Pittston Gazette

              KSTAIJLISIIK1M850. » VOL. XLVI. SO. »» f Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 21, 1696. * Weekly local and Family Journal. liEUTENAHTWj-jS^ we slept on tne noor 01 a nine scnooihonse, a few miles short of the crossing of the French Brood. We must have entered Asheville close to where the Battery Park hotel now stands. I well remember that we passed a sort of fortifioation and that a wide belt of timber was slashed across the hill in front of the guns. Captain Smith and I were quartered in the oourthouse, and old man Tigue and the Vincents were taken to the jaiL tho sky as no grappled wuli u»e n.y up my leg Halt way to my knee, and when I knocked at the door it was with the wreck of the other in my hand. were sometimos plainly impressed in the snow and again for long distances oven dry leaves and bare ground, but an occasional trace could be found. Now ho swings off from I he ledge, in shoulders disappear, liis head sinks our of sight. Every man in the room nbovi/ is holding his breath as ho Hstena. There is a crash of shattered glass without and a suppressed chorus of groans within, and the released rope dangles free from the grating. NOTES-AND COMMENTS. column recently. The prisoners at the county jail ooald be used to good ad vantage In balldlng sections of road nnder ■ he law mentioned. Neither of these plans would interfere direotly with any of the industries. The county would simply be using to do its own work prisoners whose time and energy it has a legal right to command. Doubtless other feasible plans can be found for the employment of the comparatively small number of prisoners at the command of the Priton Commissioners. Certainly it is not the proper thing to keep them in Idleness at the public expense. AN IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENT Mr. Bishop met me at the door on a crutch and received me oordially for Smith's Bake. Only a day or so before the establishment had been raided by a band of Confederates, the cattle driven off and tho bedding confiscated. It was past noon when I arrived at the house, whero tho hunters were assembled on the porch. Blinded by the snow over which I had been walking in the glare of the sun I blundered up the steps asking for the rider who had preceded me and met with a rather gruff reception, owing to the fact that some of the hunting party were Confederates. It was sunset in the mountains of a cold ovening when I set forth to complete my day's tramp and at tho iamo time to finish the first stage of my On Timely Topics of Local and Gen- The Lehigh Valley Company to Work eral Interest. the Red Ash Shaft. In the silence that follow* Tvo snatch in the rope, and passing through the bars we soon see the jailer standing in the doorway. Ho looks up and down the frozen, desertod street, but makes no call for help. We can hear no sound of our comrade outside. The jailer is motionless in the door. Shivering and tired and defeated, one by one we roll op in our blankets and lie down on the Bishop and his wife Blept on the only mattress in the house, and tho best they could offer me was a bed on the floor before the fire. When the cold air came up through the wide cracks betwoen the planks, it seemed to be cutting me in sections with icy saws until I crawled over to the side of tho room and lay lengthwise of a wide puncheon under the table. FREE BRIDGE SCHEME IS NOT DEAD. WILL BE SUNK TO THE LOWEST VEIN. At the end of a week our party was augmented by the arrival of four Federal officers who had been captured on the snowy crest of the Great Smoky mountains. If I remember rightly, some of the same guards who had brought us to Asheville conducted us to Greenville, In South Carolina, a distance of some 60 miles. Odr road took us through the summer settlement of the South Carolina Four Hundred at Flat Rock. We must have passed here nt an early hour, for I only remember a string of handsome villas standing well back on the hillside, with gatehouses bordering the toad, and a picturesque brick chapel oovered with ivy vines. It U Merely Sleeping and Will Come Up Again Some Day—Are Americana Econ- The Coal Will be Prepared for Market at the Exeter Breaker, Doubling it* Outpat, While the New Shaft Will be One omizing f—The County Prisoner* Ought to be Pot to Wotk-Tlie Y. M. C. A.'» jS v Excellent Scheme or Helping the Miners, of the Moet Extenxlve of the Com- Headen and his persecutors were now ooming in from the orchard, where, with a harness rein about his neck, they had swung him up three times to a beam in an old barn. Each time, after be had sufficiently recovered from the verge of strangulation, they plied him for information, against which he jesolutely closed liC= Mpa., D *-* * 1 * / $ .last table we three lin- pany's Underground Workings. CHAPTER V. Bat little progress seems to have been made with the scheme to abolish the toll bridges in Lnzerne oounty since the subject was broached a few years ago, but It must not be supposed that the scheme is dead. Other oonnty projects, notably the new oonrt house affair, have pushed the free bridge question aside temporarily, but it can be depended upon that it will come up again with renewed force. Neighboring counties have reoently been moving In the direction of free bridgee with gratifying results, and we of LT/serne have no reason to feel discouraged because our efforts thus far have oome to nought. The lightning Is certain to strike here sooner or later. Let na possess ourselves In patience, and meanwhile keep posted on the subject of free bridges. Some of our down-the-rlver neighbors have got along finely with the work, and, though they have now been confronted with another legal snag, it looks as though they will win In the end. as they should. The grand jury of Northumberland oounty has approved the finding of the Board of B 3 viewer a on the making free of the toll bridge aoross the West branoh of the Susquehanna at Northumberland. The viewers were a joint board aopolnted by the courts of Union and Northumberland counties, and the bridge which they reported upon Is owned by the Pennsylvania Canal Company. It is a double roadway wooden structure of seven spans, with a total length of over two tboasand feet. The damages awarded are $10,000, but the Canal Company has ordered ita attorney, ex-Judge Bucher, of Lewlsburg, to file exceptions. This bridge has long been a thorn to the progress of Inter oounty oommerce in that seotion, the toll rates being excessively high—three oents for foot passengers, twenty oents for single and thirty cents for double vehicles, with other proportionate charges, the revenues therefrom being estimated annually to nearly reaoh the amount at which the viewers value the bridge. With this important bridge mads fres, it ought to serve as an additional reason why the wealthy •ounty of Luzerne should make Its river bridges free. It is a rather difficult matter to learn exactly how much money a certain class of people squander in the saloons, yet there are means of securing evidence of the poweiful influence that the saloon wields among the workingmen, and the revelations are simply astounding. We have before us a clipping from the New York Catholic World, in which it is stated on good authority that of 700 marked tendollar bills paid to its employes by a certain Massachusetts manufacturing conoern one pay day, 410 found their way within a few days In Jo the banks through the hands of the saloon men. Of course it is not intended to give the Impression that all of the $4,100 mentioned were spent In the saloons. That was probably not true, but the incident goes to show the alarmingly large percentage of working people who frequent driuklng plaoes, and suggest the need of more energy in the work of trying to reclaim the vlotims. Plttston's experience with a miners' money exchange at the "X. M. C. A. rooms has proved very successful in keeping workingmen out of the saloons on pay day, whea the temptation to spend money is greater than at other times, yet it is not as w dely used as it shonld be. I aete id of 175 men nslng the exohange on pay day, there should be 1,075, and the number would probably be largely increased if all the miners of the Pennsylvania Company bnt realized the value of the work the ass Delation is doing for them. The field is a most fruitful one for temperance work. Not a few of the miners declare that they first learned to drink when they went as laborers to the saloon on pay day to receive their money from their partners. The young laborer of today can avoid the terrible temptation by making use of the Miners' Money Exchange. It should be understood that It Is open to all workmen, no matter what the nationality or the creed may be. * * * The Lehigh Valley Coal Company has started work on extensive improvements that are to be made on its West 8ide coal property. Some years ago, during the management of the late Mr. Merour, a shaft was snnk in Exeter borough, about 1,000 feet from the Exeter colliery. It was Intended to put it;down to the Red Ash vein, but for some reason or other was never sunk lower than the Marcy, a distance of 400 feet. During the years that h*v« passed since the work of sinking the shaft was stopped it has remained flooded with water, Since W. D. Owens was appointed to ths superin tendency of the Pitteton district he has been endeavoring to have the company resume work at the shaft, and has at last succeeded. The oompiny has decided to free the shaft from water aod then sink it 100 feet lower, through the Marcy and Boss veins, to the lowest or Red Ash vein. Preparations are now being made to pump the water out of the shaft, steam pipes being laid from the Exeter colliery to operate the pumpe. The old wooden cribbing will also betaken out, and a fiae new\cribblng of ooncrete built from the the rock, a distance _of about thirty feet. This is done for the purpose of keeping surface water from getting into the shaft. The shaft will be sunk to the lower vein by contract, though the contract has not yet been awarded. When these improvements are finished ths shaft will be placed in operation, and the coal will be conveyed by a small locomotive to the Exeter breaker to be prepared for market. The recent enlargements and improvements to the Exeter breaker and the new washery will enable the coal irom both the Exeter and the new shaft to be prepared here, the capacity of the breaker being now about about 2,500 tons a day. The present ontpnt of the breaker 1b 9,000 tons • week, and when the new shaft is in operation this amount will be more than doubled. An idea of the importance of the new shaft to the company may be gained when it Is stated that through it, the company will be enabled to reaoh every foot of coal which it owns on the West The "xposuro of Headen*8 plana may have been due to the long continued presence of our party at his house. If at the last mo »yot we had obeyed his injunction "tJ ( 11 ot the rock house, we would have bC-Jhumiliation of another Hanogck in some way got wibu w hard floor with a billet of wood for a pillow. , . In the morning it was quite evident that disagreeable thoughts were dominant in Mrs. Bishop's mind as she proceeded sullenly and silently with her preparations for breakfast. The bitter bread of charity was being baked with a vengeance for the unwelcome guest. Premonitions of the coming storm flashed now and then in lightning cuffs on the ears of the children or crashed ominously among the pofes in the flreplaoe. When "breakfast was'served, the table still stood against the wall, and Bishop now advanced good naturedly to assist in removing it to the center of the room. We were awakened at daylight in the morning by the voice of the jailer's eldost daughter, Emma Harrison, innocently asking who it #vas got out in the course of the night* I answered, "It was Welty," and all who were awake listened anxiously for the next words from the hole in the door. , . ~*uind the guards and found opportunity to tell the women of oar sojourn with their relatives in Cashiers valley. When we joined the others in front of the house, the oonvoy of prisoners was about starting for Webster, the oounty seat of Jackson. Headen was lashed by the arm to Tigue, the old Georgian. Lieutenant Cogdi 11, with two mounted guards, was to have us in charge, and so away we marched in the early morning across the fields to ford in tbo south fork of the Tuckasegee, just above the junction of the two streams over in a dugout to the Webster road. plot—for it was a plot, constructed on a perfect understanding of the movements and intentions of our gnidttt—and the trap had been held open for hoars awaiting Tom's arrival. The pickets had been posted in the snow about the house awaiting orders until after midnight, chafing their tingling oars and robbing their stiffened fingers. The night before we reached Greenville we were quartered at a farmhouse, the prisoners and the privates of the guard oooupying one large room which contained but a single bed. As all couldn't sleep in this one bed no one was allowed to do so. We found other means of employing our time. As we entered we had observed a flock of fat White pullets going to roost in the yard. The negroes readily loaned us a kettle and looked on in grinning approval as we wrung the necks of half a dozen of the finest fowls and dug into the side of a sweet potato mound for the necessary vegetables. We took down one of the pictures from the wall to dress the chickens on, having skinned instead of plucking them. The guards were equally interested and equally active in this enterprise, and we shared alike in the spoils. This circumstance, however, did not prevent the angry farmer from following us to Greenville and laying all the blame to the Yankees. "Well," said she, cautiously projecting her voice into the room, "you was fools you didn't all go. Pop wouldn't 'a' stopped yon. If yon will keep the break concealed until tonight, we will let you all go." Mrs. Bishop was like a charge of dynamite, ready to explode at the first jar, so that when one of the table legs overturned the swill pail the long pent up storm burst upon us in a torrent of invective. The prospect of spending even a few days with this virago had no attractions for me, so after breakfast Bishop took me down the mountain to the house of neighbor Case, with whose sons Captain Smith had lain in concealment for several weeks on a former visit to the mountains. I was very curions to see these famous outlaws and Union bushwhackers, whom nothina delighted ao much as from some safo cover to pick off a Confederate recruiting officer, or tax in kind collector, or tumble out of their saddles the last driver of a wagon train." These very lively young men had been pressed so hard by the authorities of late that even if known it was not prudent to disclose this place of hiding. The elder Case pulied a roll of leather and a bit of tools out from under the bed &nd cut n3e out a pair of shoes in tho rough, and it was decided to take me back to Bishop's brother Pink. Having accomplished all this, Bishop and 1 climbed nearly to the top of the mountain, turned a hundred yards =nto' the woods, and walked into a moc*,hiner's still in full operation. Two men were attending the Area and stilling the mash, one of whom was Pink Bishop, to whose care I was to be committed until Smith came. There was a light fall of snow on the ground, plainly showing our tracks as we bad come from the road, and for this reason it was deemed unsafe for us to remain at the stilL So Pink and I packed our traps, laid in a supply oi provisions as we passed the house, and followed the crest of the Blue Ridge back to a log house which was used for storing cornshucks. We dng the bundles away from the fireplace and disposed them against the cracks, where they would do the most good, and lighted a fire. Pink was a blacksmith, but he oould make shoes for human wear as well, and we set to work at once. I split the pegs from a section of seasoned maple, and sewed the two parts of the uppers together under his direction and bo did the rest. In a day or two the shoes were completed and on my feet. Every night we watched for the arrival of Smith, but Monday came without his appearance and we reluctantly gave him up. I wont down the mountain to Case's and had supper with the family before starting. As I was to travel the mountains alone, I decided to mako my way back, a distance of 40 miles, to the Hoopers, In Cashiers valley, and thence to Headen's, on Yellow mountain, where we had been captured. The uniform kindness of our keepers was soon explained. The jailer was a Union man, and his official detail exempted himself and sons from service in the field and enabled them to stop in Greenville and ply their trade, which was shoemuking. We were told that "Welty" had bruised his ankle in kicking out the lower window, and Pop Harrison had induced him to come in :tod have his hurt bandaged. They had men supplied mm with food and direc tions on the road and sent him forth re- Hoaden and his wife had been captared early in tfae evening at the mill on the Cullowee road and were held prisoners at the house of Roderick Norton, the same whom irate Betsey so hungered and thirsted to "stomp through the turnpike." Tbis place was only half a mile down the road, and our sorry crowd was soon picking its way over the snow in the same direction, flanked by two lines of mountaineers carrying their rifles at a shoulder and tramping silently under the bare trees. We were Ave officers and three citizens—when we reached the house, five and five, for In the first room we entered sat the Headens meekly behind gun barrels. PINTC BISHOP AT THE STILL solitary trip. It was a matter of a dozen miles to the door of my old friends the Hoopers, and tho pleasure with which I knew they would greet me again, and the interest they would take in my checkered career since our capture on Yellow mountain, and the joy they would feel in tho better fortune of my companions were enough to nerve me on if I had been much more weary than F was. If my statement varies in detail from the abridged aooount of the same events published in The Century Magazine of October, 1890, it is because I have been on the ground since, and the narrations are corrections. For instance, I found I had reported one too few in tho Headen family bed and one less than we saw of the murdered Watsons. joicing. At sapper we were given an extra ration, and it was no sooner dark than the jailer appeared in our midst and carefully instructed each party in the route it wished to take toward the mountains. A little later the girls came up and bade us goodby, wishing us a safe journey. At 11 O'clock the door of our room was quietly swung o'pen, finding us completely equipped for travel, blankets rolled and haversacks slung. Down the narrow back stairs wo followed our stanch friend, Miss Emma, and in a twinklipg we are grouped on the snow, in the starlight, In the back yard of the jail, shaking hands with our benefactress.day the road wound along the bank of the river, sometimes the moontain on the right, high and rooky, and eoraetimea opening out Into a succession of gentle hills, the Yankees were on the best of terms with the guards, the lieutenant even advising us to make our escape as soon as we passed out of his hands. I ran rather than walked over the level road through the woods, and three times I came upon fords of the same broad rivulet. Removing my shoos and stockings and rolling up my trousers, I waded into the first ford. Flakes of broken ice were oddying against the banks, and before reaching the middle of tho stream my fC*t ached with the cold, the pain increasing at every 6tep over the sharp stones uutil 1 threw my blanket on to the opposite bank and wrapped my feet in its dry folds, Rising a little knoll soon after making tho third ford, I came suddenly, in the moonlight, upon the back of Squire Hooper's house. It was scarcely more than 9 o'clock, and I found the family still up about the fire. Together we rejoiced over the escape of Sill and Lamson and made merry over my owq - My welcome was hot less cordial than I haC\ expected. Evory man I had met in my travels the squire knew personally and of him bad some anecdote to relate in return. The girls laughed at my mishaps and applauded my successes, and when my story was told gave me uews of the departure of Headen and old Tom Hancock and along with them Captain Knapp, bound for Tennessee. The citizens were kept below stairs, and the Yankees sent into the garret room above. A feather bed, hastily abandoned by its occupants, stood in the center of the room, and into it our party of three clambered without a moment's delay and were soon fast asleep. Shortly before this time the bridges on the railway to Columbia had been swept away by a fresbet, and it was while awaiting their reconstruction that we were held at Greenville. The jail into which we were taken wtys a two story brick structure standing flusfi wTtii the street ancl Living no fence or wall surrounding it. Each floor was divided by a transverse hall, and the large, square room in which our party was quartered looked down the street through two barred windows and into the hall by a square bole in the door cut large enough for the passage of a plate. Opposite to the door was a stone fireplace and in the farther corner a stone sink. It is a little before noon. The convoy is strung out on the road. Lieutenant Sill is riding one of the horses, with the guard at the rear. The Vincents are far up the road and Headen and Tigue close behind them. Suddenly a voice rings out on the stillness of the woods: We were awakened in the night hy fearful outcries from the room below, which proved to come from Lientenr at Knapp, who had eaten some frozen chestnuts as he came down the mountain the night before. When we gathered at breakfast in the morning, be lay in a corner very quiet and only comfortable after his cramps, thanks to the women who had been up all night trying to assuage his agony. "Catch him 1 Catch him I He's gone I He's gone!" And on a rise in the road stands Tigue, the pusillanimous, roaring like a bull for fe»rhe will be punished for the escape of Headen, who has whipped out his knife and cot the strap and fled up a mountain trail. There are much shouting and hard riding and somu profane encouragement to the guards from a maq who was skinning a deer on the opposite bank of the river, but Heaven was no longer ol oar party. CHAPTER VL Captain Smith and I, well instructed as to the streets through which we were to get out of the town, passed the wicket gate leading into the back lane and strode forth over the crunching snow. It was an intensely cold night, and not a light or a human being was visible on the streets of Greenville. We walked at a vigorous pace, partly to keep warm and partly to give rein to the energy and excitement we felt The iailerhad four or jrmwr daughters, who seemed to take a livei? Interest in our arrival, for the door had hardly closed upon 'us "Wore they began to appear on the outside of the peephole with their autograph albums. On our approach their blushing faces retired out pi sight, hut toe books held on for our signatures. They became better acquainted soon, and as our only visible jailers knitted us stockings and supplied us with many luxuries not included in the prison fare, such as wood for a fire, planks and bee gums for seats and a well thumbed volume of Bulwer. PUBLIC LIBBARY A GO Although thoroughly recovered,Knapp feigned illness so cleverly that he was left behind with two gqaoJs. These young gentlemen, having no suspicions of his game, went out to the spring to wash, leaving their guns in the house. As Boon as they had disappeared Knapp sprang up and disabled their guns and ran away at his leisure across the garden.The Plttaton Library Will be Improved and Opened to the People. A special meeting of the stockholders of the Pittetm Library Association was held last week to farther consider the proposition to extend the benefits of the library to the public, and the result was that under certain oonditions, the library, largely augumented and arranged in modern style, will soon be opened to the use of the community. Rjv. E. H. Eokel, who has been the chief mover in this commendable scheme, was present and unfolded the details of the plan of procedure. Several hours were spent in the discussion of the details. It was finally decided tiat it will be necessary, for a time, at least, to continue the library as a subscription institution. Of the two plans presented by Mr. Eokel for the ac'ion of the meeting, the one adopted provides that tse members of th*- library association shall retain their stcok, the Horary to be open to the public at a yearly subscription of $2. Rev. E. H. Eckel was elected supervising librarian and he was authorized by the book oommlttee to appoint an acting librarian at a small salary. The book oommlttee*and Mr. Eokel were authorized to secure, if possible, a suitable place for the library, a ad the book oommlttee was also authorized to spend a certain sum of money for a modern library equip ment. The purpose is to make the library as good as it is possible for a small library to be mvie and to encourage the people of the community to make use of the books. The book committee and Mr Eikel hsve been given fnll power to act in making preparations to place the soheme adopted into operation, and the wo k will be done without unnecessary delay. Stock subscriptions will also be invited, and the money used in increasing the stock of books. The faot that the United States mints •re turning out suoh vast quantities of pennies—is many as 160,000 a day being oolned in the Philadelphia mint alone—is looked upon by some psople as an indication of inoreaslDg economy among the people. A western contemporary says on the subject: "Twenty-fi?e years ago New Engenders settling in the Week found themselves regarded as petty when they expected ehange of a less amount than five oente, and prices in wbioh odd cents figured were unheard of. Tde same thing was true In California even within tea years. There was a worklngmin's coffee house in San Franoisoo wheie one oonld get rid of pennlee if he ware burdened with them, but it was considered quite a unique affair. N jw, however, even in tbe West to tnrn away from a counter without waiting for a oent in change would seem rather like 'putting oa airs.' The demand for the copper oent is a wholesome sign and indicates a growing and systematic economy on the part of the bulk of the people. And, while it is a sijn of eoonomy the preeenoe of the coin is also a stimulus to that vlrture. The peuple of Earope, who are far more economical in every way than Americans, all handle small oolns to a greater extent tben we, and not on!y handle them bnt estimate their wealth in them. The Frenchman coants his money by francs, while the American mnst use a coin five times as large to estimate'bis. There was a time, not long ago, when we soorned to talk of anything lees than dollars. We are gettiag past that grandlloqnsnt stage. Halves and quarters are considered very respectable coins, and now that the cent has come to have an identity, nlokels and dimes seem considerably more Important than before. It is not likely that the half cent will later come to figure In our currenoy as tbe farthing does in England" There Is perhaps some truth ?n what our contemporary says, yet it is equally true that a considerable share of the demand for pennlee in trade is oooasloned, not by a spirit of economy on the part of the purchaser, but rather by reason of the odd prloee whloh dealers hold out as a bait to catoh tnonghtless customers Viewed in thts light, tne presence of pennies In suoh great quantities Is rather an Indication of freqaent unwise expenditures. An artlole marked $4 98 seems immensely oheaper to many people than the same artlole marked 95, and In not a few oases sales are mads through catchy prloee that wonld not otherwise have taken plaoe. Notwithstanding this It is perhap? true that the people generally are more oarefnl of their pennies than they were In flash times. V Side. It will, In fact, be one of the most extensive of the company's underground workings, and Its opening cannot but prove very benefioial to the community. The rest of us were lodged safely for the night in Webster jail. Miss Lizzie Harris and another girl, friends of Cogdill. paid ns a visit in the evening and invited a select few of us to a venison breakfast 'Sill and I, aooompanled hy Lieutenant Cogdill, enjoyed the young ladies' hospitality and made ourselves m merry as pussiuxe uuutu uw uuwur Before daylight we were well in the foothills of the mountains and had se looted a nest on a southern slope, when? the leaves were dry, and camped for the night At 9 o'clock w set out again under a clear sky, but lost our way and were finally brought to a standstill by the black, icy waters of a wide creek, whloh Smith, who was a victim of rheumatism, oould not cross. We had an easy day's march before us, so our guai-ds said the next morning, to reach the headquarters of the battalion at the forks of the Tuckasegee. A matter of 20 miles, following the trend of the streams, with no ridges to cross, is only a step t» the long legged and long winded mountaineer, but it was a I staid in the valley nnder Big and Little Sheep cliff only until It was late jnough in the evening of the following lay to pick my way up the trail to the Headon cabin on Yellow mountain. IN A TRANCE. A 'Wayne County Girl Who Pleaded Not At the end of a week we were joined by a party of seven enlisted men who had also been captured while attempting to get through the mountains. One of the new arrivals had a case knife in his haversack anC} another a gun ecrewdriv er of tempered steeL With these implements in our hands I saw a chance of escape. On the very evening of the or rival of these men, down on the hearthstone bv the light of the fire, I managed toe construction of a saw by nicking the think edge of the knife with the screwdriver, using a bone for a mallet to bo Burled. A Wayne oonnty correspondent says: Miaa Hattie Benedict, the young lady who fonr months ago fell Into a comatose state from whloh she has only revived three times, is now on the road to recovery. The last trance oame upon the girl without warning Jin. 12, from whloh she awakened Wednesday. On Tuesday evening as Dr. Hnbbell and assistants were working over the patient, a lamp whioh emitted a brilliant light, was plaoed near the fiagers of Kiss Benedict's left hand, and to the surprise of the doctor, though ashen, thin and ghoetly as t ley were, a faint reddish color could be seen, denoting the exletenoe of life. The pulse denoted no life. On Wednesday neon a slight quivering of the eyelids was noticeable, and Immediately thereafter an electric shook of terror shook the attenuated body of *the girl. A cold sweat followed, and the horror of her thoughts was plainly depicted upon her faoe, as she exclaimed in an almost Inaudible voice: I am alive. Please don't buryme." The trance has left Miss Banedlot in a very weak b 1 at •», and she is scarcely able to apeak. A peculiar feature of the case, said Dr. Hubbell, is the shifting of the heart, w dah occurred three times during her Ion; trance Tae last time it shifted, Sundqy morning last, It was fully two inches to the right of its norm *1 position and perhaps three-fourths of an inch upward. The next evening Aunt Betsy Headen, low sole head of the house of "Heady," «add led her mare and rode over the enow to put me in the company of a youth of the name of Green, who was about starting to visit his uncle at Shooting Ureek, which was a settlement 60 miles on tbe road to Tennessee and within sight of the hills of Georgia. stances- long, dreary march to us. A light snow had fallen in toe night, just frosting the soft mud, and when we pulled out for the day's mar oh the cold slush swam through my broken •hoes. That night Lieutenant Cogdill handed us over to the authorities at Qualatown, took his reoeipt for us and bade us goodby and godspeed like an old friend. Half a mile back, and in what I believed to be the right direction, we oonld Bee the glowing windows of n house. I quickly decided that wo should make our way there, and in case thC family proved unfriendly I was to re treat as best I could for the mountains I helped Smith along until I landed him in the lee of the gatepost, when I went up on to the side porch and knocked a' the door as bold as brass. It was opened by a tall woman, who stood against th» glow of firelight and answered myques tions until I was satisfied not only thaf she "7aa friendly, but that there were m men in the house. It is late in the -wintry afternoon. We are perhaps fire miles from our destination. Weary with walking, we are straggling silently along tho road. The darkness of the cloudy afternoon and the increasing chill of the approaching evening inspire gloomy forebodings in the heavy hearts of the prisoners. The road has fallen to a lovel with the river, and the receding mountain gives way to gentle ridges crowned with scattered, leafless chestnuts, gaunt and forbidding in thoir eccentric distortions. It was at tbe close-of the last night's match, during which we had passed over three enow capped ridges, that my blacksmith's shoes, soaked to a pulp as to the 4ok«, gave out altogether. With these irtioles in my hand I stood in my stockings on the frozen ground on tho crest of the last ridge. Stretching away into the west in the direction of east Tenoessee was a wilderness of mountains irawn liko huge furrows ucross my fu;ure way, the pale gray of the uttermost We remained here oonflned in an old building over one stormy day, leaving for Asheville at noon of the 2d of January with a guard consisting at three white men and four Indians. A pane of glass was missing from the lower sash of the window by the door, and a piece of carpet had been supplied to us, which hung' outside the grate to protect us from the cold wind. Here was an excellent cover for our proposed operations. The upright bars were square, an inch or more in diameter, and of oast iron, moving loosoly in the stone mortises above and below, but steadied by frequent flat cross plates of wrought iron. It was Sunday night, the 20th day of January, when wo ieft Greenvillo jail, and it was the -night of the 6th of March when I set out from Case's. The sky was clear, and I intended to make a long march, keeping tho general direction by the stars, bnt thick clouds soon blotted out my guides, and as it grew dark tbe snow began to fall rapidly. To travel any distance was hopeless. I saw a light ahead at the end of the road I was traveling and concluded to try its hospitality. From behind the barren hill to the right a wailing sound comes to our ears. We stoo to listen—to be sure that we hear numan voices—tnon nurry on until we turn tho obstruction and oom6 in sight of a group of miserable* assembled on the bleak mountain slope. It is the low plaint of women's voices who are seated on the ground wearied with the iteration of thoir grief. There are four bowed, weeping figures, each brooding over a lump of something covered by a tattered bedquilt. Four husbands—a father and three sons—dead since early morning, lie under the quilts. The oldest of the womun mourns not only her husband, but all the dead aro her sons, and another wounded to death has stumbled a little farther into the mountains. A group of neighbors waiting to bury the dead stand silently by, coldly regarding the women and only sympathetic enough to refrain from disturbing the mourners in their grief. At night we arrived at the house of Colonel Bryson, where like convoys made a regular stopping plaoe, holding the prisoners in an unused wing of the house. It soshappened on this occasion that a party of refugees was in ooonpation of our quarters, and we were directed to a barn at a little distance np the road. We had brought unoooked beef tuid meal with ns, and while two of the guards entered the house for cooking utensils and fire the whole tired line lounged on the dooryard fence. The one room was surronnded a:- astral with beds, and at the chimney enri a grand flre was burning, a splut teringpine knot giving a cheerful light Smith and I sat facing each other in thoorners of the chimney, basking in th« weloomo warmth, while the woman bus tied about to make us comfortable, toll ing us meanwhile that her husband was a Union man, but that he had bees pressed into the Confederate cavalry. ridges fading into an Imperceptibly union with the clouds beyond. There was a single log house in view sending up a perpendicular column of smoke from its rock chimney, and here we picked our way in search of a cobbler, and found him, of course, in a country where every family makes its own shoes. Just above the second of these plates we began our out, calculating with a tough stick of firewood to separate the plates after sawing should be accomplished. It was a slow process, at first prosecuted only in the daytime behind the piece of carpet while one of the party listened at the hole in tho door. After a whole hour's hard work only a few feathery filings showed on the cross plate. We kept the work going, however, at all available opportunities for two days, and regular  worked throughout Friday night, by this means so deepening the cut that the bar was severed in the early evening of Saturday.When I reached it, I found a snug looking brown house, with a deep porch cut into tbe front A girlish voice answered my knock, and after some parley the door was unfastened and the owner of the voice came out on the porch to give me the directions I was asking for. By this time I had determined the complexion of tho family politics and made a clean breast of the situation to the girl She took me in at onoe, telling me that her father, the Rev. James Duckworth, now the postmaster at Brevard, would be home in the morning, and, more than that, he would be glad to'see ma A low trundle bed stood on tho hearth before the firo, in which a very old woman was feebly moaning with ibeu matism. The younger woman helped her to get up and fixed her in a chair before the fire. After covering her with a sunbonnet she shouted at the old woman 's ear: It was already growing dark when the men came out, one of them swinging a burning brand, and we straggled down to the barn and built a fire. When we had got thus far in our preparations far the night, a negro appeared to tell oa that the oolonel thought It would rain and advised ns to return to the oornhouse opposite the dwelling. As we were climbing the fence back to the road I missed Sill and Lam son, and eooi) their absence was discovered by the guard. The Indians were started out in pursuit, but soon returned empty handed. When we bad been lounging on the fenoe on our arrival. Sill and Lam son had found themselves on the extreme right of the line, while I was down by the gate. There was nothing to hinder their slipping away under oover of the thicket at the end of the yard, and they had a long start before they were missed. [TO BE continukp ] LIBBY PRISON SURVIVORS A Weit Pituton Man at the Reunion In Chicago. FOR THE SPECIAL TERM. "Granny, them's Yankees." Uaj. 8. Urqihart send4 the Qazkttk a copy of the Uhloago Tribune with the following report of a reunion of the survivors of the party of U aion prisoners who escaped from Ltbby Prison through the famous tunnel: Death of Rev. Theophllna J one*. (Wilkesbarre Record.) "Be they now?" she said, looking "rom one to the other with her bleared )ld eyes. "Be ye sellin tablecloths?" Jurors From Thli Vicinity Drawn This "Who ure they?" we ask. Jurors were drawn last week for the speoial term of Qiarter Seeeions and Oyer and Terminer Court, and the following residents of thia vicinity are among the number drawn: Morning. After an illness of nearly two years, during the last five monttis of whloh he was oonfined to his bed, Bev. Theophl us Jones, the oldest Welsh preaoher in the United States, died February 13 of general debility and paralysis, aged 86 years, at the home of his son, attorney D. M. Jonee, 51 Sullivan street. Deceased was born in January, 1810. He survived his wife a little over two years. After her death at Kingston he gave up housekeeping and has s'nee resided with his son. He was one of the powerful pTeaohers of his day, and when he warmed to bis subj ot, or as the Welsh put it, " in the hwyl," he always carried his audience with him spell bound. He was in early youth apprenticed to the weaving business and wor ked as a weaver at Fontmorlais, Merthyr Tydvil, Wales, but being of a religious turn of mind he studied hard and was converted at a Cymanfa of the Welsh Baptist denomination in 1827, at Caerphilly, under the preaoolng of the late Christmas Evans, who was one of the greatest preachers of the centary in Wales. Fie was to have been baptised by this celebrated divine, but on account of the latter's age, be appointed a younger minister to do it In his presence Deo»ased was a preaoher at 17 years of age and was ordained when he was 20 years of age, and np to the time of his Illness was a worker in the vineyard of his Master He mar ■ rled in Wales and came to the U alted States in 1813, and took charge ot the Welsh Bapt'st Church in the metropolis for several years He received a call to Morans Book, Chester county, and later to Scranton and Minersville, Pa., cosing to Wilkeebarre in 1870, wbers be became pastor of the First Welsh Baptist congregation, which then worshiped in Sutton's hall on Publlo Sqare. "Only the Watsons," says one bystander. "A passel o' hog thieves. A good riddance to tho country." I was at the saw when tho supreme moment of success crowned our efforts, and prying up the cross plate abovu tho out I lifted out the short piece and rushed to the crowd crouching over the fireplace and threw it on the hearth. I was wild with excitement and felt myself almost again on foot in the snowy mountains. It having been explained to her that Cve were prisoners from the war, she •vented to know if we were Britishers. I saw tho closing scene of a bloody feud between the Watsons and the Hoopers, for thi-re was only one male Watson left. Although the dead men believed in the southern cause and their slayers were tJnion outlaws of the most aggresfive type, we heard little indignation expressed even among our guard. Before noon the next day the ministor's one horse wagon came oreaking over the snow. His daughter went out to meet him, and when he entered the room I stood with my back to the firoplaoe contemplating the well filled bookcase, which was such a remarkable sight in the mountains. He came directly to me witn extended band, looking over my uniform and exclaiining, "I know who you ere," and giving me the warmest weloome. _ _ Six men who had parted at Llbby Prison thirty-two years ago met there yesterday morning. The last t mi they emerged from the grim walls of old Llbby they were fugitives, pursued by soldlereand bloodhounds. Yesterday, as they stepped out into the sunlight, after an hour spent in the dark underground looking at the breach in the wall made by their ovn hands in 1864, they stepped into carriages and were driven to a banquet. D The captain and I slept comfortably in a curtained bed and passed most of the following day in the woods, coming to the houso in the evening for supper, which was spread on a table on the porch. We bountifully, and our haversacks Wore stuffed with "cracklins."TO BBFJBT MARCH 23, 1896. Plttston—Stanley Crooks, man. warehouse Anticipating this result, we had already resolved ourselves into several traveling parties and now cast lots to see which party should have first exit. The fortunate lot fell to the enlisted men, who all elected to go together. I was to go with Captain Smith, who had made friends at Cuesar's Head in his last outing and professed to know how to reach them again. Each man in descending must pass the window of the room occupied by the jailer and his family. The night was extremely cold, the ground covered with snow whoso top was frozen to a crust Although there*was a garrison in the town, there were no guards about the jail, its strength of wall and bar being deemed amply sufficient to hold its inmates. West Plttston—W. H. McMillan, insurance agent; Geo. W. Stanton, Jr., gentle One of the Watsons had been slain by a Hooper, and in retaliation therefor a Hooper on recruiting leave from his regimept in Tennessee had been shot in his doorway in the autumn before. The wounded man, after lying out in the laurel half fiie winter with his hand on bis rifle, had at last recovered, and here was bis revenge. Before day he and his clan bad surrounded the cabin of the Watsons—on lv one of whom escaped— had driven thoir wretched prisoners to this lonely slope and shot them without mercy at sunrise. After the escape of our oompanions Captain Smith and I were guarded with renewed vigilance. Lieutenant Sill tells me that from the face of the mountain, where they were securely resting, be could plainly see me standing by tbe fire. A few minutes later we were securely oagea tu u corn urn lur vue uigus. man. The captain and I bad gone but a few yards from the house when rheumatism, the relentless, claimed him for its own. It was now Tuesday, and he advised me to go on to his friends at Cassar'e Head and wait for him there until the following Monday. On the crest of the mountain I was to find the cabin of one of Smith *s friends, a lame man of the name of Bishop. Hu^heetowu—Mlohajl Carey, miner. Avoca—Michael Calvey, hot D1 keeper; Michael Hob in, merchant. Jonklns—Win Q'.bein, superintendent. Yateeville—Mtohael Loftns, laborer. Wyoming—J«se 8chooley, gentleman Maroy—A. C. Watson, oonfeotiouer. TO R«P)RT MARCH 30, 1896 Wyoming—Jas. Crolle,'miner. Hugheet iwn—Dathan Morse, foreman. Weet Pfttston—Amon B. Armstrong, mason; Benj F Armstrong, feo'y; Joel Bren'ou, merchant; 'Philip G Killlan, moulder. The men were the members of the Llbby Prison Association, composed of the few mrrlvors of the 109 Union prisoners who escaped through the famous tunnel from Llbby Prison a year before the closing of t*ie war of the rebellion. The Rev. James Duckworth was bo patriotic and so overjoyed at the opportunity to talk with a Yankee officer that he entreated me to stay over another day, and we sat on the floor in the garret for safety and talked war and politics, about which we entirely agreed. When night came, however, and nothing wonld induce mo to delay my departure, he walked with me a little distance on the road, while at the same time he was repeating the directions whioh would bring me that night to another Baptist preacher, who would be going my way in the morning, but who was then tarrying at the house of a miller who kept a very ferocious dog. Aware of the necessity of arriving before bedtime out of respect for the dog, I made such speed as to find the miller's family still up and seated in the light of the fire with preaoher No. & in the circle. That night I slept with the parson, who wore a striped woolen nightcap, and awoko the household in the morning by announcing that it was the very first time he had ever slept with a Yankee. This caused a general outpouring of ghostly figures into the morning half light, conspicuous among whom was the bobbing tassel of the parson's nightcap, as, balanced on one leg, he vrtinly As we part here with Lieutenants Sill and Lamson I will torn aside from my personal narrative to land them safely in Tennessee. Before morning they blundered upon the end of a brick building, which they discovered on Inspection to be Webster jail Thus gaining their bearings, they made their way back to the forks of the Tuckasegee into tbe company of Mack and Monroe Hooper and to the camp of Shooting John Brown, a noted outlier, who, with bis sons, lived in a rocky pass on the faoe of Shelton mountain. I traveled very rapidly all that night, hoping to cover the whole distance, but day was breaking when I reached tho Saluda river. I worked up the stream, through the woods, until I found a dam on which I made a crossing. By this time the sun was rising and I heard the lowing of cattle and the voices of children and all the familiar sounds of early morning echoing in the frosty air. I kept behind tho fences as much as possible until I had crossed the open fields and climbed to a secure hiding place on the side of the mountain. A cliff, which I recognized as Pompey's Pillar, reared its mass across the valley, and as the sun got higher glittering masses of ioe and snow tumbled over its crest, making a thunderous reverberation in the valley below. It was the sixth annual meeting of the veterans, and they celebrated it by revisiting the scene of their advanture and by a diDner at Kinsley's. Those In the party wtre: ■» • The annntl report o* the Liz *me C junty Prison Commissioners for 1895 is at hand. Among other things, It is stated that the county must Shortly set about enlarging the prison by adding a wing. Then the report goes on to commend the idea of prison labor as a mews of punishment. The conclusion is reached that "the sup port uf the prison is an enormous drain upon the flnanoes of the couuty, and It would seem that well directed labor ought to materially assist in Its maintenance Those oonv'oted of crimes ought to contribute to their own support, aad in most cases they would readily comply if given the opportunity. It could not be considered as competition with pa d labor outside, became of the in flattest mil amount and because labor might be provided whloh would not come in contact with ordinary outside employments " In this conclusion a great many of the tax payers of the oounty most Heartily ooncur. The convicted prisoners at least shou'd be put to work, and made to earn their keeping The question is, How shall it be done ? D inbtlees the Prison Commissioners would be pleased to receive suggestions on the suSj Cct from the p tople. If the proposed en argement of the prison be ordered, m now seems more thai probable, oonsider able of the expense might be saved to the oonaty by having the prisoners do the laborer's work—and even the mechanloal part of the j ib if there be under sentence any prisoners skilled in the desired trades. Again, there is the oonnty road eoheme whloh was outlined In thl Major Parker, who commanded a battalion of home guards, to which our captors belonged, was billeted on the father of the Hoopers, and some of bis men were of tbe party of the executioners. That night we formed a jovial circle in front of the fire in the Hooper kitchen. Major Parker was plying us with apple jack, and James Hooper, bowed with the weight of 70 years, was pacing back and forth in the gloomy room outside our circle thinking his own thoughts of the deed of bis sons that day. Plttston—Jas Blchmond, gentleman. Exeter Township—Gilbert Li wis, farmer.We had splicod a rope and a strip of blanket together and made one end of this oontrivance fast to the grating. At 11 o'clock we judged it would be safe to try the experiment Qen, H. C. Hobart, Milwaukee. Maj. W. A. Collins, Chioago. Maj. 8. A. Urqhart, Pittston, Pa. Maj. Terrenoe A Clark, Paris, 111. Maj B. 0. Knaggs, Chicago. Avoca—Jas Slves, stone outcer. A VICTIM OF OAS. J. H. KlMton, of Wyoming County, Suf- By this time the sheriff of the oounty, backed by a large posse of citizens, was in hot pursuit of the young Hoopers on account of the Watson affair. From • granite ledge overlooking tbe valley of the Tuckasegee our fugitives looked down on the sheriff's party riding the river roads, near enough to identify Individual members and overhear their plans as they shouted to each other. The Hoopers and their companions were armed with rifles and revolvers, and, with their knowledge of the mountains, had no fear of being taken. Monroe is described as standing out iu bold relief against the bare face of the mountain, rifle in hand, despite the remonstrances of his comrades, and threatening to draw a bead on a survivor of tbe ill fated Watsons who was conducting the sheriff. The first man crept through the opening without difficulty and perched on the sill, while we passed him his boots in a haversack Iu the cold, dark room we were crowded about the window, Capt. George R Lodge, Chicago. focated In ■ Scranton Hotel. The ont-of-town members of the association arrived in the city yesterday morning and were met at the depots by the local members. At 10 o'alock the pirty drove to the Llbby Prison War Museum in Wabash avenue, where they were j lined by Capt. 8 Tenyck and his wife and Mrs Capt. John FJeter. "J. H. Eleston, Wyoming county." That registry was made at the Arlington Hotel, Franklin avenne and Spruce street, ScrantoD, early Wedneiday evening by a well dressed farmer, a little elderly in appearanoe. At 6 o'clock Thursday morning he was found dead in h:s room, suffocated by illuminating gas thC*t had escaped from an open j »fc. Eleston said his home was near Buttermilk Falls, and be was driving ♦o Port Jervia to sell his horse and carriage E'sston placed the cutfi in a livery, and soon after su pper he went to his room. Wh»n Eleston retired the porter warned him of the gas, and E eston replied that he knew about gas, and had no deelre to die; so be would neither blow out the light nor leave the j t open. At six o'clock the porter wait to the door and received no answer to his knock. The door was burst open and Eleston was found dead lying on the bedolotlee Dr. McAndrew worked for half an hour in an effort to resuscitate E eston, but failed. C ironer Longstreet wait notified and he held an Inquest. The jury found that E eeton met an accidental death, caused by his own negHgonce. Major Parker had himself been a prisoner at Johnson's island and treated the Yankees with pompous consideration. When we retired for the night, the citizen prisoners were held in the kitchen, and wo officers were sent to beds in the room above. Lieutenant Sill and I slept in a cavernous feather bed alongside the only window in the loft until we were awakened by loud, angry voioes in the room below. The sunlight was streaming in through the little sash, and. we heard the major telling some one that he had just ton minutes to live and recommending him tartTKjke haste in preparing his dying Message to tjie loved ones at home. As soon as it was sufficiently dark I got around the little settlement and on to the main road leading up the mountain, which wan quite a feat of engineering, zigzagging back and forth across the eteep ascent and turning on log abutments well auchored with stones. I had bnt six miles to climb before reaching Bishop's house, which Was at the top of the divide, and I saw only one house on the way. Half way up I paused to rest before a big summer hotel, which loomed up among the bare trees like a window less deserted factory, behind its rotting gateways, making the bleak mountain side more dreary than ever. Two hours were spent at the prison Then the former prisoners of war drove downtown to a dinner, where the war was re-fought and the thrilling escape was gone over. There is only one act speech on these occasions. The one yesterday was made by Maj U. quhart, detailing the manner of the eeoape and the history of the survivors si ace tie war. Death of Charles Morgan. Jr, struggled d JoaflfC/ nn "Witu the Charles Morgan, a well known young man, son of C jariee Morgan, of William street, welghmaster at No 10 colliery, died Sunday night at nine o'clock, at the family home after an ill less of about two wee-is with typhoid-malaria. Deceased was about twenty-two yearB of age, and while his death of Itself w uld be a hard bio* to his parents, yet it is a doubly heavy affl otlon by reason of the fact that oniy last year Mr. and Mrs Morgan lent a daughter who had grown t D yonng womanhood. The son who has now been tatMDn away was a worthy young man and his t tklng away at the opening of a promising manhood is truly sorrowful. He was employed at the Lehigh Valley station in Wilkeebarre, and boarded In that city, but was a frequent visitor at his home here. He was a very active member of Sloouia Council, Jr. O U A M , o« tb'a c'fy. to lodgo the othor in his blue After breakfast I started o preacher for guide, it being no longer dangerous to travel by day. Along the roadside were numerous holes, in some eases quite extensive excavations where rude utteniptH had been made to move the nativo copj»er. We must have been traveling the regular Baptist road, for we lodged that night at the house of another lay brother. The minister continued with me for a few miles in the morning, intending to put me in company of a man who was going toward Cashiers valley on a hunting expedition, but the hunter having gone I set forward through the woods, following the tracks of his horse. The shoo prints As tbe Yankee officers were neither safe nor comfortable in such a desperately pressed party, they were sent on to friends of the Hoopers at Shooting Creek, near tbe Georgia line, and from there with experienced guides  passed over the Wacheosa trail into Tennessee. Then the old veterans called loudly for a song, and Maj. U qihart sang "The Continental Guards"—the same song he had sang for the prisoners on the eve of the night the escape was mads. We sprang up, and hurrying on our clothes descended to see what was the matter. Tbe major met us at the door as smiling and affable as if nothing hud occurred to rufflo his sweet temper and bade us go out to the branch and wash. The three Georgians before us and so agitated at tho turn of affairs that we found it difficult to get any intellisrible statement from them. Shortly before teaching Bishop's house my shoes, the same for which I had traded my vest with an old negro soon after leaving Columbia, and which I had bound around my feet with stout cords before leaving the Jail, began to out queer capers. One of them climbed Of the men who sat around the ttble at Kinsley's yesterday one—Maj Terrenoe Clark of the Ninth Illinois Infantry—was the original architect of tne tunnel and planned all the details of the memorable dash for freedom. making as little noise as possible on tbe floor and anxiously awaiting the suooees of the first descent The figure of the man outside was clearly cut against lamson And bill. Our party passed the following night in Waynesville Jail, and failing with another day's march to reach Asbeville