The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-02-13
A NOVEL INDIANA JAIL.
Prisoners Accorded Extraordinary
Privileges by the Sheriff and
Never Abuse the Trust.

Brown county, Ind, was organized in
1886, and is one of the three counties
without a railroad. The first prisoner
from Brown sent to the state prison
arrived there four years ago, and was
a voter convicted of selling his vote.
Since then the county has had contin-
uous representation in the reforma-
tory or the state prison.
Nashville is the county seat. The
only news that ever comes out of
Nashville is the periodical report that
gold has been discovered. From time
to time small deposits of placer gold
are found in the streams of the county,
but no one ever found enough to do
any good or any harm, says a Jefferson
vile correspondent of the Chicago In
ter Ocean.
John d. Ferguson. a representative
of the Indiana reformatory in Jeffer-
sonville. went to Nashville recently on
official business. He was put to bed
with the chickens, and by the time he
was ready to turn over he was awab-
ened by the shrill voice of the landlady
calling for her husband. The whole
house was soon noisily astir. 1t was
still dark, and just four o'clock.
Unable to sleep any longer, Mr.. Fer
guson got up, dressed, and took break
fast at five o'clock. His business was
with the court of Brown county. Court
convened at six o'clock and adjourned
an hour later. In the meantime a man
had been tried and sentenced to the re-
formatory for from 2 to IA years. for
stealing a cross-cut saw.
The three most elaborate buildings
in the town are the two-story red
brick courthouse, the log Jail and the
poorhOuse. The jail is quaint in APP
pearnce and a marvel in construction.
1t has three walls. In the outer and in
ner walls the logs are laid lengthwisc,
while in the middle tier they are up
right. 1t has been said that this plan
was intended to catch any prisoner at
tempting to escape. While it might be
possible to cut through the inner wall,
the middlewall logs when cut would
fall like a bear trap.
To attempt to escape by this means
never suggested itself to a prisoner.
Generally when a prisoner wants to
leave the Jail he departs as he came,
through the door. While Mr.. Fer
guson was in Nashville he found the
sheriff of the county in an unusual
stew. 1t turned out that the only
prisoner in the Jail had escaped.
Half an hour later the prisoner re-
turned, and was accosted angrily by
the sheriff.
"Where have you been?" the official
demanded.
Been home to breakfast, that's
where l BEEN" answered the prisoner,
sulkily
"Well, the next time you go home
to breakfast, you tell some one, and
don't you stay so long"
On another occasion the three pris-
oners in the Jail had an Indignation
meeting and in no uncertain terms de-
nounced their treatment by the sher-
if. They said the Jail was too cold,
and that they didn't get enough to eat.
The sheriff saw that they were in earn
est, so he had them all taken to a hotel,
where they served out their sentences,
and the change from the Jail was not
such a good one, either.
One morning, while the sheriff was
i'll a number of other prisoners got the
keys, locked themselves in, and threw
the keys out between the window
bars.
Once while the men were in prison
the sheriff went to Columbus and took
the keys along. A snowstorm pre-.
vented his return that night. 1t was a
bitter cold night, and no one could get
into the Jail to get the prisoners out.
The snow drifted between the bars of
the Jail and the prisoners built fire
in the middle of the lower floor.
The Jail caught fire, and the whole
populace got out, battered down the
doors, and rescued the prisoners, who
were taken to the hotel until the Jail
was repaired. Most of the residents of
the county date their letters from the
time the Jail burned down.
Sampson David was different kind
of sheriff During his administration
he kept an ak and a saw in the Jail to
be used by the prisoners if they wished
to escape. He had only one man in jail
during his incumbency, and when this
prisoners sentence expired he liked the
board so well that he refused to leave