HOW JAMES STEPHENS ESCAPED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 27, 30 October 1885, Page 23

HOW JAMES STEPHENS ESCAPED.

JOHN Devot (says the Nation) in the New York Sun tells the story of Stephen 8 escape from Richmond Prison in 1865 As Devoy was one of the chief men engaged in carrying out the rescue, his account of it may be looked upon as a trustworthy one Devoy says that the principal actors in the affair are all now in New York Five of those whe took part mit are dead. Another one is in Australia and two^Oßly are now living in Ireland. The narrative opens by " Among the officers of the prison were John J. Breslin, hospital steward, and Daniel Byrne, one of the two night watchmen Both are now residents of New York, Byrne being on the police force and tfresltn in Commissioner Colenaan'd department. Byrne was a member of the Fenian organisation, having be n sworn in by Captain John Kerwan, the ex-Papal zouave, how also of New York but Breshn, although a man of Btrong Nationalist opinions, did not belong to any organisation." John Breslm, having determined to set Stephens at liberty entered into communication with Colonel Thomas J. Kelly now of New York Custom House, whose rescue subsequently from the prisoa van in Manchester led to the Manchester martyrdom. Breshn and Kelly, atrange i the details between them , and these were personally communicated to Stephens by Breslin. Mr. Devoy proceeds •— '• The plan was very simple aud effective, and was Breslm's in every detail. Stephens was placed in »ne of the hospital cells in a small corridor on the third fiour. The only other occupants of the corridor were hisco league; Charks J. Kickham, the popular poet aud novelist, who recently died in Dublin, and a regular jail-bird named M'Leod Ihe governor, to provide against all possibility of escape, had a police sentinel placed on the other side of the door leading to that portion of the prisoa where O'Leary, Luby. Mulcahy, Roantree, and the other Femau prisoners were quartered, while the other entrance to the corridor was secured by two doors, one of wood an 1 the other of iron. JU'Leod was in a cell between the cells of Stephens and Kickham, and bad orders from the governor to ring his cell gong on the first sound of anything unusual in the neighbouring cells This would have at ouce given the alarm and have effectually prevented escape. T be police officer couM not unlock the door between him and the corridor, and the iron door at the other cod could oulv be opened by ihe pass key, which was locked in the goveruor's safe "The governor's office, where all the keys were deposited at a certain 'hour every evening was effectually promoted from all attemps from the inside by a heavy iron gate, locked on the side facing the main entrance. Brewin had a latch-key which opened the door of tbe hospital where be slept, and that Lading to the portion of the prison where Stephens was confined. To euable him to enter the corridor be mubt have a p<tas key, and to open the cell door another kay He took impassions in beeswax of the regular keys m üßeu Be in the daytime, and new ones were filed down io fit the impressions by an optician Bt.ll resident n, Dublin. Even at this early stage of the affair a hitch occurred which showed the lack of precision au.l promptness characterising the whole Fenian movement Ihe beeswax was not foi incoming at tbe time appointed Afur waiting several days Breahn was obliged to go out aud buy it himself, tbus ruQUiug the risk of giving a clue to the police that might be the ineaos of convicting him if brought to trial. The keys were finally in Breslm'a hanas, but even at the last moment he was obliged to dos^me filing on ooe of them, and to run some extra risk by fittiug it to the lock of a d^or, that Bvrne, his colleague in the enterprise, could not open.

The keys having been atted, Colonel Kelly was notified and arrangements were made to receive Stephens on the outside of the pmoa walls. Byrne was on watch every second night The 21st was chosen because that was ooe of his nights on duty, and for a moet singular reason. Breslm had a superstition that the 21st was a

£?7i d *£ fOT him _' be ? auße nearl y a" b»s strokes of good fortune had befallen him on that day of the month." uue uaa Turning to his own share in the work, Mr. Devoy says — toM Jt\h 5 "<»Ptfoa of the plot Co]oQel Kelly sent for me and told me the duty I was to perform. For two months the police held a warrant for my arrest, and my description wasia the Bm and Cry Like many others who were wanted by the police, I remaiaedTn Dublin waitmg for the fight which we all confidently expected and I could attend ono regular business. I had been placed in charge mi M?^ S l °? l V h6 Bfitißh amy ' We ™mbered about 15,000 men, fully 8,000 of whom were then stationad in Ireland. For hat and other reasons I happened to be better acquainted with the local Sn cr w f,h1 ra XK k,k ,1 D ? file °t theDulllia wwStartion than any man Jm in on *j!! ly 8 re l ch - He told me he wa^ed me to pick out from 10 to 20 of the very best men I knew in Dublin for a special work requiring courage, coolness, and self-control." The following were the men selected by Devoy — .;^f" Ia ace ? rdanc , with th ese instructions Devoy selected eight men whom he cosidered best fitted for the duty the nature of which he knew instinctively. Colonel Kelly himself selected two men-John Ryan son* of a Liverpool merchant, and another not named. Most of the men seleSed by Devoy had been some kind of military sejvice and they were all determined cool and brave. Tbeir names were Paddy Kearney a Dublin blackamith ; Michael Cody, a friend of Kearney : John tITmV c^ a-Pa -P° rte V °« Q °! 8 Duggan, a young coaehbuilder ; John Mullen, the son of a Dublin storekeeper ; Matthew O'Neill, a Dublin stonecutter ; John L%wler, and William Brophy, a carpenter. These, says Devoy, ' with Kelly, the two men chosen by him, and myself were the only persons outside the walla of Richmond prison that sight. r

The position of the rescuing party is thua described :— "At length the day fixed for the escape arrived. Toward midnight the httle squad of men told off for a body-guard dropped one by one into Lynca's public-house in Catnpien-street, a short distance from the prison, and quietly awaited th 3 word to move. Bat the promised revolvers were not forthcoming, and much disgust was expressed. But the men were all provided in time. Two revolvers were brought to the spot where Coloael Kelly and a few of the men were stationed in a field opposite the prison, about an hour before the escape, by Nicholas Walsh, a well-known Dublin artist, who has since then ded iv Florence, The men fully expected a fight before morning. The night was dark. Tha men arrived oa the ground by. different routes in small groups, and quietly took up the position previously assigned them. Kelly, Ryan, the optician, and Brophy were at a point opposite the prison wall, in a field on the othar side of ihe Circular-road, keeping in the shadow of a high wall running diagonally inward from the road. Kearney, Cody, Mullen and Lawler were placed under the shadow of a hedge at the gate of the field directly opposite the prison gate. Harrison, Duggan, and O'Neill were in a little dark nook at the Love-lana end of the prison wall between the latter and the wall of the cabbage garden that lay be« tween the Circular-road and the canal. My instructions were to move from post to post, reporting at interval! to Colonel K«lly till the time fixed for the escape, when I was to take my place with him A low mud wall separated the field from the road, and in a hole on the inside of this wall John Ryan had earlier in the evening deposited a coil of sfout rope with knots arranged at about pvery two feet of its length, so as to make it easier to climb by when flung over the wall. Here the men waited in the drizzling rain for hours for the signel which was to tell them that Stephens had been let out of the prison and was waiting inside the outer wall for the rope to be thrown over. He was to throw a stone over the wall as a signal that the rope was wanted, and the « Quack, quack,' of a duck, repeated by Ryan, was to announce that tbe moment was at hand. There was a genuine duck m the neighbouring garden that raised a false alarm once. The COIR was an hour behind time."

Mr. Devoy then relates the story of Stephen's release from hia cell as is generally known. The specially prepared keys did their work well, and no alarm interfered with the escape. Having reached the outer wall of the prison, the rope which Ryan had secreted earlier in the evening was thrown over, and Stephens "aiued the top :—: — °

' After he had vamly tried to hitch the rope between two stones on the top of the wall, John Ryan told him to drop down with his back to the wall, ana we would catch him. He did so. and Kyan caught his feet on bis breast, the sand on the soles leaving the impiiDtof tbe shoes on his buttoned coat. It staggered Ryan, and as he was coming down I caught Stephens about the kneeß and let him slide to the ground. Stephens and Kelly at once crossed the road and turned into Love-lane, a Jong, winding street running through market gardens and having few houses. From Love-lane they turned into Brown street. In this street was the house where the COIR was to be concealed. Mrs. Boland and a sister of Mr. James O'Connor, of United Ireland, and now a resident »t Brooklyn' had undertaken to shelter him, and a bright boy of 15, who had acted as messenger between Stephens and Kelly before his arrest, was on the look-out. Stephens remained many months in Ireland directing tbe Fenian movement, stopping a great portion of the time in the house of Mrs. Butler, a fashionable dressmaker, almost in the face of tbe Kildare stieet Club, the head-quarters of Irian loyalty and finally escaped in a fishing-smack to France, whence he came to this country. Mrs. Butler's patiom, being mostly loyalists, on hearing of her harbouring a Fenian chief, withdrew their cuttom and she was ruined and died in poverty."

A Wisconsin woman accuses her husband of trying to persuade her to commit suicide in a manner that would enable him to collect for their children the amount of an insurance policy on her life. He argued the propriety of the project, since she was feeble and likely to require much doctoring during the rest of her natural life, thus using up money needlessly, whereas by dying at once she oould leave the family in good circumstances.