River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-07-02


Montgomery fingered in Richmond
for several days. taking a humble lodg-
ing in a cheap boarding house and
gradually equipping himself with a
modest wardrobe. He lived with
strictest economy. boarding his scanty
supply of money. He yearned for n
chance to work with his hands, but he
feared to show himself in the daytime
as vet. At the end of a week he learn
ed from an afternoon paper that the
local police had posted circulars offer
inc a reward for his capture. He saw
his own picture Oh the front page of
the paper and under it a close and ac-
curate description of himself. He
would have to move on.
He did not return to his lodging
house for the little supply Of clothes
he-had gathered, though he had paid
for his room in advance. He knew
that every other city in the country
would soon be added to the police
mesh, and he determined to leave the
paved streets for the quiet and Seclu-
sion of country roads. In a section of
the city where the poorer people did
their shopping he bought Il tin of meat
and a box of crackers. He still had
$50, and he would have spent the most
Of it for a kit Of tools, but he did not
dare run the risk. He managed to
pick up III a small shop a soldering
outfit, a light hammer, resin, a spool
of wire and 4 few other essentials for
a tinker's outfit. He made q light pack
and as night was falling found his
way southwark out of the city. 1t
was summer, and he could sleep In
barns and stables or in the open dur
ing fair weather. He determined to
travel on foot by night and sleep by
day until his beard was fully grown.
Into the lower bay of New York
came yelling n of the highest tide
of the early summer Higher and
higher the water rose until the nests
of the marsh fowl foated ava and
only the top of the New Jersey sedge
was to be seen. The highest Of the
hummOcks in the meadows was Gov
cred. With the turning Of the tide
their gatherings of spindrift were re
turned to the waters whence they came
and the dead friend of Montgomery
foated from Newark bay through the
Kill Won Kull to the harbor of New
York.
Among the scores of telephone re-
ports from Harbor Squad A at Pier
No. i, North river, during this busy
season of the year for the men on the
police boats, one read, Body of con
Wet found floating near Tompkinsville,
Staten Island. Sent to morgue."
This report was made direct to cen
trail Office. Mike Kearney was prepar-
ing a new circular to send broadcast
and stimulate interest in the ~recapture
of James Montgomery when the desk
lieutenant called him and showed him
the slip from Harbor A. He read it
carefully and handed it back, then put
his unfinished composition in his desk,
picked up his weatherbeaten derby and
left headquarters for the morgue.
He asked the morgue keeper to show
him the clothes taken from the body
Of the convict brought in by the harbor
/ pOlACC. liz CAdLl1uCu ChS1A anu 1OOlO
the white disk and star Montgomery
had won by five years of exemplary
conduct. This would have assured a
careless worker that the body was that
of the man who had escaped only re-
Gently from Sing Sing. But Kearney
was no careless worker. He asked to
be shown the body itself, but because
of the wear of the elements he could
make no satisfactory Identification of
the features. A month had passed
since his quarry had slipped him.
"Just a minute" he said to the
keeper.
From one of his pockets he produced
a little tin box, a sheet of white paper
and a brush of camels hair. The box
contained charcoal powder. Kearney
reached into the receptacle of the dead
body and pulled out the right hand.
He busted the finger tips with the
charcoal and pressed them against the
paper. With this token as to the iden-
tity of the lead man, he returned to
police headquarters.
The Bertillon records gave up the
tallying card for the finger prints of
James Montgomery. Kearney studied
the official record and the print he had
made at the morgue and then smiled
grimly.
The charcoal prints were of the fin
gers of a different man!
He went back to his desk and con-
tinued the composition of his new cir
cular.
After the fourth night of lonely jour
neying beneath the stars and three
days hidden in forest hooks, drinking
from brooks and eating sparely from
his little stock of food, Montgomery
found that he would have to change
his plan of flight. He was now far
enough from the capital of the Old
Dominion to feel a degree of safety.
The farther he got from civilization
ON a large scale the deeper became the