Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-09-12
A STUDY FROM
THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT
and out that led to his retirement az
warden of the reformatory.
Story al an EseaoA.

and out that led to his retirement as
warden of the reformatory.
Story Of an Escape.
The retirement Of Warden Barr, in
the opinion of those who know. is al
most a story in itself and is traced di-
rectly to the Schmit brothers. The
Scnmlt brothers We're a pair Of crooks,
living in Iowa, and both had done
time" In Anamosa. One morning. in the
summer of 1910 Of these brothers,
VINO was free. but had done time pre-
v,iously. visited his incarcerated brother
IN the prison rotunda. The prisoner
brother was employed in the quarry,
about a mile and half from the prison.
1t was customary for the quarry pris-
oeners to leave the prison at Z o'clock
In he morning on hand cars. accom-
panied by a number of armed guards.
a lew weeks after the visit between the
p~rotners. a telephone call came
10 warden Barr from a man in the city
who said he was a lawyer and desired
that the Schmit working in the quarry
pe brought to the prison for an Inter-
fiaymaker. Upon reaching a lonely
spot nrou to the prison Schmit's
brother jumped from ambush. revolver
M hand. and ordered Haymaker to
throw up his hands," Haymaker re-
Piled with a shot from a revolver he
carried IN his coat pocket. The des-
perate Schmit then shot Haymaker in
the stomach: then both brothers
dragged the unfortunate guard into the
woods, and spec away in a buggy.
shortly after. Haymaker was found by
a farmer boy. who gave the alarm. The
rest OF the story is already history.
Haymaker was taken to a hospital at
Anamosa. operated on. and
Hls assailants escaped to Canada. were
cauent In a series of crimes and sen-
tenceo TO 10 years each in Stony Noun
tain prison. This Is cited merely to
snow the real reason why Warden Barr
was oOllged to retire from his Office.
He is Made an "Editor."
To continue with the story, I won
qered. after my first breakfast, where
! was to be put to work.. The prison
nas q hospital. blacksmith shop. car
penter shop. tub shop. Contract work..
stone shed. quarry. photographers Of
bindery! -A
A brief conversation with the deputy
WARDEN landed me in the print shop. I
a never set a stickful of type. but 1
was delighted to think that / did not
nave to work in the stone shed or some
place as bad.
For three weeks I labored at a case.
setting the 'dirtiest" proof that one
would want to see. We were not per-
1,s.Su W Ialk 10 each other without
raising our hands to ask permission Of
the a who sat at a desk on q raised
platform.
! was then transferred to the chap
ialn's department to assist in cataloT-
ing the books for the library, The IL
Drary. by the way, has about 10000
volumes ranging from the works of
u Jean Libbey to Kant. Hacked
ana Darwin. Shortly after this. the
edltcr Of the weekly paper, the Re-
formatory Press. was transferred to
Fort Madison n I became editor. Dur
contributors We're exclusively prisoners
tnough occasionally an interested out.
sider sent in some timely copy" The
chaplain acted as censor of the o
all my editorials had to pass
through his hands. returning to me
with blue pencil streaks which were
often extremely d~iscouraging. Politics
was absolutely forbidden. nothing must
be said derogatory to the administra-
tion OF the prison, nothing must be
said against the policy OF the board Of
parole or the board of control; so. nat
uraliy. our paper must run ITSELF in a
ocular vein, or else deal with our own
moral drawbacks; in any event we
could not roast the gods that be-.