Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1875 — “Boss” Tweed Escapes From the Custody of His Jailers. [ARTICLE]

“Boss” Tweed Escapes From the Custody of His Jailers.

Nbw.Yobk, Dec. 4. This evening, about 7:14, Wm. M. Tweed escaped from the custody of officers while on a visit to his wife at his old home, comer of Madison avenue and Fifteenth street. It seems that for several weeks back Mr. Tweed has been taken from Ludlow Street Jail to his house, about six o’clock, where he remained a short time with his family. On this occasion Tweed asked the officers to permit him to have a few moments’ private conversation with his wife. This privilege was granted him, and he went up-stairs. After he had been gone about fifteen minutes the officers concluded that it was about time to start for Ludlow, and asked a son of the Boss to step up-stairs. and call his father. The young man went up, and after a few moments returned, and in the coolest manner possible told the Sheriff: “Pais gone. He is not up-stairs.” • Then ensued a scene. The officers rushed up and down stairs, searched every possible spot where the burly form of the “Boss” could be concealed, but all in vain. He had broken from his toils and was making one bold effort for liberty. The telegraph was set in operation, and men dispatched in every direction in search of the fugitive. Sheriff Conner joined in the hunt and had men sent to cover every possible place of exit from the city. Matsell and Walling joined the party and assisted in devising means to secure the capture of the noted criminal. But it was the unanimous feeling that all their efforts would prove futile, and that even then he was far beyond their reach. The police called at the residence of the notorious Mrs. McMullen, but, as was anticipated, no trace of him was found in that quarter. The precise manner of his escape isstill un. known, but it is thought that it was done through the sanction of the Jail warden and of friends In league; that he was at once taken to the bay and placed on a vessel that is now bearIng him away to some South American State where no extradition treaty can molest or make him afraid.

Naw York, Dec. 5. The papers, editorially, to-day are loud in their denunciation of’Sheriff Conner for his' gross and culpable negligence. The Sheriff is holden to the State for the full amount of the pecuniary damages which may be sustained in the suits against Tweed, but his official bonds are only for $20,000. The Herald says the escape of Tweed is the crowning shame of a long series of disgraces. Nothing new could excel this in infamy but the failure of the police to retake him. -Tweed must be retaken, or American Justice will be the laughing-stock of the world. His escape was precisely similar to that of Hany Genet’s. He was driven to his house by a DeputySheriff, asked permission to see his wife, left the deputy cooling his heels in the parlor, and walked off, too safe to run. The World intimates its belief that the custodians of Tweed connived at his escape,, and says it is probable that they have been stipendiaries of the prisoner for months, granting him, for a consideration, those favors, which are always for sale at a debtors’ prison. Whether captured or not, his property will serve to satisfy the judgments against him in the suits to recover the plunder taken from the city. The World saya that Sheriff Conner and Warden Dunham are liable to a flue of SI,OOO and one year’s imprisonment for their neglect, and if Tweed is not forthcoming they will be apt to get the full benefit of the law. The Tinies says that whatever penalty can be exacted from Sheriff Conner ought io be insisted on to the uttermost. There is no cessation to-day to the excitement created on Saturday night throughout the city by the announcement of the escape of Tweed. Folice-Commissioner Matsell has no theory in regard to the escape, but said emphatically that in his opinion there was collusion somewhere. Supt. Walling at alate hour this evening stated that thus far not the slightest clew had been obtained by him which might put him on the track of the fugitive, as the police were unable to find any person who saw the coach which is supposed to have carried Tweed off, or the driver of the coach, who had been left at his residence by the Sheriff’s officers. The Sheriff’s deputies are scouring the city also without any result ‘The police are still of opinion that Tweed passed out of the fronCbasement door and was taken to Sixtieth street and East River, where he embarked in a smaU steam vessel. While Chinamen are warranted to wash, the race will not fade away.— Orleans Republican, ,