NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 169, 4 December 1912, Page 8

NEWS BY MAIL.

WARDERS AND CONVICTS. After a battle between prisoners and warders order has been restored by the authorities in the State prison at. Rawlins, Wyoming, and of thirty desperate ©onvicts who escaped all but a dozen have been captured. The battle waged so fiercely at one time that the question of summoning the militia to assist the warders was discussed. Two of the fugitives are dead and several wounded. Hope is expressed that the remaining convicts may be recaptured without further loss of life. The trouble started on Saturday evening, October 12, when, at a signal from "Butch" Dalton, a notorious outlaw group of twenty criminals seized such weapons as were available, and overpowering the astonished keepers, stole their keys, and gained the outer walls without loss of a man. From the time of the escape a spirit of rebellion reigned in the prison among the remaining convicts, and on Sunday another desperate attempt was made, resulting in the escape of ten more met. As many prison-keepers as could be spared were sent to hunt the escaped desperadoes, and the remaining prisoners, seeing a chance of escape owing to the' depleted force of their guardians, commenced a fierce light for freedom. Meantime a strong body of men, armed with ■guns, guarded the prison exits, determined to kill the convicts should they finajly overpower the keepers inside. The countryside for miles around was in a state of terror owing to the depredations of the escaped convicts, and everyone was warned to stand ready to defend their property. The first band of convicts easily secured horses and got safely away into the hills. The second •batch of ten convicts, however, made for Kawlins, and, entering a large livery stable, demanded horses of the proprietor. A gigantic negro convict was stationed at the stable door, and, on seeing the local barber approach, the armed leader promptly shot him through the head. Alarmed by the shot, the convicts swarmed but of the stables with a few horses, and scurried away. A Mexican, however, behind and stabbed the proprietor in the face, seriously injuring him. This cowardly action cost him dearly, because the deputy-sheriff arrived just in time to put two bullets through his body, killing him instantly. "PIOUS PRIEST" A BOLD BRIGAND. Zelim Khan, the handsome Dick Turpin of the wild Caucasus mountains, who has evaded the police for twenty years, has again slipped through their" fingers. A reward of £4OO being offered for his head, police officers set out to seek him. At a small railway station up in the mountains the party met an old priest dragging his portmanteau. One of the police helped him with it and asked for his Messing. The priest gave it, and all the party reverently kissed his hand. "Bless our quest for the robber," pleaded the man in charge of the expedition.

The priest did so, and his train steamed out of the station while the expedition made enquiries about Zelim Khan. Next clay, a mountaineer brought the officer in charge a note. It ran:— "You are making great efforts to find Zelim Khan and get £4OO. The portmanteau you put into the train for me yesterday was full of ammunition. Believe me, you will get one of my bullets into your head sooner than you will catch me.—Zelim Khan."

Zelim Khan is worshipped by the moutainecrs and respected by the soldiers and local officials. He never robs the poor or oppresses the weak. His fathers were kings of the Caucasus before the Russians conquered it. He was last seen in the mountains by a girl he had rescued from a Constantinople slave dealer and restored to her parents.

COUNT AND GIPSY The difficulty of distinguishing between the social status of bathers lias placed Count Karl Esterhazy, a lieutenant of Hussars, in an awkward position. The count was just entering his cabin at the Hungarian Baths in Budapest when he collided with Ladislas Bacz, the sixty-sixth son of Paul Kacz, the so-call-ed King of the Gipsies. The count and the gipsy were both undressed. Annoyed 'by the collision, the count slapped the gipsy in the face. The gipsy seized the count and flung him through a glass door. The count was severely cut and was removed to the hospital. The gipsy was liorrified on learning his victim's iden-

tity, and the count was eytn :aely angry to hear that his assailant vvas Rpcz, since the gipsy's social posil ; ..n rendirs it impossible for the count In seek vengeance by tbe usual m tho.l, between gentlemen, of tbe duel. VILLAGE BATTLE WIT'I MOTOR BANDITS. After a fierce fight wit:, revolvers a band of armed motor car • obbers were laid by the heels in the liLLie French village of Chambly, Seine-et-Oise, early on Wednesday morning, November 10. Late at night five mysterious individuals drove up, in a fine grey motor-car, to the door of tue solitary hotel. As it was known that large quantities of cigars and tobacco had been stolen in tne district recently by men in a grey motor-car, the proprietor notified the police. In. the small hours a formidable body of policemen entered the little hotel, revolvers in hand; but the strangers were already on the alert. There was a noise of windows being thrown up, and in a moment the five suspects were I in the street.

Revolvers on both sides began to speak, and soon the whole village was in an uproar. Arming themselves with whatever weapon was nearest to their hands, the villagers joined the police in the pursuit of the fugitives, four of whom were finally arrested 'tfter a fierce struggle. The fifth escaped.

In the back seat of the car were fun: overcoats, from the pockets of which the police extracted revolvers loaded with soft-nosed bullets, poignards and bags of pepper. Beneath the overcoats, and concealed by them, were bucklers in sheet-steel, such as have been suggested for the use of the police against bandits. It appears that the bandits have themselves adopted this form of defence. On lifting up the seat of the car, the police found that the space beneath was completely filled with stacked boxes of cigars, the total weight of which was close on 3001b. It is uncertain if these 20,000 cigars represent stolen or smuggled goods. If the latter the duty would have amounted to close on £SO. To .all questions put to them the men opposed a stubborn silence. Later in the day, heavily manacled and under a strong-escort of police, they were transferred by motor cars to the police station at Nueilly-en-Thelle.