Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1884 — CAUGHT AT THE CIROUS. [ARTICLE]

CAUGHT AT THE CIROUS.

Ike Buzzard, Pennsylvania’s Noted Outlaw, Arrested in Chicago. [Special from Chicago.] “Halloo, Ike,” was the exclamation of Officers Mclnerney and McKeough as they discovered a sallow-faced, slender young man standing in front of Forepaugh’s circus at the corner of State and Twentysecond streets. A dense crowd surged! about the young man, eager to gain admittance to the tent, but their progress wasstopped for a moment at least. “You are Ike Buzzard, the outlaw,” continued the police, “and we want you to. come with us.” Both officers placed handson Buzzard and moved him off to the-Twenty-second Street Station. Theprisoner seemed dazed, as if unable to comprehend what had befallen him. For several minutes he said nothing, but walked! quietly along with his captors. In appearance he seemed very unlike the typical desperado. He was thin and emaciated, andl wore a suit of faded summer clothes. In. height he was a trifle over 5 feet 5 inches, and. weighed only 125 pounds. Yet the captive has the reputation of being a second Jesse James, in all the qualities of daring? end reckless desperation. A cheap slouch, hat concealed his closely cut white hair, and, tilting back on his neck, with the rim turned up in front, allowed a good view of his countenance. It was a wasted, bloodless face, with thin lips, long jaws, long, slender nose, and eyes that shone with a* strange brilliancy. Presently Buzzard recovered his composure. A smile over-, spread his face, and he merely remarked:: “Well, I guess you have me right; but ifc was a mean trick to give me away.” The words were delivered in a weak, drawling tone of voice, as if the speaker was unwell. With greater emphasis, however, he continued: “It was that hound, Pat Doyle, who gave me away. We werein jail together at Lancaster, Pa., eightyears ago, and I shook his hand on thestreet to-day.” As soon as Buzzard was locked up words was telegraphed to the Governor of Pennsylvania, where a reward of SSOO has beem offered for his capture. For the past six years the midlands counties in Pennsylvania have been at themercy of the notorious Buzzard boys. Therewere six boys in the family. Under the leadership of Abbe Buzzard, tfieelder, they achieved a reputation in the East only a trifle inferior to the James and Younger brothers in the WestAbe and Ike, the desperadoes of the family, were house-breakers and highwaymen. They terrorized over the district in whicha they lived, and, though outlawed several years ago, none of their neighbors had the> courage to divulge their hiding place. They were raised on the Walsh Mountains, some ten miles outside of Lancaster, where innumerable caves and fissures in the rocks afforded them places of concealment. Time and again they have been sought by a sheriff’s posse, but the 'movements of the latter became so well known to the outlaws that they were easily enabled to evade arrest. They defied the local authorities and two or three times managed to escape from the. State militia.

Ike was captured less than three yeara ago, and sentenced to ten years in the jail at Lancaster for housebreaking. He served: some two years when his brother Abe was arrested. Abe occupied a cell in another corridor from Ike. The latter had a number of singing-birds in his cell, and one day induced a keeper of the jail to take one of the birds to his brother. The keeper forgot to close Ike’s cell door, and in a moment he was on the outside. He locked up the keeper in the cell of his brother, and then went about the work of releasing his friends. Another keeper was deprived of his liberty, and the two Buzzards with ten other convicts made their way to the outside. They reached the outskirts of Lancaster, and at the Conestoga bridge separated, six going one way and six mother. Ike took to the mountains, followed by the Sheriff and fifty men, and, after concealing himself one night, made for Fredonia, N. Y. Here he was harbored by his brother-in-law for another day, and then he made for lowa. Since then Buzzard has tramped over lowa, stopping at Council Bluffs and other towns, and picking up an odd sort of living the best way he could. He denies having; committed any serious crime in lowa, bufe grinned knowingly when asked how he contrived to live there. He arrived in Chicago* from Clinton without a cent in his pocket. Soon after he chanced upon his old prison, friend, Doyle. The latter, he claims, pointed him out to the police. He visited! the circus, he said, to better his fortune,, and was dumfounded at his arrest.