HOW ESCAPED CONVICTS ARE CAUGHT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2066, 18 December 1907, Page 4

HOW ESCAPED CONVICTS ARE CAUGHT.

HUNGER. NEARLY ALWAYS GIVES THEM AWAY. (“Tit-Bits.”) J.IIO two convicts who recently esoapud Lorn i’rincotown, Dartmoor, nt'ro cuiightj liko most similar lufitivos, whilst having a moal. no popular idea—a natural one, much oucournged by writers of fiction—that such prison broakors aro ruptured whilst hiding in romantic spots deep in tho wild moors is seldom realised. If tho men could oxist in such localities tho chances are they would got away permanently ; as it is, famino forces them to seek human dwelling where they are ulmost invariably secured whilst satisfying thoir hunger. It was so which the pair referred to—they were seated at a meat toa, sot beforo them by involuntary hosts, a Dartmoor farmer and his wife, who, whilst granting thoir petition for food, ‘ent word to tho warders who -vcio searching for them. Aiiotlior prisoner who escaped from the same convict station was located through much tho samo cause. Ho had successfully crossed Dartmoor to tho railway, where ho succeeded in secreting himself ; n a passing railway truck. Exhausted by privation ho fell asleep, and c'id not awaken until tho wagon was i ncovered at Penzance. There ho might have got off with a reprimand, as a more tramp who had risked his lifo for a free ride, but the vehemonco with which ho declared his famished condition aroused suspicion, as ho was detained pending inquiry. The fate of a convit who is said to have been the only man who over escaped from Portland was somewhat similar. After getting clear of the prison by some means of a paiilhandlo ingeniously used, ho hid in tho neighbouring quarries, where ho lived for nearly a week upon bread he had taken with him. At tho end of that time, partly by swimming and partly by creeping along Chesil Beach, he reached tlio outskirts of Dorchester, where ho entered a house where lio helped himself very liberally to food, and substituted a clerical suit for his own arrow-mark-ed garments—aWi but ono little item. Then he walked out amongst his follow-mon, but ho had not money to buy food, and was compelled to live on blackberries. Some days later an intelligent constable, surprised to observe a seeming clergyman grazing upon bramble bushes, approached to investigate. The fugitive was on the point or satisfying the policemans curiosity when the latter chanced to^notice that the clergyman was wearing prison socks. After that the game W£ But P pcrkaps tho most curious instance of escaped convicts being brought back to durance vale owing to their appetites occurred at 1 arkhurst, where two men evaded t warders ono nigm, and ,being liberty, chanced upon a house where a supper party had just risen from table. They found the room deserted and sat down to what was lert" oi the feast, with the result that when tlioy got up to go away they weio caught without, difficulty, s.mply because they had oaten so much that tkoy were incapable of doing anything to savo themselves. Occasionally, of course, men gc ; away, and aro takon back through otlier causes that those connected with need of food. Such cases are few and far between, but one occurred some years ago, when a convict escaped from Borstal, near Rochester, by getting through a skylight. From there he dropped to the ground and broke his ankle, so that he could hardly movo. At daylight he was observed craw Sing towards a wood, aud re-arrested.

A different fate overtook one of three who escaped from Princetown. One was shot dead, ono only got a very short distance from the prison, while tho third successfully evaded his pursuers and reached Devonport, having meantime procured a change along tho street, a dog accompanying a policeman smelt at his legs, and the man was so “jumpy” that ho bolted on the spot. Tho constable, his suspicions aroused, chased and caught him, with the result that ho was taken back whence he had come. But, on the whole, bolts and bars are found Hess effectual than the fear of famine, which is probably the reason why the State prison of Represa, California, has neither the one not tho other. If a convict tries to leave there he may be shot; if he gets off it is a practical certainty that he must starve to death.