Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1890 — He Broke Into Jail. [ARTICLE]

He Broke Into Jail.

My father was Sheriff of a county in Indiana for a good many years, and the jail he first took charge of was a very humble affair. The jail properwas a one-story addition of stone about twenty feet square, and the two windows were defended by heavy outside blinds in place of bars. One night, returning home at a late hour, my father noticed a man working on the outside of one of the windows. He had piled up a lot of wood for a platform, and had broken into a blacksmith shop toget a. crowbar. Father kept back and let him work away, andl by and by he got the blind open and disappeared inside. There were no prisoners in the jail, and the blind was softly closed and fastened with a prop. When this had been done father went inside, opened the door of the corridor, and, there stood his man. He looked 1 around him in a dreamy way, but got it through his head at last, and then he queried: “This is the county jail, isn’t'it?” “It is.” “And I’ve been fool enough to>break into it?” “You have.” “That’s all. Lock me up till morning, and then let some jackass kick me to death!” The fun of it was that he turned out to be a robber, with a reward of S2OO on his head, and when he came to trial. he got a sentence of fifteen-years.— New York Sun.