Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-06-23
A STRUGGLE IN THE DARK.

-Euenina Post
A STRUGGLE In THE DARK.
Discovery OF Burglar-His Encounter with
Mr.. Schute-The Latter Shot Twice in the
NecA-The Assassi4's Efforts Escape
from the House-Bravery of Mrs. Schute.
From the N. Y. Times, June 9.
The house of Mr.. Aaron Schultz is one
of row of modern three-story brown
stone buildings standing in Tompkins
avenue. All the houses have large gar
dens at the rear, and are easily APP
preached from that direction, by reason
of the fact that the block is not built up
all around. The block is bounded by
Tompkins avenue, Throop avenue,
Macomb and McDonough streets.
In Tompkins avenue all the
houses are close together. In
McDonough street are three or four de-
tached residences surrounded by
grounds, Macomb street, between
Tompkins and Throop avenues, is, for
the most part, taken up with stables
belonging to the houses on McDonough
street. The Throop avenue boundary
consists of fence and some houses.
From this description it will be seen
that the rear of these houses on Tomp-
kins avenue could be easily approached
from at least two sides of the block.
The number of Mr.. Schute's house is
400, and it stands the third in the block
from McDonough street. At the time
of the shooting there were in the house
Mr.. Schultz and his wife, who occupied
as a bedroom the back parlor on the
second floor, Miss Wilkins, their nurse,
and Mrs. Toby, relative of the family.
Miss Wilkins and Mrs. Toby occupied
she front room on the third floor.
The bed in the room occupied by Mr..
and Mrs. Schultz was placed crossways,
and stood midway between the door and
the windows. Mr. Schultz occupied the
side next the door, which opened di-
rectly on the stairs, and was left ajar
for the purpose of allowing a draft of
fresh air to pass through the room.
On Monday night the family retired
to rest early, as was their custom, first
seeing that ell the windows and doors
In the lower part of the house were fas-
tened.
About 2:30 o'clock yesterday morning
Mr.. Schultz was aroused from his sleep
by hearing a noise in the room. One of
the window-blinds was partially open,
and ray of starlight fell across the
room. Turning his eyes accidentally in
the direction of a large looking glass,
Mr.. Schultz saw reflected on the glass,
by the ray of light, the figure of a man
in the act of taking gold watch from
the mantel- piece. Without moment s
hesitation Mr.. Schultz, who is large,
strongly built man. sprang from the bed
toward the thief. The latter had just time
to swing dark lantern over his head
and bring it down with great force on
Mr.. Schute's forehead. Though
stunned by the blow, Mr.. Schultz was
not disabled, and in a moment he had
the thief by the neck. Both men rolled
over together on the floor, the robber,
who was much the smaller of the two,
under. While down, Mr.. Schultz called
to his wife to strike light. The strug-
gle on the floor was brief one. A pis-
toll shot was heard; then came anoth er
desperate trial of strength, in which
both men strained every nerve to gain
supremacy. Then another shot, and
the larger of the two men rolled over on
the floor in q pool of his own blood,
while the robber jumped to his feet.
At the call of her husband Mrs.
Schultz hurried from her bed to strike a
light. She had just ignited it when the
second shot was fred, In her fright
she dropped the lighted match, but had
just time to get look at the burglar by
its brief fame. He was short slight
man, with brown hair, but his face was
so completely covered with blood that
she could not tell whether he had any
bearaon his face.
Nerving herself to great effort, Mrs.
Schultz seized her husbands assassin
by the arms, but on his threatening to
shoot her, let go her hold. The burglar
then rushed toward the door, and there
encountered Mrs. Toby, who, hearing
the shots, rushed down from her room
She attempted to stop the fugitive, but
was easily pushed aside. Recovering
herself, Mrs Toby ran down some steps
of the stairs in pursuit of the burglar,
and then returned to the room in which
the shooting took place.
The gas had been lighted, but turned
down very low, in the bedroom when
Mr.. and Mrs. Shute retired to rest, but
the burglar had taken the precaution to
turn the gas off when he entered the
room. Mrs. Toby, on going back to
the bedroom, lit the gas, when horri-
BILE sight met her view. Mr. Schultz was
in sitting posture ON the floor. The
blood was pouring in torrents from two
great holes-one on either side of his
neck. His face and night-clothing were
covered with the blood, and round him
on the carpet it had formed into pools.
The bed-clothing and the furniture
were ssneared with the same crimson
fluid.
Finding himself operpowered in the
struggle with Mr.. Schultz, the burglar,
while both lay on the floor, had FREQ
the first shot through the unfortunate
gentleman's neck. It entered at the lef
Side and passed clear through, COMING
cut near the iugular vein, and lodged
in the wall near the jamb of the bedroom