The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-03-19
His Pa Stabbed.
The Awful Work of Burglars.

IPeck's Sum-
Il hear you had burglars over to your
house last night" said the grocery man to
the bad boy, as he came in and sat on the
counter right over a little gimlet hole, where
the grocery man had fixed darning needle
so that by pulling string the needle would
fly up through the hole and run into the boy
about an inch. The grocery man had
been laying for the boy for two days, and
now that he had got him right over the hole
the first time, it made him laugh to think
how he would make him jump and yell, and
as he edged off and got hold of the string
the boy looked unconscious of impending
danger. The grocery man pulled, and the
boy sat still. He pulled again and again,
and finally the boy said:
"Yes, it is reported that we had burglars
over there. Oh, you needn't pull that string
any more. heard you was setting trap
for me, and put piece of board inside my
pants, and thought would let you exercise
yourself. Go ahead, if it amuses you. 1t
don't hurt me.''
The grocery man looked sad, and then
smiled sickly sort of smile, at the failure
of his plan to puncture the boy, and then he
said, swell, how was it. The policeman
didn't seem to know much about the partic-
ulars. He said there was so much deviltrv
going ON at your house that nobody could
tell when anything was serious, and he was
inclined to think it was a put up job.''
'Now let's have an understanding. Says
the boy. Whatever say, you are not to
give me away. It's 60, is it? I have al
ways been afraid of you, because you have a
sort of decayed egg look about you. You
are like peck of potatoes with the big ones
ON top, sort of strawberry box with the
bottom raised up; so have thought you
would go back on a fellow. But if you
won't give this away, here goes. You see, 1
heard ma tell pa to bring up another bottle
of iniment last night. When ma corks her
self, or has pain anywhere, she just uses
liniment for all that is out, and pint bottle
don't last more than a week. Well, told
my chum, and we laid for pa. This lini-
ment my ma uses is offul hot, and almost
blsters. Pa went to the Langtry show, and
did not get home till II O'Clock, and me and
my chum decided to teach pa lesson.
don't think it is right for man to 90 to the
theatres and not take his wife or his little
boy. So we concluded to burgle pa. We
agreed to lay on the stairs, and when he
came up my chum was to hit him on the
head with a dried bladder, and was to stab
him on bis breast pocket with a stick and
break the liniment bottle, and make him
think he was killed. 1t couldn't have
worked better if we had rehearsed it. We
had talked about burglars at supper time,
and got pa nervous, so when he came up
stairs and was hit on the head with the blad-
der the first thing he said was: Burglars,
by mighty and he started to go back, and
then | hit him on the breast pocket, where
the bottle was, and then we rushed by him
down stairs, and l said, in a stage whisper,
L guess he's dead man, and we went
down cellar AMI up the back stairs to nv
room and undressed. Pa hollered to ma
that he was murdered, and ma called me.
and came down in nv night shirt, and the
hired girl she came down, land pa was on the
lounge, and he said his life-blood was fast
ebbing away. He held his hand on the
wound, and said he could feel the warm
blood trickling clear down to his boots /
told pa to stuff some tar into the wound,
such as he told me to put on my lip to make
my moustache grow, and pa said, My boy,
this is no time for trifing. Your pa is on
his last legs. When came up stairs met
six burglars, and attacked them, and forced
four of them down, and was going to hold
them and send for the police, when two
more that didn't know about jumped on
me, and | was getting the best of them,
when one of them struck me over the head
with crowbar, and the other stabbed me to
the heart with butcher knife. l have re-
ceived my death wound, my boy, and my hot
Southern blood, that | offered up so freely
for my country in her time of need, is
passing from my body, and soon your pa
will be only piece OF poor clay.
Get some ice and put on my stomach, and
all the way down, for am burning up. /
went to the water pitcher and got chunk
ma was tearing up an old skirt to stop the
flood of blood, asked pa if he felt better,
and If he could describe the villains who had
murdered him. Pa gasped and moved his
legs to get them cool from the clotfed blood,
he said, and went on, 'One of them was
about six foot high, and had a sandy NOUS
tache. got him down and hit him in the
nose, and if the police find him, his nose will
be broke. The second one was thick-set,
and weighed about 200 I had him down
and my boot was on his neck, and / was
knocking two more down when / was hit,
The thick-set one will have the mark of boot
heels on his throat. Tell the police when |
am gone about the boot heel marks By
this time ma had got the skirt tore up, and
she stuffed it under pas shirt, right where
he said he was hit, and pa was telling us
what to do to settle his estate, when ma be-
gan TO smell the liniment, and she found
the broken bottle in his pocket, and
searched pa for the place where he
was stabbed, and then she began to laugh,
and pa got mad and said he didn't see as
death-bed scene was such an almighty funny
affair, and then she told him he was not
hurt, but that he had fallen on the stairs
and broke his bottle, and that there was no
blood on him, and he said, DO you mean to
tell me my body and legs are not bathed in
human gore% and then pa got up and found