The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1865-05-10

cautiously, he enters Il house before he is
heard. Few men would, however, ven
ture to do SO, unless they previously had
good information as 20 the interior ar
rangement of the house this they obtain
either from servants, tradesmen, or sohe
one who visits the locality, or they come
themselves as tramps, or with some trile
to sell. Thus, if there are bells attached
to the doors or windows, they find it out;
and they know tolerably well the domestic
arrangements of the locality they purpose
trying their skill upon. There are, too,
conventional methods Of protecting
house. such as bolts, bars, chains, locks
&c, all of which require merely time and
proper instruments to overcome. it there
fore occurred TO me that novelty and sim
plicity combined would be more than
match for the coarse intellect Of burglar,
and thus maze my plans, which, you
see, answered very we'll"
No doubt about that" we replied.
"Wcll now, come up to my room," he
cont nuel, "anl see the apparatus"
We entered his room, and there, close
beside his pillow, was a tin box. in the
bottom of which was a key.
"This Is nearly all the apparatus he
said; "but YOU notice some thread lastcn-
ed TO the key; trace that thread, and you
will find it passes through that small hole
in the sash; from there it goes down to
the back ard; and now you will COM
prehend my plan. | knew that no man
could approach the bark-part of the house
without walking up the back yard, which
is only four y. r,l> wide. | therefore tied
acros, the backyard, and about two feet
front the eround some fine black thread
this WA, made fast on one side; but slip
ped through loop, AMI led up II my
window ON the other. The thread then
passo, through the hole hail bored in the
winlow-s,sh, and was than m;t'c fast to
this key. Under the key | placed the tin
box. you see and over the key WAS a
bar, to prevent its heing dragged up more
than six inches Each night, before
went to bed, just drew the string tight
and fastened it in the yard, taking care to
rec 1t every morning. SO as 70 keep the
plan a secret. II, then, man. or any
thing above two feet high, walked up the
yard, the thing was pressed against, the
key was drawn up sharply against the
bar, and the string broken, when the key,
Of courre, fell into the tin box, making
quite noise enough to wake me. lmme-
diatcly the string or thread broke, it
would fall to the grnniii and the person
who had done all this would not have lclt
anything, the resistance being so slight. |
must own sholld have preferred horse
aanfi55iwteTre'di afi5i tT a very well. | was fat asleep
when the key fell, but Immediately awoke.
and taking my lantern outside my door,
lighted it, AMI cane to you, for kuew
that man only in the back yard could
have dropped my key, So now you see
how the burglars were trapped, for you
know all the rest"
''Ceriainly, you succeeded, and so we
ought not TO be critical" we replied.
'But suppose they had entered by the
front-window, instead Of by the back,
how then p
"You see this thread,' he said, grasp
ing one that was near the door; ''pull it,"
| did so, and Immediately tin cup
dropped into the hand-ba,in.
THAT thread goes down stairs, and is
fastened across the front -windcw; but
broke that off as went ont of my room,
SO that it should not impede my journey
down stairs. Thus could at once know
whether man was approaching the
back-door or had entered by the front
window, and in either case, | think !
could have captured him.
Simplicity had certainly been adopted
in the present case, but the means had
shown themselves to he efficient
''People are usually very silly" CON
tinued our friend, ''when they hear, or
think they hear, suspicious noises of
night The first thing they usually do i,
to light Il candle, winch procla'ms TO the
rohber that he has been h ard, and must
escape; then they 60 about the house
with this can lie, and make a great nos
so that man may have plenty of time
TO get away, or to hide himself Instead
of this, il person We're to listen lntently
he wo;:ld he able to hear any suspicious
hoi'NN dl0il'hltls anu ucCitu upon llcH
cause; then, as he must know his own
house better than robber he is best off
Of the two in the dark and when having
armed himself he has quietly opened his
door, he may wait and listen until the
robbers are heard moving about, when he
may take such steps as may seem neceS-
sary. IT every person was merely to plan
what was to be done in case of robbers
entering his house, and then were 10 car
ry out this il the occasion required ii, bur
2lary would be too dangerous AMI unsuc-
cessIul IA proceeding to lie popular or pro-
able, AMI thus might be given up for
more honest means OF obtaining Il livel-
hood; SO that really we may consider
ourselves to have done the community at
urge Il benefit, when we capture one of
these gentry whilst those VINO allow their
houses to he robbed with impunity, jeo.
parlize their neighbors property
What is the difference between q darkey
sergeant and mud Ans. One ''closes
the files" and the other defiles the clothes.
When is IA gambler like Hamlets grave
digger Ans.-When he covers heart