The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 26, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 189S. cactus, dare to go across it unattended small to calculate. and without provisions of food and A recent test of the marksmanship of K P:_Au.ma THE ESCAPED CONVILT. 4{ HE famous old town of Yuma, on the western ast Years Sam s. It is known the remarkably hot every summer tt r humorists nd wide, draw garrison t 1 his o world over f re are agance. skirts of that great area of sand and possibility of a convict's escape is too 105 degree mark for a week or ten days the winter of 1894 four leaders among the rebellious convicts were shot dead at a stretch. “Think what suffering that must be and four were maimed for life. ne of me t centurie the extreme drink. Th# most desverate criminals this young Apache gunner was made. abandon alf thought of gaining liberty From behind a stone wall 100 tin cans by attemptfag to flee across that almost of the size of common fruit cans were y, Beale, 5 limitless burning waste thrown one at a time haphazard in the ngstreet and 4 high wall, 285 by feet, incloses lay pigeons are automati- A year or two of n ¥ard. The wall has a height shooting matches. The gun ready and had to lash at each can at rds. He pierced 37 » dthey fell behind 1t p there. John of 16 feet, and it is 8 feet thick at the t H. A. Derby), the base and 5 feet thick at the top. With- in it are the main prison buildings an the shops. The prison b ly constructed of rock fal prison at gnqd in the center of all the wall The average number of convicts in toric old town serted g heavy iron grating. A the prison is 130. Seventeen of the grating is laid In the masonry above prigoners there are in for life, Tt and below each cell, so that upon the ‘myurgerers, railroad wreckers completion of the whole prison build- highwaymen. The comfort of a pris- ing, of which only a portion has been gner in Yuma depends much on the finished, it will have an enormous skel- money he or his friends have. If he is eton of iron, which will serve as an ef- poor and has no friends of means or in- in fectual bar to a convict's escape even fuence, he has only the cheap but nd men of Were he to dig through the massive ypolesome prison fare, and must oc- .- stone wall. Adjoining and connected oo ™I RN 8 the stone cells . with the prison are a large, airy dining- jijn the buildings. For a few weeks ory in the Union, T00mM, a kitchen and a laundry. In spite , "yinter these cells are quite com- ¢ for Of the terrific heat of the climate, these gq 4aple, but in the summer months or quick nee of 250 out of the 100 befo the stone inclosure. orist of the modern nitentia S : \ of eriminals s are remarkable for thelr com- whep 5 parching wind is blowing oft nt. Ruf- Dar oolness. he hot desert they are like Turkis snd cut. _ Everyone who goes to see the Terri. (e hot desert they are like Turkish bath rooms. “Try to think how you would feel »u were night after night locked in f the Union torial penitentiary is interested in the »n and train, Gatling gur ch are placed on the o ST uard stands arranged at intervals TR Slong the top of the walls. ' The largest & close, narrow cell, with only a small and principal gun is in charge of a Opening for fresh air and with the tem- young Mexican, who boasts of his Perature ranging from 95 to 100 de- Apache blood. He is rated as the best g&rees,” said a discouraged convict from man with a Gatling gun in the Yuma prison, in telling of the v the d States. General McCook of the moneyless prisoners live there. *‘I have United States army vs that his ma- Xknown many nights in midsummer nipulation of the complicated weapon Wwhen the temperature in the cells was and his accuracy of aim are simply about 105 degrees, and with the natural marvelous. The young Mexican has an dampness of the cells and not a breath excellent field for target practice over of air stirring, you can imagine what the Gila mud flats, just above the pris- the poor convicts suffer. The fellows on. A tin can inches in diameter. lie on their bunks, stripped naked, and late placed at a distance of 700 yards, he pant like lizards for enough air to ert as will hit four times out of five with a breathe. Often the temperature at one, not Gatling gun. When it is remembered night keeps at about 85 degrees for up on the that he can fire 500 shots a minute, the several weeks at a time, and near the 1 an_eminencs d Gila r THE LAST AND LARGEST OF OUR WOODEN SHIPS. arbor here, Is one of the two very largest American vessels afloat. The other one Is her sister 1 are owned in Maine. Shipowners declare that the day of the crack American clipper ship is r tuture iron vessels will replace the wooden ones. The Roanoke and Shenandoah are regarded s on the seas. ou take a walk down to the brand new, shiny casks full of claret the wharf, so that a stiff climb up a uart street dock vou will ind the OF Port, or white wine of many names rickety accommodation ladder is neces- and vintages. All these things are for sary before her deck can be reached. New York, since, war or no war, the It is only from this altitude that her A big ship Roanoke is going to start on vast dimensions can_be properly ap- closely that the per tedious voyage to the Atlantle, as preciated. From below you see noth- rous four-horse soon as her hold shall have been filled ing but a great expanse of side, painted in threading Wwith a suitable variety of merchan- a dull and uninteresting leaden color. There are dise. But once you have gained the deck you and fous “bupaisaler is a remarkable object on the find before you a vast expanse of pine wood but Water front, this Roanoke. Her taper- planking, almost unincumbered with 5 < ek ing, graceful spars tower high above houses or other obstructions. There is collection consists of native those of any other vessel in port, her of course a deckhouse forward for the lere are rows upon rows of huge hull rises far above the level of crew, and the usual spacious cabin aft, h a miscel- California goods, stacked driver team h ApS of chiefly the " THE BATTLE-SHIP OREGON STRIPPED FOR ACTION. Before golng into battle nowadays a man-of-war is stripped of all paraphernalia that is In the least likely to create danger struck by f the enemy, Woodwork in particular is ripped away and flung overboard. So are the that may furnish what the saflorman in action most dreads, *‘splin- ters. prentices carried this practice to the extent of throwing overboard on at Manila some of the @ their s and the stools and tables used at m When the battle was over they had to eat their meals sitting Turkish fashion about the messroom. About the only ornaments on a battle-ship in action are her big guns frowning from the turret side from them, the decks are swept as clear as possible of everything else. Heavy cable chains and sacks of coal or sand are sometimes placed about some spot that is deemed in need of protection. *Splinter nets'” are some- times spread @ , as was done on the deck of the Olympia at Manila. to the poor convicts who work daily in summer in a temperature that ranges from 110 degrees to 122 degrees, fol- lowed at night by the terrific heat 1 have told you about. Everyone of the prisoners who have to stay in the cells at night comes out from sleeping pla with perspiration and weak. Sleep is only had in brief doses. The doctors that anyone who has any blood nt or the least susceptibility to con- sumption soon contracts the disease there. Deaths from consumption are common among the moneyless prison- ers in Yuma Penitentiar Every sum- mer there are a few convicts who man- age to commit suicide in their steam- ing, noisome cells rather than to en- dure the agony of life there. Two years ago a fellow who robbed the Wells-Far- g0 stage at Grants Pass committed sui- cide there by biting at his wrist and tearing open the arteries with his teeth.” But the convicts who have means or influential friends can have as varied and tempting food as they care to buy from the prison cook. Some prisoners pay for special cuts of hams, have fresh fish brought for them, and even pay the cooks for occasionally providing fowl for them at the regular meals. Then too, for a bonus, and with bonds that they will not escape from the prison, they may have cots to sleep on in the yard of the peniten- tiary. For eleven months in the year there is no rain in Yuma, and one may sleep comfortably out under the starry vault of heaven about 350 nights in the year. A few prisoners sleep out of doors all the time. Some of the most exciting and san- guinary scencs ever enacted in any penal institution have been inside the walls of the Yuma Prison. In one of these efforts to gain their freedom, in but these things take up so little room as to be hardly noticeable. From stem to stern the ship measures 311 feet, while her beam is 49 feet. She claims the proud privilege of being the larg- est wooden ship in the world; and, in- deed, there are only a few iron ships larger, chief among these being the France, a Glasgow built vessel owned in France, which measures nearly four thousand tons. The Roanoke is 3589 gross tonnage, so there is not a great deal of difference, after all. The people of San Francisco have seen the Roanoke before; since she was built some six years ago she has paid a couple of visits to this port. Also the famous ship Shenandoah, which recently attained distinction through not being captured by the Spaniards. The two sels are almost sister ships. They he the same breath and the same depth, but an extra length of some twenty feet gives the Roanoke an additional two hundred tons. They are rigged modern fashion, as four- masted barks, and from keelson to to truck the spars of the Roanoke tower to a height of 175 feet. With all sall set she spreads 17,000 yards of can- vas, and can make, under the most favorable conditions, with a good breeze on her quarter, fourteen knuis an hour. The lower yards, and there ave three of them, are huge Spars nine- ty-five feet in length, so that it is easy to understand the great propelliag pewer of this mass of canvas. A melancholy interest attaches to the Roanoke, because she is the last of her class. She is the largest, and one of the finest wooden sailing ships ever built, but no American shipbuilder is likely to repeat the order. Even the enterprising firm at Bath, Me., which buflt and own the Shenandoah and Roanoke, have abandoned the con- struction of wooden vessels, and are likely in the-future to use only iron and steel in their work. Economic considerations have sounded the doom of the wooden ship, and for the matter of that the day of the sailing ships is not for long. The tramp steamer, with her smoothly running engines and light coal consumption, is rapidly driv- ing her from the seas. Only a few long voyage trades, such as the trip from San Francisco to Europe or the Eastern States are left for' the sailor, and soon the ubiquitous tramp steamer will swamp these routes. ‘With the passing of the salling skip passes also the picturesque. There is no more beautiful sight on the seas than an American clipper ship under full sail. There is an airy grace and beatuy about her spars, a lightness of movement and a perfection of propor- tion which belong to the vessels of no other nationality. The English sailing vessels are strong and seaworthy, but they are too heavy in their hull and rigging for beauty. However, all alike, whether it be the substantial British four-master or the light American clip- per, are doomed, and another genera- tion will see no more of these winged messengers of the sea. The present war has done more than anything else to bring home to the American people the decay of the mer- cantile marine. Time was when the American clippers flew the stars and stripes on every sea, carrying tea from China and wool from Australia, and lightening up the Western Ocean with their constantly crossing flags. Be- tween the fiftles and sixtles the sail- ing ship reached its highest point of evolution, and of all ships t.hz Ameri- famed for thely can were the most Finpirg THE MUMMY-TwWO YEARS LATER But the most dare-devil and boldest contest for liberty that has probably ever taken place within the walls of any penal institution in this country was that of one morning in October, The old timers of Yuma who have lived for a generation and more on the frontier of civilization and have been eye witnesses of desperate conflicts and siaughters of plains and in the mountains, have not yet ceased talking of that morning. Thomas Gates, who died by his own hand a few months ago, was superin- tendent of the penitentiary at the time. As he came from his private quarters early one morning he rear of a brick building, where he was set upon by four prisoners, who were serving long sentences for stage rob- berfes and murder. made within the range of the armed guards upon the wall. Gates' heroism on that eventful occa- sion, when he recelved wounds that left him' a physical wreck, is a matter’ of passed in the The attack Superintendent At the peril of his own life he called upon the guards to.shoot, and the order second more twenty other prisoners who had waited for the signal to make a united break for liberty ran from their workshops to the prison office, knocked the guards there into insensibility, and despoiled the place of its rifles and pistols. dozen more prisoners attempted to run out of the laundry and kitchen to help their fellow convicts, but back by the armed guards. In a few seconds the guards upon the CO000OCO0C00000C0C0000000000000C0O00NC00C00000000000000000000000000000C0000000000000000000CC00000000000000CLCOCCLCO000C00N0Q0000000 good old days of ocean races from China to New York, when the ship that landed the nrst cargo of tea won, not only much honor, profit for her owners. Speed was every- thing then, and cargo capacity but a subsidiary consideration. have reversed all but a subs! the modern walls turned their Winchesters and Gatling guns upon the rebellious con- victs, while the dozen guards in the prison yard and about the shops threw themselves into the breach to keep other prisoners from joining in the re- bellion. An eye-witness of the affair, who has been through two Apache and Comanche Indian wars, says he never saw S0 many men instantly stand up anl face death as did both the prison guards and the rebellious convicts that October morning. Shots were exchanged at a range of less than twenty feet Letween the guards and the prisoners. A dozen cf the latter who were near the gates darted outside the walls, and, rifles #n hand, started for the town of Yuma. No Gatling gun was ever worked mofe rapidly and unerringly than that ¢n the penitentiary walls at that time, ard the Winchesters in the hands of aq- other guard on the walls fired a b#ll every three seconds. Nine of the fleg- ing convicts dropped wounded in their tracks. Three more threw up their hands as a sign of surrender, and !n this fashion walked back to the prison yard. The attention of the guards was turned to the mutiny in the yard, but there the Gatling gun could not be used, because of the angle in which:it had to be turned. Only the Winchester rifles could be used. For a few min- utes there was a terrific exchange of shots, and few of them went astray from their mark. Five prisoners and three guards fell dead almost at one another's feet, while three prisoners were wounded for life. One guard was shot four times through the body, and, 21 Desperate Criminals COWED BY A GREAT DESERT. work to do and I wanted to get through quickly.” The woeful experience of these rebel~ lious convicts during their five min- utes’ taste of liberty is so memorable that it has done much to discourage plans for a similar uprising. In the history of the prison only one man has succeeded In crossing the trackless deserts that environ the Ter- ritorial penitentiary at Yuma, and reaching old Mexico. The man was a half-breed Mexican. His grandmother was an Apache squaw, and his Indian blood stood him in good stead in run- ning across the desert and leaving no track behind, while he eluded the scent of bloodhounds and marksmanship of the prison sharpshooters. It was in 1883, before the prison as so well equipped with firearms and sharp- shooters as it is to-day. The convict was a life prisoner, and was sent to Yuma for highway robbery and murder at the same time. From a confederate he obtained a gun after getting outside the prison, and with this he was able to kill a rabbit and a small bird on the first evening of his liberty. These he ate raw and they were his sole susten« ance for about ten days. He was tracked more than 100 miles by Yuma Indian trailers, and they lost all trace of him in a long, rocky canyon. A party of mining prospectors found the remains of a man, wearing the shreds of a Yuma convict's garb one day in the foothills over the bordar line between the United States and Mexico. The thin starved, mummified boiv ans< wered the description of the Mexican who had risked the horrors of the most A DARING DASH FOR LIBERTY. nevertheless, lived several years. The injured prisoners threw up their hands because they were out of cartridges, and were marched to their cells. The wooden building in front of which the guards stood in their hand- to-hand fight is still shown in evidence of the ferocity of the fight. There are forty-seven bullet ‘holes in it. Some of them were made by lead balls after they had passed through a man’s bod The battle was all over in five minute Not a word was spoken by any of the participants. Guard Hartlee stood like a statue at his post, shooting when- ever he could get a bead on one of the convicts. After the fight, when asked how he felt during it, he replied: “I started in like I had a hard day's cargo carrier, an enormous lading in her hull, dawdles lazily over the ocean, and passages now are longer than they ever were. Considerations of economy, more than anything else, have dictated this un- fortunate change. Wherever speed is required there steam has stepped in and savage desert in all the world in the hope of liberty, and had suffered untold agonies in.his vain endeavors to get to freedom. Reformatory measures are not prac- ticed at the Yuma prison, because nearly all the prisoners are Mexicans and half-breeds—Mexicans and TIn- dians—and their villainous counten- ances show the hard life they have led. Most of them are in for horse stealing, highway robbery and murder. No reg- ular work is demanded of them aside from such as is necessary to keep the prison in good condition. —_————— The average length of human life in the sixteenth century was only elghteen to twenty years. is work for the sailing vessels compe- tition has reduced freights to the lowest possible margin and ships can only be made to pay by working them with the most rigid economy. Fancy a vessel carrying grain from here to any part of Europe for a freight of seven or eight Continued on Page Twenty-Six. “The Roq»rl'okc, Last of the Biggest Wooden Vessels Afioat, Coming Into San Francisco Bay.