Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1882 — A Convict's Futile Labor. [ARTICLE]

A Convict's Futile Labor.

Nine months of hard ingenious labor, by Johnny Sansome, a convict in the prison at Folsom, Col., enabled him to escape. By throwing a wiie down between the granite blocks in the floor of the ceil, he discovered a cavity underneath, was an abandoned sewer. With a chisel which he smuggled in from the work shop, and a heavy piece of wood, he broke one of the stones. This required a month, because he could only strike a blow when a door was closed, or some other noise was made to hide it, aud he frequently sat up all night without beiug able to strike more than once or twice. Iu the daytime he was iu the shop. After removing the half square of gran ite, he dug slowly down through three feet of stone and cement, first boring a hole, aud afterward letting the chips fall through it. At the end of three months he got into the sewer, and found it plugged with stoue aud cement ten feet thick at its former outlet. The remaining six months were spent in digging througn this obstruction. He worked at night, and naked, leaving his clothes so arranged iu bed that the guard supposed he was iu them. Foul gas in the sewer nearly suffocated him, loss of sleep made him ill, and his weight fell off twenty-five pounds. But he got out at Within three hours a-.t officer rtuogujzed hi n. and he was again a prisoner.