Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1888 — AN INSTANCE OF NERVE. [ARTICLE]

AN INSTANCE OF NERVE.

The Shrewd Expedient that Once Saved the Life of Prison Warden McClaughrey. “News of the resignation of Colonel McClaughrey, Warden of Joliet,” said Robert C. Wahldorf, a merchant of •Chester, HI., “recalls to my mind an instance in which he showed nerve and presence of mind snch as would have been exhibited by few. Some ten years ago I was snmmoned as a witness lin a case of burglary, and the criminal was sentenced to fifteen years in Joliet. McClanghrey was warned that the man was a most desperate character, and. told to keep a sharp eye on him. This he did, but as the man’s behavior was perfect, the vigilance of the guards was somewhat relaxed, and he was treated like any other prisoner. “This was what he was waiting for, and one day, when moving from the workshop to the dinner-room, he shifted out of the line and passed through a passage leading to the Warden’s office. There was no possibility of his leaving the Penitentiary unobserved, but he determined to get a start if possible by terrorizing the Warden. McClaughrey was sitting at his desk writing when the convict came in. He was a tremendously powerful fellow, weighing fifty pounds more than the Warden, and his physical superior in every way. ‘I am going through there,’ was his first words, pointing to a window behind the desk, ‘and you can’t stop me.’ McClaughrey looked up with a smile, entirely concealing his astonishment and said: ‘Well, go on, I can’t stop you and won’t try. There’s a man outside with a sixteen-shooter who may stop you, but I shan’t. What have you got to complain of anyway? Are you not well treated ?’ “In this way he got the man into conversation, and after a few minutes said: ‘By the way, your friends are getting up a petition for your pardon, which I have got in my desk. I think that it will go through, and that you are very foolish to try to escape now. I will show it to you, and see what you think of it.’ Saying this, he opened a drawer and pretended to be rummaging about for some papers, but in reality managed to take out his revolver, and lay it in his lap. ‘I must have been mistaken,’ he then said, ‘there isn’t any petition here.’ With an oath the man stepped forward, when he saw the cocked pistol in the Warden’s lap. He stopped short, looked at him a moment, and then said: ‘Well, you’ve got me.’ ‘I reckon I have,’ the Warden answered, ’and you had better not try any games.’ He then gave him a long lecture, expatiated upon the hopelessness of escape, and portrayed the advantages incident to good behavior in glowing terms. He then took the man to the main part of the prison, told the .guards to keep a sharp lookout, but inflicted no punishment. From that tinje on, I was informed, that man was one of the quietest and most industrious workmen in the prison, and was soon made one of the trustiest. Had McClaughrey attempted to summon help, he would in all probability have been killed, but his presence of mind and self-possession got him out of as ugly a scrape as a man was ever in.”— St. Louis Post-Dispatch.