The L'Anse sentinel., 1907-10-26

4
their cells in murderers' row with the
| assistance of Mrs. Kate Soffel, wife of
Warden Peter Soffel, only to be run
down and shot to death near Butler,
Pa, 4S hours later, and did not they
come back? That was during the time
of Warden Soffel.
And did not Hill and Douglass and
many another poor wretch who went
to death from murderers' row by the
gallows route come back?
There are many who stoutlY main.
tain that they did. and that they
haunted their old cells and terrified
their occupants for many nights.
Another mysterious happening that
contributed to the spooky reputation
OF murderers' row was not explained
away until 1t had been going on for
weeks.
At nine o'clock every night 1t has
been customary to switch The electric
lights from one dynamo to another.
This necessitated the changing Of a
belt and occupied from five to ten
seconds. During that time the entire
Jail was in total darkness, except for 4
few isolated gas jets in the front Of
fee, at the gate and in the main cor
ridor.
An UnearthIy Shrek Was Heard.
One night several years ago just be-
fore the lights had gone out as usual
an unearthly shrek pierced the inky
blackness of the big jail from some
where in the neighborhood Of murder
ers' row. 1t was long, moaning kind
of shrek, such as no mortal could
make, and 1t seemed to sweep and
circle down the main corridor before
dying away. Everybody who heard 1t
deputy wardens. guards and prison
ers alike-felt the marrow freezing in
his bones. An investigation was made
Immediately the lights had been
turned on again. but no solution to
the mystery was found that night. The
prisoners were questioned, and, as
might have been expected, all denied
knowing anything about 1t. Men In
cells on the fourth tier thought the
noise, came from somewhere on the
ground floor. Those on the ground
floor thought 1t came from the roof.
Next night when the lights were
switched off at nine o'clock the same
unearthly scream resounded through
the building, and once more the result
ant investigation came to naught.
Warden Lewis was puzzled and he de-
termined to trace the noise to its
source, so on the third night he Sc
cretly stationed guards In empty cells
and along corridors, with instructions
to make careful note of the direction
from whence the yell came II 1t should
be repeated. The yell was repeated 4
without fail as soon as the jail was in,
darkness, but the worden's plan failed.
for the guards had totally different
ideas OF where the sound came
from.
BY the time the uncanny yell had
been heard for Ave nights in succes-
sion, with the mystery of its source as
deep as ever, many Of the most su-
perstitious prisoners were on the
verge Of nervous prostration. Nobody
could ever tell them after that that
the jail was not haunted. The warden
was almost at HIS wits end; but he
tried one more scheme. He began to
transfer the prisoners. q few at a
time. from cell to cell. and guards
were instructed to watch each batch
OF transferred men very closely. In
this way the noise was finally traced
to a practical Joker among the pris-
oners, who produced the diabolical
yen with the aid Of hair comb and
4 newspaper. A piece Of paper was
folded across the comb and held ~ .
mouthpiece at the small end Of meg |
aphone made by rolling the newspaper
up into cone. Everybody knows
what fearful noise can be made hy
pressing the lips against paper-cov.
cred comb and blowing hard With
the megaphone added the noIpe ves
greatly magnfned. ana Il made I Aoise
calcuIats 4 to. sive anybody eoA ch11)D
A. the pitchy darkness Of big prison.
with the detection Of the culprit The