The Converted Burglar Who Asked Kansas to Come and Get Him

Elijah Brown, alias J. W. Howard, a burglar who escaped from the Kansas state prison three years ago with eight long years yet to serve, was converted in this city last Saturday night at the Salvation Army barracks. He has now notified the governor of Kansas and the warden of the state penitentiary at Leavenworth that he is here and ready and willing to go back to Kansas and expiate his crime whenever sent for.

Brown came into the Post-Intelligencer office yesterday afternoon and told his story with some hesitancy. 'I was arrested the first time in 1888 on a charge of burglary, but escaped jail and was then rearrested and sentenced to one year's imprisonment on a charge of jail-breaking. After serving my sentence I was mixed up in another burglary with two other fellows. We burglarized a restaurant one night at Chanute, Kan., and for this we were all arrested. The other two fellows escaped, but one of them was located in Colorado and was shot and killed while resisting arrest. I was tried and sent up for twelve years. I served four years and escaped from the penitentiary at Leavenworth three years ago and came West.

'Since that time they have hunted me a good deal and have made my life miserable, although I have been an honest man since my escape. Once they came West after me, but I got wind of their intention and slipped away and they could not locate me. For some months past I have been working at a boarding house at 1021 Third Street, washing windows, etc. I have never told my story before, although for some time I have been living under my right name, which is Elijah Brown. In Kansas the police and the warden of the state penitentiary will know me by the name of J. W. Howard.'

The man says he is 51 years old, and that he was first arrested when he was 18. He committed his last crime when he was 23, but he says he was never a criminal at heart; that he was led into the crimes by older companions. He is a medium-sized man with a stubby brown beard, and does not look like a criminal. He says that for some time he has been endeavoring to become a Christian, but that his past life has come up before him as a barrier and prevented him from considering himself good enough for the society of other men. He wants to atone for his misdeeds by publicly telling his crime to the world and by notifying the governor of Kansas and the warden of the state prison of his whereabouts so that they can come for him if they want him to serve out the balance of his sentence—eight years.

Brown concluded his story with: 'I have not told my story to anyone before in years. The Salvation Army people know nothing about it. I was converted Saturday night, and then decided to come around and tell you people who I was. I did not have heart to come around Sunday, and decided to wait until Monday, but yesterday I could not bring myself to the point of calling. I could not sleep, and so today I am here, and am ready to go back to prison and start in life, when my sentence is over, owing no man anything, and devote the rest of my days to doing all the good I can. Tell them I am with Corps No. 1, Salvation Army, Seattle, and will stay here until further orders.'

The officers at the Salvation Army barracks, when seen last evening, said that Elijah Brown was one of the two men who voluntarily professed religion at the barracks last Saturday night. Brown was noted for the sincerity of his profession and his desire to do penance for his sins. He, however, said nothing to the officers of his criminal record, and seems to have reserved that for the Post-Intelligencer. While Brown was on his knees in the midst of a prayer meeting the reporter called out the captain to inquire what knowledge he had of Brown. The captain could give no information beyond the fact of his conversion and the earnestness of his devotion. When told that he was a self-confessed escaped convict, the captain excused himself, went to the kneeling figure, and after a whispered question and answer returned to the reporter and said: 'Yes, he admits that he is an escaped convict, but he proposes to do right, no matter what the consequences may be.'