Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-09-10
DAILY STORY
THE EFFECT OF A PURPOSE.
IOriginal.1


tial L would rather take my chances
of acquittal in case where had been
seen to commit the crime than in a
strong case against me of circumstan-
tial evidence. In the former there is
always q plea of emotional insanity
while in the latter the prosecution has
only TO put the evidence together. true
or false, to prove the accused guilty.
Hugh Bassett was convicted of muir
der on circumstaptial evidence, but
since it was proved that he had been
prosecuted to frenzy by the murdered
man he was not hanged, he was i'm
prisoncd for life. This persecution
though it saved him from the death
penalty, vas the main cause of his con-
viction. His prosecutor was murdered
and who could have murdered him but
the man he had prosecuted? This Isl
what twelve good and true men de-
cided, and decided wrong. Ten years
after the conviction a hardened Grim
iaal on his death bed confessed to a
priest that he and not BasSett had com
mitted the murder.
''Bassett, torn away from his wife
and children to be taken TO prison for
q crime of which he was innocent, had
but one thought--to escape if his escape
should cost him his Kfe. He was an
ingenious man. quick to see an advan-
tage another would not see.
But several years passed before he
saw any avenue of escape whatever
and then a very desperate chance. He
had been graduated ut a scientific
school and from there had taken
position with manufacturers of ma
chinery. In prison the officials were
glad to avail themselves of his services
in the engine room. and on several oc-
casions he attracted their attention by
certain ingenious devices in the matter
of repairing the machinery. In mathe
MATES he had taken prizes long before
he became convict. For good be-
havior as prisoner he had many priv
ileges. and was allowed to have light
in his cell long after hours.
Zone day Bassett saw means of
escape from the engine room which he
had not noticed before, though he had
worked there regularly since his inn
prisonment three years before. 1t in
volved possible freedom and probable
death. 1t also involved very nice
racy of which life depended. 1t was
after the conception of his plan that
his keepers noticed that he was burn
ing the midnight oil and laying down
innumerable figures. The guards did
not know it, but the prisoner was cal
culating just when the broad belt that
ran the machinery would stop after the
power had been turned off. He had
noticed that in the evening when the
men were ready to leave the engine
room the machinery was stopped. He
had also noticed that the driving belt
of the engine passed over its upper
wheel near Il window high above the
reach of any one. Then he had learned
that from the window one could gain
a roof from which he might reach the
top of the wall and thence down out |
side. One day it occurred to him to
ride on the belt to the window and es-
cape.
ITO do this he must mount the belt at
a certain mOment-that is, on Il point |
that would stop at the window. He
could see the lacings in the belt as It
moved-greatly blurred of course-and |
for days, weeks, months, counted rev
olutions of the belt. and at night in his |
cell made calculations. At last he fixed |
point where he could jump on the |
belt which would stop at the window |
"One evening in winter when the |
days were short the convicts We're lined |
up ready to march away Suddenly |
Bassett sprang upon the belt and, |
clutching each edge with a hand was |
a1sr,iaI To In Io1
was every one that no one took in his |
intention till he reached the window.
the belt stopped, he sprang off and |
through the opening and WAS gone.
Nothing was heard again of Bassett |
So determined was he in his object |
from the moment of his Imprisonment |
that he had arranged with his wife to |
go to foreign country, change her |
name and lose herself to all save him. |
If she wrote nothing he was to know |
that she was at the rendezvous. She |
waited two and n half years for him |
without having heard n word from him |
or writing word to him. Consequent |
ly when he escaped it was impossible I
to track him by his wife. One day he |
before her and their children |
in Il little town in Central America. |
There. neither of them known to those |
about them, parents and children were |
united in one embrace.
"Bassett at once found employment |
in the mechanical department of the |
great canal-of course under an as |
sumed name-and it was not long |
before he worked himself up to one of |
the principal positions in that depart
ment. Long afterward he saw in a
the confession of the man
who had committed the murder for
which he was convicted, but he con-
sidered his former self blotted from
the world and-never reappeared among
his friends to receive their sympathy
at the great legal blunder and pardon