through her breast TO lie in a hospital
until she be strong enough TO face the trial
that will end in putting her a convict behind
prison bars. with her name a thing OF horror
to her husband and a shame and disgrace
for all time TO come. But the murderer
for whom she did all this had a pair Of
soulful eyes, and In that fact presumably
lies her consolation,
When darkness came and the Allegheny
house would shelter them no longer. the
three f~ugitives stole out into the keen cold
and started on their desolate wanderings.
First they took a street car and rode TO