The National tribune., 1905-11-02

OF this prison fare. as Heelon, Rey-
lnolds, Rankin and myself would have
1.-THE guard take US down to the "StonS
House." a hotel kept by a family OF
that name, where We could get meah
for 81 in Lincoln money" or 81 in
Confederate money. / always paid in
Confederate money, and when that
class Of my money was about played
out / gave q fellow prisoner IS in
Lincoln money" for $35 in Confeder-
late money.
Our man HeeIon was a handsome
man, about 2S years old, and had
worked in Canton several months In
the Dixie Works" for the Confeder-
acy, at which time he boarded at the
stone House."
Planning for Escape.
The Stone family had a beautiful
daughter about 19 and a son about Is
years old. Heelon had been gone only
about a year or less. At every meal
the beautiful Miss Stone would stand
around and wait on him, and they al
ways had little private chat, like low
ers, at the front gate, and sometimes
the boy would join in the conversation.
The guards, Rankin, Reynolds and I
| would be standing waiting for Heelon,
and as we had new guards every day
the lovers" were never marked with
suspicion, which enabled US TO arrange
for escape for all four of us. While
had an equal show in the escape
planned, thought IL i once got out
would have a better chance to get
through the lines alone than to have
four together.
| Serious Failure to Get Away.
Guards had to take prisoners down
stairs at all hours, day and night. The
fourth night that / was there i had a
guard take me down, about midnight.
started to run away from him across
an open commons, but before / had
gone more than so feet i ran into pit
about three feet deep and fell and the
guard ran upon me and stuck his bay
onet in my back. He perforated my
clothing and punctured my skin. He
got very much excited over my little
escapade and became very nervousi
cursed me. and swore he had a notion
to blow the load right through my
body, and l was quite sure that he
had. l told him / would go back with
him, and when I got up out of the pit
he put that bayonet to my back again
and pushed on 1t hard, and drove me
hack in that fashion to the prison
like boy pushing his sled on the ice
with pole! Only, the guard was ours
ing me, and at every step renewing his
| threat to shoot the load through mei
That was one time in my life that ]
permitted a man to call me anything
he wanted to. without resenting it.
Not Really an Ideal Home.
You may wonder how I happened to
| wake up at midnight. Well, that was
an easy matter. There were about
dozen men in the hall who had balls
and chains on their ankles; the chains
were regular trace chains about seven
feet long, and whenever either Of those
fellows would wake he would take his
ball and toss 1t up and let Ii drop on
the floor. and the bump of the ball and
the rattle Of the chains made noise
- u -
Arnold. We would get 10 or II Of those
performances every night.
| The morning after my attempted es-
cape the Provost-Marshal came up to
| put irons on me, and discovered, to his
sorrow and my joy, that he did not have
already I'm use; and he remarked that
they were on worse men than myself.
| However, he left instructions that I
should never again be taken out to
meals, that no other man should ever
be allowed to go out at the same time
l went, and that they should send two
guards with me if they could spare
them.
That day my three friends-or one
| of them for all-told me that I had
knocked down my playhouse" as all
arrangements were complete for us TO
get away from the "Stone House the
next morning at breakfast
Short Flight to Safety.
The closet at the 'Stone House" was
in the back yard, against the alley. On
the alley side the boards were upright
and some of them over foot wide. The
Stone boy had wide board so fixed
that all that was necessary was to lift
| this board about half inch, when it
| could be set~to one side and door OF
exit was open. My three prisoner part
ners went in there, on the morning in
question, locked the front door, opened
/ the .hack door which thew closed
| went down the alley about a block,
and in by the back way TO the house
Of friend Of Heelon's, who kept them
concealed in his cellar for two days and
a night.
When the guards at the "Stone
House" got tired waiting for the pris-
oners to come out they knocked, got no
answer, tried the door and found it
fastened on the inside. They then
forced the door in and found that the
birds had flown. They hurried back to
the prison, where / heard them telling
| their troubles to the Lieutenant. That
| officer hurried across the street to the
Provost Marshals office with the news.
With my lip hanging like wilted cab
bage leaf I stood at the window and
saw an officer and several soldiers
mount their horses, and, with pack of
hounds, ride to the outskirts of town
| and take a circle around it to strike
| the trail of the men while il was fresh.
was wondering all that morning
why they were SO stupid as not to go
into the alley and start the hounds
| there. II they had done SO they would
have found the men about 400 feet
from where they started.
If something did not turn UP every
four days 1 managed to turn something
| up. Now, after my friends were gone
and l was left in the lurch and in
prison, you may wonder how 1 came
out. On the fourth night after my
| first effort to escape it was raining, and
had been for SO hours. 1 made a firm
resolution to get out that night or die
| in the attempt. AS / had been watched
closely since my friends escape (and
| is was favorable night, pouring rain
and turning colder, commencing in the
!afternoon), about 4 p. M. Il got a fell
| low-prisoner to buy me a small box OF
matches, price 81, pretending that /
wanted them to light my pipe, although
was out of tobacco and did not want
TO smoke in there, anyway; il would
have a tendency to draw me too much
into conversation, thing I had been
avoiding as much as possible.
ri. -b.Sxa