PRISONER'S BLOW-PIPE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 200, 3 May 1912, Page 4

PRISONER'S BLOW-PIPE

CUTE ATTEMPT ON CELL WINDOW FAIES. I Auckland, Wednesday. A youth named Joseph Christie, who has a long list of convictions for theft and housebreaking against him, attempted to escape from Mount Eden Gaol yesterday in a novel manner. The cell window is barred outside, and has a pane of gloss inside the bars. It was the prisoner's unsuccessful endeavor to silently get the glass out of the way, and thai attack the bars, that caused the prisoner's detection, and investigation then showed some unusual ingenuity on his part in the Use of'-a blowpipe. To rapidly haat glass and then make a sudden application of a cold sponge is a method known to "cracksmen" for the silent removal of glass in any shape or 6ize from windows. Christie evidently was aware of this, and, though he had no blowpipe, he managed to get hold of a candle end, and the stem of a clap pipe, and, with these as an improvised blowpipe, he endeavored to silently cut out a portion of the window protecting the cell bars. He had not, however, the wherewithal for the cold application to the heated glass, and, in experimenting with a view to arriving at an efficient substitute, he broke the glass noisily, and precipitated his detection. This morning 3ie was brought before Mr. Cutten, S.M., and sentenced to seven days' close confinement.