A PRISONER'S ESCAPADE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11662, 22 January 1902, Page 3

A PRISONER'S ESCAPADE.

27 HOURS AT BAY ON A ROOF. Oa the stli December the authorities and warders of Pentonville- prison were astonished by the discovery that one of the prisoners had eluded the vigilance of the varders and succeeded in establishing himself on the highest portion of the prison roof. It appears that the prisoner, Daniel Tagnell, is an ex-Army man, strongly built, and about 36 years of age. He had been, imprisoned for three months, and was to' have been- liberated next day. He had been unwell,»and was given light work, and that morning was cleaning the hospital steps. Close at hand a gate had., been left open, and through this gate the prisoner gained access to a pipe which runs up the prison wall. Up this lie swarmed, and shortly afterwards commenced shouting defiance and threats at the powers below. A few attempts were made to get at the prisoner by means of ladders, all of which, however, he kicked away directly they were placed in position. The iast attempt to reach him was made early in the afternoon, but as the prisoner threatened to •' bash out the brains" of anybody who came near, him, it was finally decided to let cold and hunger accomplish what ordinary methods . had failed to achieve. The prisoner spent the afternoon alternately laughing, crying, and threatening those below. , Thousands of people gathered at night at the back of the prison, from which at intervals the man could be seen as he patrolled the roof. For a time he lay sheltering himself from the wind under the lea. of the chimney-shaft, but about every twenty minutes he got up and walked along the roof and peered keenly about fcifi any signs of an attempt to scale the walls. As darkness set in an effort was made with climbing irons, but the man. whose sicrht appears to be very keen, perceived ' the warder who was attempting to fix the irons to the bottom of the wall and commenced dropping pieces of slate upon him. so that the warder had to give up the attempt. The man had got together a pile of loose slates at the extremity of the roof, and threatened to use them on anyone who tried to assail his position.

All night he was left alone, although inside the piison warders kept a weary vigil, and outside the adjoining streets were patrolled by men and women who made bets on the chances of his escape, and would have liked to win on his success. Now and again at intervals throughout the night they caught a glimpse of his tall figure, looking Titanic in the gloom, silhouetted against the sky. Then he would disappear, only to be next seen by the shuddering crowd sittir.g on a parapet with his legs dangling in the air.

With the break of -day the prison officials renewed their attempts to capture the- man, but all their attempts were futile. He was too nuick-sighted to be outflanked, and too cunning to be caught by a ruse. Once he seemed to be almost acrain in their clutches. The nooks and crannies of the prison loof afford shelter for numerous pigeons, and their presence gave the governor a hint. Two warders were dressed in civilian's clcthes, and stealthily made their way to_ Toenail's precipitous retreat. He was quick to detect their movements, ar.d. although they endeavoured to him by saying that they were only trying to capture some escaped pigeons, he suspected rightly that he himself was their quarry, and made off to a less accessible perch. His agility was marvellous, and he was as indifferent to danger as he apparently was impervious to cold. At 8 o'clock in the morning the temperature had reached freezing point, and Tagnall was clad only in a thin shirt and trousers. Yet he seemed in irrepressible good spirits, although shivering, dirty, and covered with soot. He chaffed the crowd good-naturedlv. made motfons witih his hands as if picking oakum, and again as though he wptp which he nre-

tended to cinnlc. a sympauieLtu passing held up his pipe. ' I just wish J could reach it," saicl the free, yet impilisoned, Daniel. Another man came to the door of a public-house and showed a pewuei ' not- of beer. The man on the voof only sorrowfully shook his head. It was .while this sort of pantomime was going on tiiat the most dramatic incident cf 1 agnail s tempted escape occurred. While everybody's eyes fcere fixed on the grim figure; \ arched on'the most inaccessible parts o. I' v roo f, a tall old woman had come quietlj :| Qife 're scene. i cn-1 ' first sight that met her bewilderec !" ill* is the enormous u crowd around the 'ffTO-r. -alls. Following the direction! oi she saw the man on the roof. :&»ir ■ God," she exclaimed, "it's my I *"• gu/ ifCT ut for the protecting arm of a 'son " •■ntV' b 1 would have fallen on the : P™™er's mother pavement: Sht ' ellod ir ° m to ni.eet and she'had : tim yesterday morning from him on his■ fflksm pathetic onlookeis at PentonvilleL ter an / ; ocd " s , he once' offered' Ikr she, s and also firmly aerefused their astetriSon. the governor, who clined the" invitation: 1 " arrival, to entei had been inferased'of? he. the prison. str ?, et > lmm !" , Pacing up and' dow t% Perilous posidiately beneatlv her \ come down, tion, she implored hiim tip But he was obdurate. . shouted "You go away, motlier," 3», down, back to her, " I'm not cotfldJij You go and fetch Jack." r ra P" Still the old woman continued iife peals. "I wish, oh, I wish," she hkjssu " that I had buried li'im when iras b,oy." ■'Mrs Tagnair is sixty-four years of" age;and was greatly distressed at her soin's-' plight, but neither her tears nor anything' she said seemed to have any effect upon' him. Neither did the arrival o/ his brother appear to influence liis actions. The' end of his siege however —it lasted close upon twenty-seven hours —was not far off. About noon he voluntarily left the roof, tempted to capitulation by the sight of a plate of roast beef and potatoes which the prison officials placed on the ground at the foot of a long ladder leading up to his stronghold. This was too much for a cold and hungry man, and Tagnall i walked down the ladder into the arms of the waiting warders. ■ But for his mad escapade he could have walked out a free man in the morning. Various explanations are given of his conduct, one of which is that he was under the delusion that he was wanted on some serious charge, and thought to evade it by breaking prison. The end of his exploit was decidedly ignominious; he fell a victim neither to force nor guilt, but to the demands of his stomach. He sold his birthright of freedom for a mess of roast beef. The humorous side of the escapade decidedly preponderates ; for it appears that after all he spent a considerable portion of his own time besides some of his sentence on the roof.