New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-29
OSBORNE AWAY,
SING SING HAS
NEW MYSTERY
Eat" Alger, Put in Soil
tary Cell, May Reopen
Death House Scandal.
WELFARE LEAGUE
LIGHTS PUNISHED
Rumor That Superintendent
Riley Is After Warden Again
StirS Ossining Gossip.

Eat" Alger is in disgrace. Former
executive committeeman in the Mutual
Welfare League at Sing Sing prison
and a trusted member of Warden
Thomas Mott Osbornes convict cab-
net, he has been suspended from the
organization.
Suspension, in Ayers case, does not
mean merely depriving him OF the
usual recreation and other special
privileges. 1t leaked out last night
that he has been locked up for two
weeks in a solitary cell, the kind Of
punishment always associated with
discipline in the old Sing Sing before
Warden Osborne took charge. No one
knows who ordered Alger locked up.
Co-partners with Fat" in his down
fall are former Judge Wallace, of the
inmates court. and Charles Belden,
both leading members Of the League.
In their incarceration and rumors
around the prison that explain it OBJ
serving persons within and without
Sing Sings walls profess to see the
beginning of new developments in the
Riley-O sborne controversy.
In the absence of Warden Osborne,
who is at Bar Harbor. Me-, Deputy
Warden Charles Johnson said last
night he did not care TO make any
statement about Alger. He admitted
that Fat" and the other two League
members had been locked up. But as
to why they were thus punished and
whether they had been released, the
Deputy Warden had nothing to say.
Went but Came Back.
When Superintendent of Prisons
John B. Riley opened the now famous
hostilities with Warden Osborne by
drafting indiscriminately prisoners to
Great Meadow, Comstock. early in
July, Alger was in the first batch of
convcts to leave Sing Sing. Warden
/. Osborne mentioned Ayers name when
talking to newspaper reporters a few
days later about the interruption OF
his industrial and reform work by
drafts made over his head. On July
l3 Alger returned to Sing Sing. His
associates interpreted his return as a
victory for Osborne over Riley.
According to reports emanating
! from the prison, Alger was one of the
inmates who had access to the death
! house. In response TO Governor Whit
mans order that these illegal visits
| of convicts TO condemned men must be
| stoned. the story runs, Alger was
asked to explain how he was admitted
| There was q disposition to place the
| blame on the keepers. as was done IN
| the case of Convict Murphy, who Wis
wrote a letter TO the late police lieu
tenants lawyers. But Fat would
not admit ANYTHING to the keepers. in
formants say. Indeed, it is under
| stood in Ossining that he asserted that
he entered the death house with the
warGen's permission.
If the news of Ayers suspension
| reaches Superintendent Riley, it is
predicted that Eat" will be sum-
moned to Albany to tell what he knows
about the death house visits which
caused the suspension of Keepers
( George Meserole and John J. Kennedy
Former Judge Wallace is locked up I'M
! der the same suspicion.
Charles Belden, however. is said to
| have been caught by the League in
the act of sending news to New York
newspaper. With Belden locked up
the League leaders think they have
succeeded in stopping the leak through
which unofficial news reached the out
| side world.
! Members Of the Mutual Welfare
League are preparing to give Warden
| Osborne homecoming reception
when he gets back from Maine the lat
ter part of this week. Flags and flow
ers will be used to decorate the prison
there will be music by the band and
speeches, and as surprise the
League has reprinted the warden IS
| private touring car.