Arizona republican., 1913-08-09
HAMPERS FRIENDS lOIH
 ID BELIEVE STORIES
Claimed That Sores on Back of Es- capped Boy Are Result of Escape
 Not Cause of it.

After charges always comes the de 1 fensC and after a story of telling of d peculiarly henuous incident always | come the details of the other side which are either wholly in the shape of de ] fense, or else tend to throw light upon the other side of the controversy, this is | exactly the shape of the Industrial school matter at this time. Governor Hunt hurried to the scene on Thurs day evening not telling anyone where he was going or when he would re- turn. He preferred to go to the route
 of the evil himself in the matter of the investigation and get the information
 first hand.
 The reason doubtless for his hurried trip-he is expected to return some
 time today-Was the information that | the escape of Gray the Douglas boy who made the complaint against Su- perintendent Harper for cruelty came after the authorities of the school had
 unwittingly run against a plot. it is said, to which Gray was a party, and
 of which he was the ringleader, the out come of which plot was to have a wholesale delivery from the school during one of the absences of the sup erintendent. This ncccssitatcs going back a long way in the story.
 As is a matter of common knowledge there is now in course of consunma- tion, the movement of the Industrial School from Benson to the new site at Fort Grant There are a lot of re pairs in progress at the Fort and the superintendent has had to make ire | quent trips from the school to the Fort in order to see that the work is being done properly The boys were aware of this and Gray with others decided to make a raid upon the office some
 time when Mrs. Harper was there and the superintendent gone oVerpoWcr 1 her. possess themselves of the revolver that is in the office get all the money possible and make their getaway
 The plot went all right until the boys. | fourteen of them, got into the office. when instead of finding Mrs Harper there alone they found also one of the | company captains, who is an officer of | the state. The captain immediately suspecting something wrong, put the | boys mp and when Harper came back 1 he was told of the outbreak Immedi- atcly he started punitive measures and thrashcd the whole number, many of them worse than Gray was thrashcd Gray and another boy were put into one of the leanto- buildings at the school which had walls of sheet tin, to sleep and during that confinement Gray who had possessed himself of some sort of sharp instrument cut his way out and escaped.
 Now. It is claimed that instead of being caused by the thrashng Gray re- cciVed that the unheaIed sores upon his back arc in reality the result of his climbing through the hole he cUt in the rusty tin. Rusty tin is not the Clcancst material in the world with which to scratch ones back. and a cut made with such an instrument as the ragged edge of the sheet tin is likely to present. will not heal in minute. es- peCially if the injured one is chasing through the country riding on freight trains and otherwise trying to make a successful getaway as quick as he can Without thorough cleansing the cuts will mako sores of the nature. it is said similar to those on the back of Gray Harpcrs friends in coming to his de fcnsc say that he is not the man against whom charges of cruelty could possibly be placed. That he is q stern and firm young man. with kindly heart at that and strong sense of duty. It is said he admitted that he strapped some of tho boys but it is also said that tho instrument he used l the four inch flat piece of leather would not make q cut or veal such a s is de- sCribod as being on the back of Gray Further it is claimed that none of the other boys have been sick or have claimed any injury from the licking 1 they received, and reports coming from Benson are to the effect that most of | the boys think highly of the superin- | tendcnt
 It is further pointed out. that an ab- sOIutely truthful statement even in the | form of an affidavit to the effect that that the beating caused the sores on
 l Gray is hardly possible in view of the | fact that the bay was sent to the school 1 on February % as an incorrigible His incorrigibility could scarcely have been l cured in the time he was there. and if | he could head a conspiracy directed against the wife of the superintendent and break out of the school because he was thrashed he would also likely lie when it came to demanding his reas- Ons from absonting himself from school There is still another proposition in 1 connection with this case that the | friends of Harper refuse to believe and that is that no attempt has been made | to get the boy back to the school. and 1 that no notices of his truancy from the school have been sent out from Benson ! However. all these are matters of de- fensc. and the true inwardness of the case will be better understood when the | investigation has been completed
 -O-
 WAS BADLY ALARMED