The Brookhaven leader., 1883-12-06
A Remedy for Burglars.

Mr.. Homer Choate, the New Jersey
bank cashier, is entitled to the graft.
tude of his cOuntrymen for showing
them the best use to which a burglar
may be put, and the promptcst manner
in which he may be put to it. Saturday
morning last, at the unreasonable hour
of one o clock, one of these nuisances
made his way into Mr.. ChOate's house.
As a general rule housckeepers prefer
not to be disturbed and are satisfied if
the burglar carries off all there is in the
house provided he does not wake them.
The burglar, however, was clumsy,
heavy-foOtcd fellow, and Mr.. and Mrs.
ChOate, as the sequel shows, were not
housekeepers of this kind, and had rad
ically clear views upon the subject of
,ue4m and tuum. More than this, it
may be observed that Mr.. Choate had
wife who was treasure. She was
light sleeper, and when the burglar en-
tered the room and commenced search
ing for valuables she awoke. Upon
discovering the cause, she did not close
her eyes and feign sleep, she did not
scream, nor did she faint away. She
nudged her husband and informed him
that there was burglar in the room.
Mr. Choate was not one of the husbands
who savagely retort upon their wives
for waking them out of sleep,
or who have the habit of crediting
such announcements to silly fc-
male fancies without first making
an investigation. He Immediately com
menccd the investigation with the aid
of his revolver. Mrs. Choate, who now
had enlisted for the war, sat up in bed
to see the target practice. She had a
front seat, and, as the sequel shows, she
appreciated all that was going on. Mr..
Choate caught sight at last of the burg
lar and blazcd away at him, but missed
him. Mrs. Choate then took charge of
the operations from her front seat.
where she had good view of the field
and the movements of the enemy. She
had watched her husbands shot as cool
" as an expert would watch practice in
rile-range, and her quick eye discov-
cred that her husband was firing too
high. Instantly she issued her orders
to him to aim lower. Mr.. Choate was
a model husband and always accus-
toned to obey his superior officer. Most
men would have been unreasonable
enough to have stopped and argued the
point with their wives, or to have con-
temptuously inquired who was running
that pistol anyway, and meanwhile the
burglar would have escaped and the
family peace would have been disturbed
with the customary ''l-told-you-so
wrangle. Mr.. Choate had sufficient
confidence ,in his better-half to obey
the word of command. The burglar
was on the window-sill just in the act
of leaping out Mr.. Choate lowered
his revolver and fired Just as the burg
lar jumped upon the top of a grape
arbor.
Mrs. Choate then arose and joined
her husband, and the two went out to
look for game, and they found it, dead
as herring, on the top of the arbOr
After the neighbors had risen and spent
some hours in looking up the police it
was taken away. The result shows not
only how cool-headed, resolute man,
seconded by a clear-headed, gallant lit
tie woman, the one prompt to issue
orders and the other quick to execute
them, may acquit themselves in an
emergency. But better still than this,
Mr. and Mrs. Choate have clearly dem
onstrated the value of the revolver as a
burglar-cXterminato when the man
knows how to use and the woman to
supcrintend it. Thorough as justice is
in New jersey, Mr.. and Mrs. Choate
ought to receive the congratulations of
their own city for saving the authori-
ties the needless expense of trial.
Other cites where burglars are not
sure of being punished, even if they are
caught in the act, ought to present Mr..
Choate with a handsome testimonial
for discovering The proper use for
burglars, while Mrs. Choate deserves
to be remembered by all rine-teams
for her skill in getting the exact
range of running burglar and
directing the fire to the spot where
it will do the most good. If there were
more Choates there would be fewer
burglars There is no form of moral
suasion so effective in suppressing these
scoundrels as pistol well and prompt
ly Chicago Tribune.