The manner of their escape from the doomed quarters was as follows: It had always been customary since the death house was first opened for the inmates to have food warmed at night on one of the stoves. Nor was it uncommon for the keeper in charge to let the prisoners come out of their cell and brew tea or coffee at midnight on a stove which stood in the centre of the room. On the night in question, Frederick W. Roche, one of the condemned men, requested Keeper Hulse to permit him to leave his cell so that he might warm some tea, as he had eaten no supper. The keeper readily acceded to his request as he had done so many times before, not thinking that anything was wrong. Just then Roche threw a handful of pepper into the keeper’s eyes, which almost blinded him. Then Roche took away the keeper’s pistol and keys, and locked him in the cell which he had just vacated and threatened to kill him if he made the slightest disturbance. After he had opened Pallister’s cell, he invited the other prisoners in the chamber to accompany him, but they all declined. When he requested Carlyle W. Harris to come with him, he politely refused, saying that as he was innocent, he preferred to wait till the Courts gave him a vindication. But the vindication never came, as Harris was afterwards electrocuted, the highest Court having denied his appeal. Pallister and Roche left the death house by way of the skylight window, then dropped into the yard, a distance of fifteen feet. Strange to say, the yard keeper could not be found—where was he? And stealing a boat, which was afterwards found, they made for the river and disappeared. This looks like a put up job! Strange to say, these jail breakers were gone nine hours before the authorities knew what had taken place. As soon as Warden Brown took in the situation, he dispatched searching parties on both sides of the river, but without the least success. He also suspended Keepers Hulse and Murphy, and Yard Watchman Maher, and then started a searching investigation to find out how it was possible for these criminals to get away as they did. After the investigation, the Warden exonerated the keepers and restored them to their positions. Where they went to after leaving the prison, no one has ever been able to learn. A common opinion is that they may have been drowned in the river, as two bodies were afterwards found, but this is not sure. Most people seem to think that a schooner was awaiting them in the middle of the river and took them to South America, and the graft in the job amounted to $5,000. On the day of our visit to Sing Sing there were nine men in this doomed building, all under sentence of death. A week before the Court of Appeals had decided that one of the inmates, a Greek, should have a new trial, which left a vacancy. The persons then present in the death chamber were all well known to me except the two men from Brooklyn, who were Italians.