The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-10-05

AOAIAb AAOl4 AAdAe i OML AOOAu III your
house and mine in my house are ada
cent, and the head of your bed is Just
near mine. Now / will buy you a small
hammer, and all you have to do is to
take it to bed with you. At the least
noise take your hammer and give three
raps on The wall i will at once under
stand that by that is meant a precau-
tionary signal It's quite as good as
any Geographic apparatus I hear the
three raps, good. ] wake up at once,
and, springing out of bed, put on my
clothes. 4 am prepared for action, as il
were. Then, should your fears con
tinue, you keep on rapping. / under
stand at once that the danger is immi-
nent. Then I seize my revolver, cock
il, rush down stairs. bound over the
fence, and my presence at once diseOn-
certs the robbers. They endeavor to
escape; / shoot two or three OF them.
and you and your charming grand
daughter are saved"
Its very dreadful but quite kind
and thoughtful of you and so ingeni-
Gus. l do believe that if | knew that
some one was watching for my safely
half of my fears would be dissipated. "
The old woman really looked quite
grateful 80 you think you could
hear me?" she asked.
"Of course [ could. 1 sleep on one
ear" I replied. 1t is true the idea is
perfectly my own, but as introduced by
me 10 is quite practicable, for it has been
put on trial; in fact, by means Of the
hammer system we might dispense with
the police entirely. Once. when 1 lived
in quite a deserted neighborhood- "a
long row of houses in suburban por-
ton of the city organized a hammer
n I ha1 fn Hn calf
ton. There had been robbery after
robbery in the row, and the police were
afraid to Interfere Everybody in that
row went regularly to bed with ham
mer. It was very hard on the thieves,
for, rs bad luck would have it for those
rascals, they tried to break into one
house, just at the end of the row. In
six seconds every inmate in the row had
been informed that q burglarious at
tempt was being made. You might
have heard the three taps working along
from house to house in the stiffness of
the night. Everybody turned out under
my lead. We made a Gordon, swept
the Street, and captured six or seven of
the robbers. l don't remember the
number of them exactly, only that they
were the most bloodthirsty rascaIs
known in the annals of crime. -
The old lady, whose hair fairly stood
up BY this time-or would have stood
mp if she had had anyways prOfuse in
her thanks. just what | wanted took
place. l was invited next evening to
take tea, and the old lady in person
showed me her garden, so that 1 might
understand the lay of the land.
Now, i had accommodated the prem
ises before, not that / thought anything
ever would happen, but really out of
consideration for the young woman.
The fence was not a very high one,
though adorned with spikes. To facili-
tate my climbing, | rolled a big barrel
near it. l could step on that and then
with a slight effort could scale the fence.
l showed my plans of succOr and the old
lady approved of them. l bought a
tack-hammer, presented it to her, and
explained to her, in detSil, the method
of signaling.
The tea was very pleasant one, and
the young lady agreeable. 1 went to
bed that night quite happy and quite
forgot all about the signals. In fact, a
week or so elapsed and nothing oc-
CURED to break the quiet of that really
peaceful neighborhoOd.
L am sound sleeper generally, but
on certain night not long afterward
biAGIG " tbS SUM u ltILlDlC SbOIll Ol Wluu
and rain, with rattling of windows, that
my usual rest would not come. At last
went off into a half-dreamy doze,
when Suddenly close to my earl was
awakened with start heard the
three OminOus taps on the wall! Inever
listened to anything so dreadful in my
life. Was / awake? l waited awhile.
1t was the precautionary signal, but
not the positive alarm. Rat tat-tat
went that DEVILS tattoo on the wall,
then knew that the danger was immi-
nent looked out of the window, and
it was raining cats and dogs. | shud-
dered! Still the cursed rapping of the
hammer reverberated through the
room / huddlcd on my clothes. L
never had revolver in my life, and,
had l owned one. would not have
known how to shoot it off. l wished I
had not lied SO, butI always was ro-
mantle The rSpping. continued like
mad. Suppose these were real true for
true robbers next door! What could a
single, poor, inoHensive, unarmed young
man like me do against a whole gang
of bloodthirsty house breakersP / knew
that they would murder me for inter-
fering with their legitimate business
/ thought once would open the window
and yell: Murder! thievesr' but my
window looked on the yard, and the
wind was bowling so that had there
been a whole squad of police below not
one of them would have heard me- Ii
was dreadful to be walked up that
way, to walk to sudden death. and so
unprepared, rs knew | was. | cursed
my Offieiousnessi I was dressed some
how at last, and went slowly shivering
down the stairs, making all the noise I
could, but it was just one of those sell
fish clearinghouse. where the inmates
never take notice of anything.
opened the back door which led to the
garden. =r- -F ~
I was wet to the skin before found
the b" ell, and what was mysterious
about it was that the barrel had been
moved away from the fence. IN
minute it flashed across my mind that
did | once venture into the adjacent
garden my retreat would be cut off, and
that, as the victim of some villainous
trap, next morning l would be found
-dead-my skull beaten in with
jimmy.
AT last. however, at the expense of
several severe excavations, | was over
the fence gazed at the back of the
house. All was still-sfill as dea'h-
there was n lull in the storm. waited
to hear the agonized screams of the
victims, but there was nothing save an
appalling stiffness. Then something
rustled, and / covered my face with my
hands / was awaiting some crash
ing blow upon my head, when a
stray cat bounded past me. No lights
We're visible, waited ten minutes. ex-
posed to the drenching of the pitiless
storm, for il rained now harder than ever;
then, feeling thatifthe worst had come it