The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-01-27

inr back, and dropped IN at inc oiu l,' a. .
Mace there in Maiden Lane 10 Try anu nnu
out something. Old Calcolt (that was niS
nancy had got rich. What win MS oahk locH
and his other inventions, his mean why Vi
Tin ,in and his luck in buying some down
town property before people haa an iuea h1 Nv
hi@ me civ was going to be, he'd come to be
a Tegular napob | couldn't get word out
of him about his boy. He said he'd given
him nm. and was going to retire from Dusl-
ness Money must have come in pretty last
then to the old fellow. He showed me hall
a dozen patents that he was going to sell Out
anv one of EN- must have been worth PIE
OF dollars
Now think of it, it was Calcott who put
the first Frankllnite in an iron safe, aud ne
invented the rubber flange which prevented
the thieves from using the alr-pump when
they wanted to blow up safe.
| It seems that when young Calcolt started
| for America he'd made up his mind to Gu,
his London acquaintance and TICKS, anu
square 1t by going back to the OLD man None
of us knew it at the time. Well, when ne gov
here curious thing happened, we had :
man in the Central Office by the name OF
Meehan, who was in with an east slde moD'
He was broke about year afterwards NEE,
han had got word from the London gang, ana
|
enough to send him up; and he made a
straight offer to HIM to stay with the east side
gang if he didn't want to end his career Tor
usefulness. What does Calcott do but hum
and haw and go to see some of the fellows,
and finding himself pretty well staked out,
gives in and opens fresh lay OF industry.
| He said afterwards he intended to cut 'em me
| first chance he got. But he never did. tie
| got to be big chief In as dangerous gang as
ever worried the men In Mulberry street. we
| thought we had HIM two or three times, but
| he slipped through our fingers. There WASH !
clean job in iron put up anywhere oal II
| had the marks of his tools on 1t. when the
war broke out he was IN New Orleans, and
we lost track of him for five or SIX years,
| was in the winter of '6j that the gentle
mems places along the Hudsoa were broken
into by river gang. You may recollect it.
Judge Schermerhorn's house at Glen SOrlng
was entered one night and robbed OF $50,U'0
worth of property. The papers made good
deal of fuss about il, and we had three or four
men working at it. One day Madison comes
into the office with copy of the Glen Spring
paper-Herald, | believe 1t was-and says,
Look at this. Here's 60 Read that"
| And he pointed out an advertisement. This
is the way 1t read
All burglars house breakers, sneak thieves and
assassins are hereby notified that have over
sGOOOO worth of coin, jewels and silverware In
my house, which they are welcome to II they Will
come and take it. No dogs, servants or laborers
about the place. The house is a mile from any
other residence, and the only occupant is an old
man, not in very good health, by the name OF
JONI CALCoTT.
ats some old lunatic, says |, "who hasn't
got money enough to get credit"
Matt
he's worth halt million. He lives In fine
house all by himself about two miles rom the
depot"
1t was three-days' talk in the office and
then we forgot It, But the advertisement was
kept in the paper, and one day 1t seems Tony
Frost, Down at Dobbs' Ferry, struck 1t. That
was the way it got 10 the gang. They pooh
phoocd 1t as "chaif," but Frost, it seems went
up to Glen Spring, poked about, sitted the
the thing, accommodated the premises and
came down to the city with big yara for
his pals. His report was that the old "luny"
had got "A sign on his fence informing every.
body that passed, that here was the unpro-
tcoted house full of valuablcs that the river
gang didn't dare to walk INTO. He was sure,
too, that there wasn't any CANNON about the
stuff, for he'd found out that old Cacott was
immensely rich, and kept nearly all his
wealth in his house.
Now, l don't suppose ITS reasonable that
regular cracksman should bite at any such
bait rs this; but Tony Frost kept poking
away at it, and one day somebody in the
gang SAID 1t was too much to have the protes,
sion insulted in that way, unless they were all
afraid of the old duiler. After that Tony
Frost went to the house, got up as a tramp,
and tried the back door The moment he
knocked it flew open, and an old mans voice
hailed him over the stairs, Halo, there, what
d you want"
"Summat to eat, if yer please" says Tony,
shutting in and taking good look around.
500 down and try the Kitchen" shouts the
old man, land don't stand gaping round that
way There's bread down stairs. If you
want to examine the house, come up when
your bellys full, and I'll show it to you"
With that Tony goes down the way he came
and walks INTO the kitchen, where little
girl was washing dishes. She gave him
some bread and meat and talked quite freely.
To his astonlshment she told him that the old
man had lots of mopey in the house. She'd
seen it. She also told him that she lived in
the village and went home every night. lie
must have made favorable report because
il wasn't long after that when Bill Ketchum,
who was the ringleader of the river gang,
thought he'd take look at the house. Soup
he goes, playing the part of pedlar, and
drops the neatcst little pack in front of the
place wnen he sees the sign There 1t was,
sure enough nicely lettered in red On white
ground, aud inviting all burglars, house
breakers, sneak thieves and assassins to come
IN and take what they could get. The house
stood n good ways back from the road, and as
Bill went up the wide path he had good
chance to take IN the dwelling. TWAS alarge
brick house with high stone foundation and
an iron s,oop There wasn't a shutter or a
pair of blinds on the place. And if anybody
had tried to set 1t afire he would have given
up the job as Il bad one.
Ketchum got in through the kitchen. He
had lot of things IN his pack that tickled
the fancy OF the girl, and he let her amuse
herself with them while he ate q sandwich
she had given him, and asked her lot of sly
questions. But he couldn't get much out of
her, simply because she didn't know anything,
so he made up his mind TO interview the old
man and t,okps obnut fill he nm stairs