Dec. 24, 1906 (Monday)

CHURCH SERVICE PROVIDES COVER FOR JAIL BREAK: Nine prisoners escaped from the Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati yesterday -- a Sunday -- DURING THE CHURCH SERVICE. The escapees sawed their way through a window and scrambled across from the cell block to a one-story structure -- thanks to two ladders spliced together with bed clothing. A boy spotted the men when they jumped 20 feet to the ground and ran off. One of the escapees is named Clarendon Henri, who was arrested recently in New York and convicted of stealing the picture "Girl Knitting" from the Cincinnati Art Museum. I think it's this one on the right, by Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen. He cut the picture from its frame. It's worth about $750. (Multiply by 20 for 2006 dollars.)

AFTER 15 DAYS, MINER IS RESCUED FROM HIS TOMB: A 15-day drama ended shortly before midnight on Dec. 22, when rescuers finally pulled Lindsay B. Hicks from a "tomb" inside Granite Mountain near Bakersfield, Calif. He had been caught in a cave-in while building a tunnel for the Edison Power Co. Others died. Somehow he survived -- thanks largely to a large car that prevented some heavy timbers from falling on him. He told his tale and a lengthy story is on the front page of today's New York Times and many other papers. For days he survived on milk that was sent down to him through a long iron tube. The Times article ends with a comment by the man who led the remarkable rescue: "You have been a most faithful man, Hicks. You have been on duty for fifteen days and nights and never asked for a day off. You have been drawing pay all the time." Speaking of money, Hicks -- who was in remarkably good physical shape -- says he has received offers, adding, "I do not deny that I consider making some easy money" in the wake of this ordeal.

THE BEST HEADLINE EVER: Today's New York Times has a wonderful one-column headline for a two-paragraph story out of London. Here it is: "BIG EARTHQUAKE SOMEWHERE." That, of course, was the point of the article. Seismographs at the Isle of Wight, Bologna and Florence registered a shock that lasted about three hours on the night of Dec. 22. However, the instruments gave no indication WHERE the earthquake was located. It might have been in Turkestan. The article cites a dispatch from Kopal that tells of a shock in that region.

FOR THE WANT OF A PENNY, A HUSBAND KILLS HIS WIFE, AND HIMSELF: Teamster William Woodrich wanted a beer yesterday. He demanded that his wife find him the money. She searched their Chicago house but could find only four cents. She offered them to him. He knocked them from her hand, yelled at her, followed her into their bedroom and SHOT HER DEAD. Then, he KILLED HIMSELF. Two of their daughters were in the next room.