Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-11-18
TELLS OF FLIGHT
TO SAVE PRISONER
SHERIFF TRAMPED ALL NIGHT IN
EFFORT TO KEEP NEGRO
FROM PURSUING MOE.
IS FOUND HID|NG IN TH|GkET
Lived on Nuts and PersImmons uatH
Hunger Forced Him to Enter
store Where He Was Recos-
nized and Posse Informed.

Cairo, Ill. - Sheriff Davis, bag.
gard and unnerved from the aux
ieties and hardships of his 24-hour
fight over hills, and through woods
and swamps, trying to get VIII James
out of the hostile zone, made a state
ment telling of his experience. He
said:
when 1 left Cairo Wednesday
evening with the prisoner did not
know what my destination would be.
knew that unless the negro was taken
out Of town he would be lynched that
night. My only thought was to get him
if possible, to some city in the central
or northern part of the state.
after the train pulled out of Cairo
l made up my mind that it would not
do to stay on the train and try to get
through Anna with him. That was the
former home of the girl he was &C"
cused of killing, and l knew that the
news that we were coming that way
would be telephoned and te~legraphed
to Anna In time for her friends to
collect a mob at the depot that would
take him from me-.
Stopped Train at Dongola.
80 l had the train stopped at Dom
COLA and we struck out in the dark
ness across the country eastward. !
had hopes that we would be able ia
catch a freight on the Chicago & East
ern Illinois at Perks, and my deputy
Tom Fuller, and myself hurried with
the negro along the bottom road az
fast as we could.
At Perks we found that there
would be no train through before
morning and we pushed on toward the
Big Four, for the double purpose Of
putting greater distance behind ut
and possibly catching a train sooner
than the G.. & E. 1. We tramped all
night through the woods. Three timet
we were lost and did not know IN
what direction we were going. We
kept away from farmhouses because
we feared that information Of u
movements would be ~telephoned ia
Cairo.
I'VE had nothing to eat except
such nuts and persimmons as we
could find.
Toward noon Thursday WE strucf
the Jopp branch of the G. & E., l. neal
Karnak. I did not think that anybody
knew me there and / CHANGED a visit
to the store to buy some more sub
stantial food. The storekeeper re
cognized me and asked me what l wal
doing out there. / hoped that he hat
not heard of our taking the negro Out
Of Cairo and told him | was looking
up some witnesses in a case. He asked
me about the negro under arrest al
Cairo, and | told him l did not know
much about the prisoner.
when I returned to the swamp
where I had left Fuller and the negro
we decided that word Of our where
abouts would be sent to Cairo, ana
after a hurried lunch we pressed
ahead up the Big Four to the water
tank, and then took to the swampf
between the two railroads.
when we discovered late in the
afternoon that a mob was trailing Is
we travelled as fast as we could, il
the hope of keeping ahead until dark
If we could do that l figured We
| would be able to catch a northbound
freight on the Big -Four before morn
ing.
But the pursuers closed in or Ut
and when we found that we were II
greater danger of being seen IL We
kept on than If we hid where we were
we concealed ourselves in the bushei
and waited, hoping that they woult
pass us by, but they found us,
my object in taking James away
was to gain time for a more thorough
search of the evidence than was pos
sible with him in the city. l ques
toned him a great deal while we were
in the woods together and he insisted
all the time that he was innocent. |
am very much in doubt whether he ID
the guilty man or not"
Young Bandit Blames Novel.