Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-10-16
TWO ESCAPE FROM PRISON.
Each With Withered Arm, Made Per.
sh ilous Climbs and Descents. K
columbia state. October -

u"J hiSht anu up 10 tnlS time has
made good his escape. In company
with Dean was William Smith, who,
like Dean, was sent up from Spar
tanbuTs county. The manner Of es-
cape and other details Of the adven-
ture are indeed very interesting.
Each one Of the men has a wither-
ed right hand. The occupied q ward
in the infirmary, In which were only
TWO other men, each of whom had
had his arm cut off, 1t would have
seemed that out of these four men,
with but one good arm each, the dan
ger of escape had been reduced to
the minimum. But nature had given
additional strength to the one re-
manning arm, 1t seems. and brain
supplied the mode of escape. -
When First Discovered.
1t was not until o'clock yester-
day morning that anything amiss was
suspected. At that time the whole
penitentiary Is up and about, the
new guard relieving the old and the
prisoners arising for the days toll.
But there were two who did not re-
port for roll call. These were Harry
Dean and Will Smith. The guard at
the old infirmary called them in
vain. Finally, it was discovered that
the two men lying in cots were not
men, but dummies composed Of pill
lows, from the half dozen vacant
cots In the ward, covered with heavy
comforters. The eccape was inexpli-
cable. The locks on all Of the doors
and windows were intact, there was
no scratch on wall or ceiling. .n
The first news of an escape came
from the guard at the post No. 8,
overlooking the canal at the back of
the yard. He reported a 4O-foot rope
dangling from this lookout to the
bank Of the canal. About the same
time 1t was learned that Dean and
Smith had gone.
The Mode Of Escape.
The door to the cell, which opened
upon the outer veranda, where inva-
lids were sometimes permitted to en-
JOY the sunshine, was fastened with
two locks, both of which had the
same key. One Of the locks fastened
the door to the jam, and the other
fastened an angle bar to the balus-
trade at distance of three feet from
the door. The key was fastened by
small nail. and by the use of strong
twine, to the piece of lath with which
1t formed a firm right angle The
prisoners We're permitted by It's use
to thrust the key into the slot in the
lock, but even then they could not
turn 1t. This difficulty was overcome
by forming an elbow with a flexible
joint by attaching an old broom han
die to the piece Of lath.
There were several small holes
bored In the lath, and by. splitting
the end Of the broom handle and in
serting piece of stiff wire which was
bent at the end, handle was made
hn h>l~ ~
which was then iii position to turn
the key in. the lock. BY few deft
turns, the key was made to release
the lock, and being a spring lock the
tongue flew out Of connection with
the staple in the ballustrade and the
way to the veranda was oDen.
The willy fugitives left the pieces
or lath and broom handle behind
them and snapped the two locks on
the door.
why is 1t that you didn't see
them?' was asked the two prisoners
In the ward. One Of them, Turner,
from Aiken, is very ill with a slow
fever and was taking notice Of moth
Ing He could not see into the re-
cess In the window in which the men
were working preparatory to escape
The other man, Harold, from Cam
den, said that when he went to
sleep Thursday night he remembers
that there was n large chair near his
ped. When he awoke Friday morn
ing the position Of the chair had been
shifted and over IL had been thrown
a heavy quilt so that If he had walked
ne could not hive seen into that part
OF the ward in which the two men
were working. There were several
vacant cots between himself and the
usual sleeping place Of Dean.
Out of the Yards.
Out OF the cell itself was but the
first step to liberty. There were
other difficulties to be overcome.
Fortunately for the fugitives, the
guard is somewhat relaxed at night
AS the new building is supposed to be
escape proof and the two hospitals
are watched with the usual amount
Of caution. There are no prisoners,
except women, outside OF these build
fngs at night
Dean, having worked in the infirm-
tary, knew the lay Of the land in the
Vicinity Of hat building. Smith, hav-
ing worked in the commissary and
having been sent out on numerous er-
rands as trusty, knew the way out
of the yard. Down the posts support
ing the yeranda the two men with
Withered arms climbed. Out into the
yard to the old quarters Of the guard.
Here they got good stout plank
and leaned 1t against the wall in or
der that they might climb into the
old shoe factory building. The marks
on the wall show that they did climb
into the building, The plank they
pulled in behind them in order to
keep any prowling guard from hav-