CENTRAL FIGURES IN WIZARD HOUDINI'S MYSTIFYING JAIL ESCAPE AND DIAGRAM
OF HIS MOVEMENTS.
_Cut by permission of The Boston Journal._]
[Illustration: Inside the Cell at the City Tombs, Boston, Mass.]
[Illustration: SUP'T. PIERCE LEFT HIM SHACKLED AND HANDCUFFED IN CELL
No. 60]
[Illustration: SUP'T. PIERCE SAT CHUCKLING IN THE CAPTAIN'S OFFICE
WAITING FOR HOUDINI TO WHISTLE FOR HIM.]
[Illustration: IN SIXTEEN MINUTES AFTER BEING LOCKED UP HE ESCAPED OVER
THE WALL.]
[Illustration: THE SUP'T. FOUND THE SHACKLES AND HANDCUFFS--BUT NO
HOUDINI.]
_Caricatures by permission of Boston Post._
Then Superintendent Pierce took a pair of the most approved handcuffs
used in the police department and fastened them securely about
Houdini's wrists, and on his bare ankles he clamped a pair of tested
steel leg irons so tightly that the iron sank into the flesh. After
that Houdini was locked in cell No. 60, and Superintendent Pierce
and the witnesses went downstairs and out into the office, expecting
Houdini would go there, providing he got out of his cell, and the
police officials who were present seemed to feel pretty confident that
he couldn't do that. This feeling was shared by some of the outsiders
present, who could not bring themselves to believe that it could be
done.
[Illustration: Over the Wall at the City Tombs, Boston, Mass.
_Photo with permission of the Boston Globe._]
The only condition Houdini attached to his performance was that no
one should be allowed to go into the part of the prison where he was
confined to watch him escape, and the superintendent and the witnesses
respected that condition, and most of them stayed in the captain's
office. A few of the witnesses, however, went out into Somerset Street
to wait and watch; for, knowing Houdini, they were prepared to see him
come out anywhere.
These confident ones were rewarded for their trust, for 16 minutes
after Houdini had been locked, naked, handcuffed, and ironed by the
legs, into cell 60, he was seen running, fully dressed, except that he
had not put on his collar and tie, across the prison yard, to climb up
the wall leading into Somerset Street, to vault the iron railing at
the top, and then to leg it like a scared rabbit over the hill in the
direction of Keith's Theatre.