People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1894 — THE GREAT LARAN REBELLION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE GREAT LARAN REBELLION.

BY NYM CRINKLE

[OOPYBIOEHT, I®»A]

CHAPTER I In the early autumn of 18— a young man who was registered at the Lexington (Ky.) military academy as Burden Bench, aged twenty-two, got up about three o’clock in the morning and, taking eight hundred dollars belonging to the academy and his fellow-students, decamped. The significance of the circumstance at the time arose from tha discovery of the deliberate and ingenious method pursued by Bench to accomplish his purpose. He had conceived some kind of a town celebration and induced the Suing men to write home for funds. e also succeeded in getting them to make him the depository of the money, which according to the books amounted to eight hundred and fifty-four dollars. Ho disappeared from Lexington And all the efforts of the faculty and the authorities to trace him failed. It is now known that when he left the •cademy he struck across country to the Salt river, where he had a skiff in hiding and presumably a negro confederate. With characteristic Kentucky impulse, the young men of the school held an indignation meeting And offered the eight hundred dollars to anyone who would capture him and turn him over to the authorities. This reward put upon his trail several western deputy sheriffs who tracked him to Cairo, 111., where it was suspected that he had changed his boat, bought ammunition and supplies and set off down the Mississippi, traveling generally in the and hiding in the bayous during thenßa& Deputy Sheriff Col; Petingill, cf Frankfort, published fe the Louisville Journal a year latewa communication setting forth th£t his party hud tracked Bench to a bayou, somewhere between Tiptonville and Fulton,, on the Tennessee shore, w here the fugitive had sunk his boat and struck through the wild tract of country extending to what is known as the “Highland Rim,” in Henderson county. Thia ■communication is curious in one statement. It says: “We discovered, after much tedious searching, the sunken boat and then struck his trail in the woods. We had not followed it far before we came to the conclusion that h® was accompanied by a woman." CoL Petingill then states that it was bis belief and the belief of his party •Chat Bench met with an accident somewhere on the Rim, for all traces of him disappeared, and after camping out for two weeks in the wilderness and dioeovering no new trail the party reburfted. The fact is Bench had accidentally discovered the Laran cave. In his endeavor to escape from his pursuers, he had struck straight up the Jrtm and in jumping from one of the

upturned cretaceous strata he had landed upon a depression which gave •way beneath his weight and he fell perpendicularly into a crevice twelve 'feet deep. This crevice has since become famous as the Laran portal. At its bottom he discovered the deecent which led to the arena and having exploited the place, he and his companion lived there until the following winter. As soon as he felt satisfied that the search was given over, he vent the woman out for supplies and built a brush house over the opening to conceal it from the negroes who ’.brought them game and provisions. They must have remained in and Übout the Laran cave very nearly three months. In that time Bench made a very thorough investigation of it and prepared maps and topographical diagrams of the surrounding country. 4Some of these drawings may now be -seen at the Government museum at -Rock Island, and, considering the rude means at Bench’s command, they are aingularly careful and accurate specimens of cartography. In those three months Bench had conceived and worked out one of the cnost astounding and gigantic schemes -with which the history of audacity and -indomitable will makes us acquainted. CHAPTER IL fie is not heard of again until five jjfears have elapsed, and the second event of which it is necessary briefly io make mention here occurred exactly three m'-Viths before he came to the surface in She furtherance his vast project. l» the t inter 1? .e- -Tr i the

the Valencia, carrying arms and supplies for the insurgents which had been bought in England, encountered a heavy storm while off the Gulf of Maracabo, and springing a leak ran off past Point Gallinas, and the captain, in order to relieve his craft, threw over at flood-tide two four-inch breechloading rifled steel guns, at a point called the Bahiata Bank. The mete of this vessel claimed to be an American and when the Valencia was captured two days later he managed to escape by connivance of the authorities and went straight to New Orleans. It is supposed that he met Bench there. At all events, he went back to Caracas as soon as the revolution was over and is known to have bought up, on some plea or other, the sbeHs and ammunition originally shipped with the guns that were lost and for which the government had no use. The guns, however, were not lost. They lay in plain sight on the Bahiata bank at low water, and, having been carefully sealed, had suffered little damage. CHAPTER nt Three months later Bench comes to the surface at the Moyamensing prison, now a federal penal establishment. He arrived there as the representative.

of an influential New York paper with a letter to the governor—the officer that under the_old system we knew as the warden. And here the story of the great conspiracy properly begins. A card was brought to the official bearing the name of “Andrew Kent,” with the title of the New York newspaper in the corner, and it was followed by a well-dressed man of about thirty, whose easy dignity and informal heartiness impressed the warden favorably. “You are Gov. Ixtel, I presume?” The governor smiled and said he was. “I am from the New York newspaper whose name you saw on the card. I have been sent on an errand which this letter will explain.” The governor put on his glasses and read the letter that was handed to him. It ran as follows: •‘To the Governor or the Federal Prison, Etc, Etc.: The bearer of this, Mr. Kent, is connected with the staff of this paper and Is sent to you to obtain, If possible, an Interview with the prisoner Jean Laport, now under sentence for manslaughter. The Interests of the political party now In power can be materially advanced If this man can be Induced to talk, and, if possible, furnish some information concerning his confederates in a vast scheme to rob the government It is assumed that the prisoner, who is virtually under a life sentence, can have no good reason for longer keeping silent, and it is thought by the managers of this paper that an adroit man, like the bearer of this, if furnished the facilities, may succeed in eliciting the information, which will be of great service in th® coming campaign to the administration, of which you are a loyal adherent "Respectfully, etc., etc.” Gov. Ixtel, a plethoric and good-na-tured man when not dealing with convicts, let his hand drop to his side with the letter in it. With the other he took off his glasses and looked at Mr. Kent with a broad smile. “Why, bless your enterprising soul,” he said, “that old alligator won’t talk. You couldn’t pump ten words out of him if you worked a month?’ “Nevertheless.” replied Mr. Kent, “I am here to make the attempt with your kind permission.” “Take a seat,” said the governor. “I never heard that Laport was mixed up in politics.” Mr. Kent sat down. “Well, sir, it isn’t generally known. But he is nevertheless the depository of certain secrets which to hold will no longer be of any service to him and which if he will give them away, as we say, will secure for him the influence of a number of powerful friends who can, if they set to work, get him a commutation of sentence.” Mr. Kent was evidently a clever talker; ho was thoroughly posted in the political situation; he brought j with him from New York a good deal |of inside news and several rattling stories that were new. De candidly i <■ »ufessed that he bad no stomach for ‘ * w L. j- > a.id w« a tod to be bosk the

metrepolU. But duty was duty and he’d have to make the attempt. He did not think he’d get much out of it, but if he did it would be a feather in th® cap of the present administration and an additional plume for himself. Mr. Kent talked so long that the governor invited him to take dinner with his family, and the guest proved such an interesting talker that Mrs. Ixtel late in the afternoon proposed to the governor that it would be far more hospitable to have the gentleman stay with them than to go off to a hotel He played backgammon that night with the governor; sang the latest songs for Miss Ixtel and accompanied himself on the piano; and he sat up till twelve o’clock talking politics and drinking the governor’s whisky. The next day about nine o’clock in the morning, the prisoner, a roundshouldered old man with a great deal of character in his square jaw and massive chin and deep-set scintillant black eyes, was brought into the office of the prison. No one was present but the governor and the reporter. “Laport,” said the governor, “here’s a gentleman wants to talk to you. I hope you’ll treat him with more consideration than you do me.” The old man looked from one of the men to the other with a sullen defiance. “You can save yourself the trouble,” he said. “I’ve nothing to say.” He folded his arms and stood looking at the ceiling. “Well, sit down and be comfortable, if you can’t be human,” said the governor. “There’s a chair.” Kent then began a free and easy explanation to which Laport paid very little attention. He approached the subject of his inquiry, the governor thought, with great tact, and then asked one or two unimportant questions. Ths only answer the man made was to turn to the governor. “Is there anything in my conduct” he said, “to warrant you in inflicting

this extra punishment on me? Send me back to my work.” “I’m inclined,” said the governor, “to put you in a dark cell for a week to punish you for your infernal obstinacy. I’ve treated you altogether too well, old man.” The old man gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, but was silent. Kent began to apologize for him, and, as coaxingly as he could, asked him several more questions. To one of them he growled out a sullen “no,” and was on the point of saying something else when one of the guards came in with a message for the governor, at which he relapsed into silence, and no further attempts could induce him to say a word. When he had been taken away the governor said: “You see I was right when I told you it was a hopeless task." “On the contrary,” said Kent, “I feel quite encouraged. I’ve only been feeling of him.” “I think I’ll lock him up for a day or two. It will make him civil.” “I wish,” said Kent, “you’d lock me up with him for half an hour. If I don’t make any headway then, I’ll give up the job and go back.” The next day the governor’s family went to a church picnic and Kent accompanied them. He proved on this occasion to be the life of the little party. There seemed to be nothing that he could not do, from making an omelette in the woods to making a speech to the children. The governor was really quite proud of his guest. Kent had now been three days inside the prison jurisdiction, and how well he had improved his time appeared afterwards. When they were coming home from the picnic he told Mrs. Ixtel that he had overstayed his time and must finish up his business on the morrow. If the governor would lock him up with Laport he thought he could make'l-hs fellow confidential. The upshot of all this was that on the fourth day Kent was taken to Laport’s cell, carrying nothing but a pencil and pad which the governor had furnished him, and jocularly remarking as he was going through the corridor that they ought to search him first,for he might have some files about him and let that rascal out to teach the world a golden silence. The governor laughed, as he now did at almost everything Kent said, and only remarked: “If he gets away from me, I’ll take all the blame.” “All right,” rejoined Kent, “but, as you value a human lif a* don’t forget to let me out inside of the half hour. Make it fwenty minutes.” They entered the cell together. Laport was sitting on the stone floor with his head between his knees. He neither rose nor looked up *s they came In. The place was dimly lit by on® embrasure. It was furnished with aa. ire* pallet pad p pail

Kent went toward *b® Bght and looked at a large gold watch. “It is ten minutes of ten,” he said “Give me till a quarter past” Laport looked up and addressed him self to the governor: “Are you going to put this lunatic on me?" he said, “tiH I knock my brains out against these walls?” * “The best way to get rid of him,” replied the governor, “Is to treat him civilly. He doesn’t want to annoy you, an d he comes from some of your friends.” “Yes,” said Kent “you ean treat m® confidentially. The governor is going to leave us together for a few moments. If you will answer some of my questions I can be of service to you.” Laport dropped his head between his hands. The governor gave a shrug and turned to the door. “I’ve heard of squeezing pig-lead out of a sponge,” ha said. “It’s holiday work to squeezing that old bundle of scrap-iron.” “For God’s sake, don’t forget me when the time’s up,” said Kent, and sat down on the iron bed. The governor then went out. Kent heard the great bolt shot with an iron clang. “Now then/’ he said so that the Governor could hear him on the other side of the door if he listened. "Thin is the last chance I’ve got to talk td you, my friend. If you will tell me what I want to know it will securd you the influence of powerful friends.’! He listened. He heard the retreating footsteps of the governor in the corridor. He sprang softly but quickly to the iron door and put his ear down. The governor was some distance away. Laport looked up with something like a momentary interest in the strange actions. [to be continued.]

"I HAVE BEEN BENT ON AN ERRAND WHICH THIS LETTER WILL EXPLAIN.”

“LAPORT, HERE’S A GENTLEMAN WANTS TO TALK TO YOU."