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TIME readers and subscribers in El Dorado County, Calif., and particularly in Placerville, are interested in your article in "Names Make News" column, issue of Dec. 5. Mr. McGeehan errs slightly in the time of the prison break referred to. The break occurred on the afternoon of Friday, July 31, 1903, and until the Thanksgiving break of 1927, which the undersigned covered as United Press correspondent, was the worst in the history of Folsom prison—"hard-boiled," "second-termer" sanctuary for the lawbreakers of California. On the following night, Saturday, Aug. 1, 1903, the main band of convicts, seven in number, were surrounded at the Victory Mine, Manzanita Hill, nine miles southwest of Placerville. Posses from Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Amador and other neighboring counties were reinforced by the National Guard Unit, Company H, then the pride of Placerville and northern California.
Two members of the Guard, Festus Rutherford, 19, and Griffin Jones, 21, were killed in the pitched battle that raged all night, their bodies recovered through the heroism of Guardsmen. Albert Gill, another Guardsman, fell with a bullet through his lungs and all night long lay without water while his comrades sought to kill or capture the ambushed men. Alfred Springer, a farmer in the Manzanita Hill section, was an innocent victim of the accurate aim of Guardsmen. Accidentally getting inside the guard lines, he was challenged by those on guard. Hard of hearing, he failed to respond to the challenge or to halt as ordered and fell with two bullets through his body. Mr. McGeehan's experience probably occurred in the rough, wild and sparsely settled section east of the fatal battleground on the days following the battle of Manzanita Hill. The other band of convicts entrenched themselves at Pilot Hill, 16 miles north of the Victory Mine, where a battle was fought without bloodshed. Subsequently, all the convicts were captured and returned to Folsom except three who were killed during the search and one "Red Shirt" Gordon. The latter's name is still carried on the rolls of Folsom prison as one of the few men to make good an escape, although a report within the last five years was to the effect that he was killed during a hold-up in South America. . . . H. B. THOMAS, Editor
The Republican Placerville, Calif.
Play About Paul
Sirs: A winter visitor in "sunny" California, while browsing in the Hollywood Book Store one rainy afternoon, I was attracted to a little volume entitled The Great Apostle, by a striking picture of The Crucifixion on the jacket. This book, written by H. O. Stechan and issued by a local publisher, fascinatingly presents the spectacular life of St. Paul in play-form—a welcome variation, since of the making of many books about the doughty Apostle to the Gentiles there seems to be no end. Often I have wondered why no one has ever been inspired to write a drama about the picturesque organizer of Christianity—and here it is. I call your attention to my discovery, because in the Jan. 12 issue of TIME a Minnesota clergyman thanked you for reviewing several works with a spiritual note, and asked for more. . . . MRS. MATHILDA MARKHAM Chicago, Ill.
Forelock Caught
Sirs: