The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-09
IN CONVICT CAMP
Topeka GirI's Thrilling Eve
ming in Colorado.
Supper With Murderers,
Thieves and Yeggs.
HAD GRAND, GOOD Time, TOO.
Talked With COnvicts Who
We're Human.
But Dear, Scared Auntie Was
Nervous Wreck.
HAD GRAND, GOOD Time, TOO

Here is a regular ripper for the
Lasky melodrama circuit. What is
more it is a true story. 1t is the story
of a Kansas girl-a Topeka girl,
state house stenogra pher-who, with
her auntie and strange guide, spent
an evening in a convict road building
camp in the Colorado mountains.
Regular convicts-murderers bank
robbers. horse thieves. yegg men
were the Topeka girls companions
and associates for several hours while
the Topeka girl and her aunt waited
for the chauffeur to go to the next
town and get a new car. But right
here the Topeka girl knocks all the
poetry out of the setting. She wasn't
scared. She didn't fear the convicts
would kill her. In fact she sat down
and ate supper with them and talked
with them and found that they were
awfully human and she did all the
things that a red blooded Topeka girl
would do. But auntie-well, auntie
was still suffering from near-nervous
prostration when the Topeka girl told
her story.
Miss Beula Bartleson, stenographer
in the office of the public utilities
commission, was the heroine in the
wild scene in the Colorado convict
camp. This is the story of the trip in
Miss Bartleson's own words:
just Dying For Excitement
cit had been a wonderful day up the
canyon. The scenery was wild
enough for the most adventurous.
had kept auntie in a nervous fever all
day by climbing out on overhanging
rocks that looked as though they had
never been stepped on, and she was
visibly relieved when the automobile
came to take us back to the little
town.
1.-The sun had gone down behind the
mountains and a soft purple light fell
on the tall pines and jagged cliffs 1t
seemed a little solemn as we started
home and I wished we could have
some real excitement. 1 didn't tell
auntie sol don't think she would
have sympathized.
THE smooth white road that looked
so dangerously narrow ran first under
an overhanging rock and then so close
to the bank of the noisy little noun
tain stream that auntie looked dizzy. |
"A sharp turn brought us upon a
gang of convictS who were widening
the road at that pOi:.t. We had passed
them in the morning and the driver
had explained to us that they had been
working on the canyon road for q
year, and that each day spent there
shortened their sentences by two days
pcarance, just such men as I saw every
day at home.
Looked Like Football Hero.
"A tall young colored man, built |
like a football hero, was driving a |
team of mules hitched to a scraper
Wet took the outside of the road next !
to the canyon and the driver of our |
car started ahead, turning in over the /
mound of loose dirt AMI stone. The |
car tipped and jerIed and auntie !
clutched wildly at me and tried to tell |
the driver what to do. I nearly fell |
out of my scat but it was exciting, !
which overbalanced the discomfort. |
Suddenly we struck a large rock and |
the car stopped
Il am not an automobile enthusiast /
and l had no definite knowledge of I
anything that would stop car except |
tire trouble and q lack of gasoline,
other than tires and gasoline tanks
and enc of those parts was disabled
now. The driver told US he would
have to go to town for another car.
Met Real. Live Convicts.
Things were coming my way. Here |
we were, completely stalled IN the /
midst or gang of twenty cOnvictS
nine miles from town md it was get /
ting dark Auntie was wild. She /
herself and me and was beginning to .
say sarcastic things about Colorado,
when one of the convicts, en- under t
sized man of middle age, with thick
trimmed glasses, came over to the car
and very politely offered to take US
to their camp, a little way down the +
road. There was nothing else to do
and auntie, who prides herself on be-
ing equal to any occasion. accepted the
convict's offer and he took US to the I
camp.
'aThe camp consisted of a row of
neat little lighthouses facing the road.
From the ridgepole of each fluttered
cook was preparing supper and the |