A Jailbreak on the Great Northern Tracks

Sheriff Merritt has appointed W. J. Geary, of Newport, to succeed James Kearns as overseer of the county jail chain gang. Geary took over his job Monday morning.

A real western man hunt, in which escaping prisoners were overhauled at the mouth of "smoke wagons," occurred Wednesday afternoon, when three men made a futile attempt to escape from the county chain gang as the prisoners were starting out from the county poor farm for the county jail. A. R. Davis, who is serving time from Newport on a battery charge, started the trouble when, as the new overseer, J. Geary, was escorting the chain gang in the neighborhood of the Great Northern track, the prisoner shot out as they turned by the coal chutes and broke into a run. Davis has a small hand and wrist and slipped the handcuffs when he started. Geary took the chain gang to the Great Northern depot and told some men standing there to look after them while he took chase after the escaping prisoner. Geary chased Davis into a field west of the Great Northern and fired at him with a .45 revolver, peppering away among the stumps as Davis dodged in among them. When Geary had exhausted the bullets in the .45 he pulled a .32 automatic and fired from that. Davis got as far as the slough when he gave up. Geary shot seven or eight shots at him before he overtook him.

— Sandpoint Review