The log cabin Democrat., 1916-01-27
BLQUNT GIVES UP:
 REWARD 10 WIFE WAIVED 10 SEE FAMILY CONVICT APPEARS AT MAY FLOWER AND SURRENDERS
 TO OFFICERS.
From Tuesdays Daily.

From tuesdays Daliy.
 Lee Blount, who with 23 other state convicts, escaped from the prison stockade at Cummins Wednesday night, surrendered to Deputy United States Marshal Charles o. Payne and R. G. Anderson, clerk of the peniten- tiary commission, at Palarm last night. Blount had been at his home one mile from Mayfower since Sat urday night. He left Mayfower early last night and walked to Pa larm, where he gave himself up to the officers. He was taken back to the penitentiary in an automobile.
 eI wanted to see my wife and baby" Blount told a reporter for the Log Cabin Democrat over the tele- phone from Palarm last night, "So l went through the hole with the rest of them. l hurried home as fast as l could"
 Blount created sensation about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon by ap- bearing on the streets of Mayfiower in citizens clothes. Although it had been rumored he was near there, no one outside his family had seen him.
 In telling of the escape, Blount said: Between 8 and 9 o'clock We'd nesday night fellow prisoner came to me and told me to take off my night-gown and put on my clothes. 1 asked what it meant, and when he said it was for my own good, l quick ly obeyed. l was directed to the toilet where I found big fellow known as 'Curley' who lifted board and l crawled through a hole in the floor. As soon as l got outside the stockade I got two bricks and some wire and tied a brick to either foot to keep bloodhounds off my trail.
 "I went to the river, quarter mile away, where l remained until the next night. Then l caught a freight train and went through Pine Bluff and Little Rock to Argenta. Leaving Argenta before daybreak Saturday I took to the woods. In Palarm bottoms I waded water up to my neck. I arrived home Saturday night, badly stove up and tired. still wore my stripes. l burned my trousers when I got home, but kept my shirt.p
 Blount said that while in box car Friday night at Pine Bluff he had a close call when Warden Horton and another officer passed the car, but did not look in. They were within three feet Of him, he said.
 q fared pretty well while on the way home,' he told the reporter. Il got all the food l wanted. l wanted to see some one 1 knew to give me another suit of clothes, but 1 didn't"
 In speaking of those who planned the getaway, Blount said: T think Acie and Otis Pendleton planned the escape. I intended to return to the penitentiary as soon as l saw my wife and baby. My father-in-law, Walter Meeks, telephoned the officials Sun day that I was at home and would return in a few days. I wrote a let ter myself telling the warden to not worry, that I would return Tuesday.
 Commissioner Anderson last night turned over to Blount's wife the $50 reward for his capture.
 Blount was sentenced to Is years in the penitentiary on March Is, 1915, for the killing of Deputy Sher- if Oscar L. Honea, near Mayf1ower, on October 22, 1914. Blount was in- dicted on January 13 for murder in the first degree. Unable to employ counsel the court appointed Attor- neys J. c. Clark and A. L. Barber to defend him, and set March 10 as the date of his trial. Two days were talk en up in selecting the jury, 91 ve- niremen being examined. Blount be- gan serving his sentence the day he was convicted.
 Escaping from the penitentiary constitutes a felony and Blount IS liable to another sentence, besides having his "good time' taken from him.