C

CHARLEY MAKES HIS ESCAPE

HIEF OF POLICE LEES and the Wells Fargo detectives came upon Charley without warning, in his little lumber yard in the Indiana town. He was sitting in the office with some of his friends, and they were discussing his coming election as mayor. The policemen entered and arrested him.

They loaded him down with forty pounds of iron, an Oregon boot and handcuffs, marched him to the little station, and brought him back to Nevada City for trial for murder. The partner was tried also, sentenced to death, and hanged. Charley escaped by one vote.

The juror who held out for life imprisonment was an old Confederate soldier, and it was the old sympathy between these comrades that saved his life. The jury finally came over to the one man and agreed upon a verdict of life imprisonment, and Charley was sentenced to San Quentin for the rest of his days.

He had not been there long before he began to plan an escape.

At that time, while there was terrible cruelty in San Quentin, and horrible punishments were inflicted, the prison was loosely run. Prisoners were not compelled to wear a complete suit of stripes, only trousers. They might wear any kind of shirts, coats or hats that they had or could obtain. They were also allowed to have on their persons whatever money they brought in with them, or could get after they were locked up. Charley had about $165.

He noticed that a prisoner drove a cart out of the prison grounds down to San Quentin Point two or three times a day. He also observed that when it was raining there was a tarpaulin over the cart, and by watching he found that the man at the gate looked under the tarpaulin about once in every four times the wagon passed him.

Charley figured that if the driver of the wagon were a friend of his, he would have three chances to one of making his escape when it rained. Charley did not know the man who drove the cart, but he found in the prison a man who wanted to escape and was willing to take a chance.

Charley unfolded his plan to this man, and said, "If you

could get the job of driving the cart when the winter season begins, we could make it."

His friend said, "That's easy." Immediately he began work on a beautiful inlaid cribbage board. When it was finished he presented it to Director Filcher. Filcher was delighted and said, "I'll make my wife a Christmas present of this. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Well-yes."

"What is it?"

"I'd like to have the job of driving the cart.”

"Sure!" said Filcher. "I'll get it for you in fifteen minutes."

It was done. Then Charley got an extra pair of striped trousers, took them to the tannery and had them dyed. He put them on under his striped trousers and wore them constantly. His partner had only striped trousers, but he wore high boots, and had a raincoat that came to the top of his boots. Charley said, "Now all we have to do is to wait for a rainy day."

The rainy day came. It rained nearly all winter. The state was flooded. The first day that it rained heavily, Charley told his partner that they would make their attempt that day. At the proper moment, he crawled under the tarpaulin, and they started. On the way the driver said, "I'll have to stop at the commissary office. They may have something to take down to the Point."

"My God!" said Charley from under the tarpaulin. “Why didn't you tell me that? We're caught."

"Well, maybe they won't have anything."

Charley lay hidden in the cart while the driver went into the office. The commissary did not have anything to send to the Point. The driver went on toward the Point. As they approached, he saw a guard, and reported this to Charley. Charley was directing the escape from under the tarpaulin. He said, "Make a detour. Drive over to Mrs. Mahoney's and ask her if she doesn't want some coal."

Mrs. Mahoney did not want any coal. Her suspicions were aroused immediately. She said, "No, I don't want any coal, and you know very well I don't want any coal."

By this time the guard had disappeared, and Charley whispered, "Drive on to the Point."

When they reached it, they both jumped out and disappeared around the Point and along the bay shore, toward San Rafael. They broke quickly into a barley field, wandered into some deep ditches, and covered themselves with barley and straw. Within an hour they heard the guards on the hills.

The guards were out with guns, combing the country.

Charley and his partner heard them coming and going all day, while they lay hid. When night came they slipped out, and made their way along the coast line of the bay in the darkness. It was raining hard. They walked several miles, until dawn, when they hid again and remained hidden all day.

They continued this for several days and nights, in the rain, without food. They became desperately hungry, and one evening about 6 o'clock Charley made an attempt to get some food. He walked toward a little cottage. A woman was standing in the door, calling her husband to supper. Charley could smell the hot food, and through the window he saw the table spread. It drove him frantic, but he did not dare go nearer, for he knew that by this time the whole state was placarded with notices of a reward. The desperate Charley was at large, the most dangerous man ever known in California.

He lay hidden until the husband went in to supper. Then he crept to the chicken house, grabbed two chickens by the neck without letting them make a sound, wrung their necks and carried them off. His partner had found a few potatoes in a garden, and together they went away with the chickens and potatoes. In the brush they found an old tin can, built a fire, and boiled the food.

Charley was so hungry that he drank from the can. There was a scum on it, and he became deathly sick, with terrible pains. He probably had ptomaine poisoning. His partner, seeing his agony, said, "Well, Charley, I guess we better go into San Rafael and give ourselves up.'

Charley was able to say, "Give ourselves up, HELL!" "What can we do?" said the partner.

"Die in the brush, of course."

All night and all the next day he was desperately ill. The next night he was able to go on. He had now eaten nothing for almost a week. They made their way to Benicia, stole a boat and crossed to Port Costa. Here they hid in the railroad yard among the freight cars. In their wanderings, his partner had lost one of his boots in the mud, and the stripes on one trouser leg showed beneath his coat. About 9 o'clock Charley walked up into the little town of Port Costa and went into a little shop, run by a woman.

There were several men standing around the stove, discussing the escape of Charley. He walked bravely up to the counter and said, “I want a pair of 28 overalls and a pair of number 8 shoes." The woman eyed him suspiciously and said, "You don't wear 28 overalls."

TH

CHARLEY'S ROMANCE

HE men in the little store had stopped talking and were looking at Charley. When the woman said, "You don't wear 28 overalls," he thought that everything was ended for him.

However, he flipped a $20 gold piece on the counter and said coolly, "I don't know, but my sheep herder does."

His manner and the show of gold quieted the woman's suspicions, and she sold him the shoes and the overalls. He also bought some cigars and lighted one before he left the shop. In another place he bought a flask of brandy and some food and then went back to his partner in the freight car. Charley took one swallow of the brandy. His stomach settled at once, the last of the ptomaine symptoms disappeared, and he was able to eat heartily.

They took the midnight train to Sacramento, one getting on at one end of the smoker and the other at the other end. Charley sat with a passenger. They began to talk, and before they got to Sacramento became good friends. The passenger invited Charley to his house in Sacramento to spend the night. Charley said, "No, my wife will be at the station to meet me."

Arriving at Sacramento, he rejoined his partner and went to a saloon, bought a couple of drinks, and looked at all the papers of the last few days to see whether or not the detectives were on their trail. They found they were not. Then Charley bought a pistol, a .44, and some cartridges. The partner said, "Let's go out and get a decent meal, Charley, for once."

In telling the tale, Charley said, "In a weak moment I consented. We went into a restaurant on K street. No sooner were we seated than two policemen walked in, stepped up to the counter and lighted their cigars, and stood there. talking.

"I got my .44 and laid it on my knee under the edge of the table and kept it there. The policemen walked out. When we finished our meal we went out and walked toward the railroad yard. On the way I saw a policeman following us. I drew my gun, hid it under my coat and turned and said to him, "Are you following us?"

are you going, following us?" The officer said, "Where

"I said, 'We are going home'." The officer walked away. "That man never knew how close he came to Kingdom Come."

The two went on to the American river and located themselves in an old hut in a deserted vineyard. They lived there all winter, going over to a little town occasionally, pretending to be wood-choppers, and buying such food as they needed. In the spring they boarded a freight car, made their way to New Mexico and from there to Chicago, where they separated.

Charley went to work, saved his money, and finally went into business. He accumulated $800 in money, and bought a gold watch and chain. He was doing well.

In the family where he boarded there were two sisters. One of them Charley fell in love with, and she with him. She was a good girl, and pretty. They became engaged to be married. Charley was prospering. He was going to build a little home and settle down. They picked out a lot, and Charley bought it.

Then his partner was caught in a robbery, and in order to save his credits in San Quentin he confessed to where Charley was, and Wells Fargo detectives arrested him.

Up to this time Charley's girl did not know that he was a fugitive, but as soon as he was arrested he sent for her. She came to the city prison, and there Charley gave her the lot, the $800 in money and the gold watch and chain. He told her what he was, that he had to spend the rest of his days in San Quentin.

The officers brought him back to the prison, and when I saw him he had been there twenty-nine years.

When I undertook to get him paroled, I found it necessary to get some signatures in Nevada City, the district attorney and others. There was still a great deal of feeling against him. It was most difficult to get the signatures, but finally I managed to prevail upon them to sign, and Governor Johnson, as a Christmas present to me, paroled Charley.

The day he came out of prison he dined with Mrs. Older and me at the Fairmont, and in our rooms after dinner he told us the story of his escape. I asked him about the girl in Chicago, what had become of her.

He said that she had corresponded with him for eleven years, but that finally he had written her and told her that some day she might want to marry some good man, and that if he learned of this correspondence it might cause trouble. So he had advised her to stop writing.

"That," said Charley, "was eighteen years ago, and since that time until you came into my life, I have never heard from a living human being."