The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-18
SWAN ICY RIVER.
David Thomas Leads Asylum
Guard Merry Chase.
Floats Placidly ON His Back
Across the KaW.
POLICE CALLED OUT.
Reported That Dead Body Was
in the Water.
Man Captured and Taken Back
to the Hospital.

A telephone call that "hoater" was
seen in the Kaw river and had had time
enough to reach the Rock Island bridge
about O'Clock, caused the police patrol
to drive hurriedly to the river while a
phone call to the Keuhne preserving
works asked that rope be ready to
draw the floating body to the bank.
The patrol drove west along the north
dixie after crossing the Melan bridge.
Nobody could be seen in the river when
painting, excited man struggling
through the deep sand informed the Of
ficers that he was an attendant from
the state hospital and that the man
had been taken out by crowd of Ia
borers up the river at the Union Pacific
coal shutes. The reported ''fioater'' was
not dead man at all but a very live
one-though crazy, who, in order to
avoid the attendant who was pursuing
him jumped into the river and turning
on his back fioated down and across
the channel where he was seized and
held by negroes.
Nude except for an undershirt the
insane man enjoyed the first swim of
the season and nearly froze upon being
exposed again to the atmosphere. He
was taken into the engine room of the
coal shutes and warmed with a horse
blanket until the police came to take
him away.
Dave Thomas is the mans name He
was sent to the hospital from Emporia
ten years ago and has proven a hard
man to keep. His cell is on the second
floor and the window is barred on the
outside with a frame of cross bars
screwed into the window frame and in
side strong screen door is hinged to
the window and locked with a paddock
Last night Thomas unlocked the door
and then dug the screws out of the
wood, enabling him to push the lower
ell for
enough to admit the passage of his
body. Then he made a rope of his two
bed sheets and lowering himself as far
as he could, dropped to the ground with
no clothes except a jumper, a blanket,
and an overcoat. This morning, At
tendant Summers Immediately began a
search for the escaped man and first
thought led him to the river bank.
There he found the prints of bare feet
in the sand. Following as fast as he
could through the deep sand and along
almost impossible paths where slipping
into the river seemed unavoidable
Thomas was found in a clump of bushes
cuddled up and trying to get warm. AT
sight of the attendant he sprang up and |
squared himself for fight. brandishing |
an iron bar two feet long which he must |
have found on his way down. Parleying
q little the attendant attempted to rush |
him from the back but everytime, the |
insane man proved too quick. always |
Squaring himself to strike with his iron |
club. Come on Dave. let's go up on !
the railroad tracks and catch a train,' |
suggested Summers. thinking to get /
his man where he could call help. But |
Dave was too rational for that and only |
replied, IF you come near me I'm going |
to kill you" Thereupon a quiet wait |
ensued, Summers waiting until Thomas |
should choose to move on which would |
bring him nearer help possibly. Final |
ly Thomas did move. He walked de- /
liberately to the waters edge out along |
sandbar, threw off the blanket and over
coat, walked into the water and threw |
off the Jumper, waded out as far as he
could toward the north bank, and find
ing the water beyond his depth, rolled |
over on his back and f1oated across like
an expert swimmer, while the attendant
ran madly along the sand and muddy |
shore to the Rock Island bridge and
around to where the negroes had cap
tured his charge.
''I want to go to Attica. Ind, and
see my wife and my babies he walled
as he was loaded into the patrol with
Chief Eaton, Sergeant Ross and De-
tective Sauls and asked where he was
trying to go. 81 had a letter from
my wife a year ago the goth of this
month, which is my birthday, and she
wanted to see me she wrote. Today
is her birthday and I wanted to go to
her and the children What did they
take you out to the hospital for?"
"Oh, they don't know exactly, some
sort of paranoia 1 guess. They can
not tell just what the matter is. They
say I've got crazy ear, and he mo-
toned to a dishgured left ear which
the attendant was trying to warm.
Thomas talked nationally all the
time he was in the hands of the police
and told of leaving Attica where he
was in the life insurance business
Then he went to Emporia at the same
business. At one time, about 1885,
he worked for the Metropolitan Life
in Topeka and was we'll acquainted
with the scenes in passing. His wife
was divorced from him before he
came to Kansas though the particu-
lars are not known and that is sup
posed to have large influence in un-
seating his mind.
tempted to go to Attica, Ind, to see
his wife and that is his constant cry
at the hospital. Once he got away
and boarded a train for Kansas City,
was getting on famously, but trans
ferred to the wrong train and instead
IF going to st. Louis over the Wabash,
ne found himself back in North To-
peka where he was arrested An
ther time he constructed a dummy
which he placed in his bed. then as
he guard opened the door at night
he middle of the, room by Thomas ]
Jumping from behind the door. Then
he insane man darted into the hall
pulling the door to and locking the |
guard in with the kew left in the door,
while he himself fed to the woods to ]
be captured several days later eight :
miles away at a farm house-still on
his way to Attica.
Police Jottings.
Henry Wolf, a barber who caused