ve been
made at various times to escape, notable among them being that of E. A. Strickland from San Mateo, who after three months devoted labor upon his lock, and having in readiness a scaling-hook and rope, stepped from his cell only to encounter the six-shooter of the officer who for several days had been watching him. Ten days in the dungeon and a severe whipping was the penalty for this attempt.
The prison commission of Nevada took possession of the six-cell jail with twenty acres of land, and a fine inexhaustible quarry near Carson, purchased for $80,000 on the 1st of March, 1864. The same year another building with thirty-two cells was constructed by the convicts at an outlay of only $4,000 besides their labor ; and several other structures rose during the following years.
Still more exciting than the escapes at San Quentin was that which took place at the Nevada state prison, Carson, on Sunday September 17, 1871. A well arranged plan had been formed with the aid, it was rumored, of several outside and powerful coadjutors.
The projector was a young horse-thief named Clifford, who, in conjunction with a numerous staff, had for some time been gathering information of routine and buildings to guide the operations, and had collected all available scraDs of iron and other material for tools and sluno^-shot.
It was the custom to allow prisoners the use of the western-cell room on Sundays, free from direct super- vision, and of this they had availed themselves on two preceding Sabbaths to cut through the ceiling into the loft, and thence through the wall into the adjoining building on the east. A signal had been agreed upon, and shortly before six o'clock, when the cells were to be locked for the night, the plotters had nearly all crept through the opening, and had taken up positions in the adjoining loft, sixty feet distant, over the room of the deputy warden, while a few de- termined fellows waited below for the captain of the
