The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-08
TELLS STRANGE
 TALE OF BOSS
 TWEED'S FLIGHT
Greenwich Man Says He Es- capped on Train to Coscob,
 Where Couple Waited Him
Angry Because Train Stopped, He Ran Into Boss-Tug Took the Fugitive Down the Bay

Greenwich, Dec. S-After a silence of more than thirty years, Judge F..
 A. Hubbard of this town has pub
 lished in a local paper story which he believes explains the method by
 which Boss William M. Tweed got away from New York after his es- cape from Ludlow Street Jail on Dec. 4. 1875. Although Tweed was cap tured afterward in Spain and was brought back to spend his remaining days in jail. many details of his es- cape have never been told In his narrative Judge Hubbard says:
 '.On the 9th day of June 1870, one Isaac Mosher sold tWenty-four acres of land and a fine house northwest of Cos Cob village to Lydia G. Me- Mullen, the Wife of William McMul- len. The price pa d was s12,300. The house is still standing, but has since the days of Tweed been enlarged and known as the Ardendale Sanitarium. Tweed introduced Mrs. McMullen as his favOrite niece, and it was under stood that MT. and Mrs. McMullen were to a certain extent dependent upon him.
 At that period the Cos Cob station agent was young man, now a we'll known resident of the borough. He had considerable to do with handling the freight and express packages for advantage, and after the family nov ed in he continued to be great fa- vorite with them.
 'sOn his home trip from the Duane Street office m New York MT. Tweed did not always leave the train at Greenwich but as he held in high esteem his nephew and niece, it is nn eff hof S;n hn invited to pass the night at their practically new house n Cos Cob. and that he duly accepted. The young station agent began to not 'ce that the 9:15 train at Cos Cob would frequent ly stop 1000 feet west of the station, then crawl up to the station.
 Frank Hermance was the conduc- tor of that train. We'll, it was the duty of the young station agent to report any such irregularity. Finally he told MT. Hermance that he would be obliged to report him if it occur red aga n, but Frank only smiled and gave the station agent friendly wave as he started his train.
 Judge Hubbard goes into details Of Tweed's arrest and various troubles until his escape from the jail and the immediate offer of a reward of s50,0OO for him. He then goes on
 
 says, with the consent of the station agent.
 s'The Cos Cob agent" he said, "had just laid aside an evening paper tell ing of the escape of Tweed and ad- vertising the $5O,000 reward when the 9:15 train again made its mysterious stop at Lyman Meads bar. The agent was angry. Seizing a lantern he ran down the track. As he passed out of the glare of the headlight and approa ched the baggage car he saw the side door sl de open. At that moment a woman from behind smash ed his lantern.
 "Bewildered, he stepped forward in the darkness and put his hand on the great hulk of William M. Tweed. There was a man with him, and woman followed leaping across the ditch by the side of the track and up the bank through Lyman Mead's bars. There a carriage was in wait- ing. Tweed got in. His great bulk between the lambs of the door. But it was surely Tweed and George W. Hoffman was on the box. After Tweed's death Hoffman came to apparently possessed of considerable money. I saw much of Fs,ffman, and on more than one oc- casion he admitted that Tweed came up on the 9:15 on the night in uues- ton. occupying the baggage car. Hoff- man never told me how he got Tweed into the car at Forty-second street, but at that time there was ample to walk unseen down. what had once been Fourth Avenue, on the south side of the track, and