The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1883-01-25

ness ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS hourS OF,
the very most inconceiyable wide-
awakedness that you ever experienced
| in your life. A stranger died on our
hands one time, and we vacated and
| left him in our room over night. Did
that stranger wait for the general judg-
| mentP No, sir; he got up at five the
| reXt morning In the most prompt and
| unostentatious way. knew he y ou1d;
I knew it mighty well. He Ill ,oted
his life insurance, and lived hap py ever
after, for there was plenty Of p OF as
! to the perfect squareneSs of his d. al y.
"Well, we were gradually Aadiug
away toward better land, on acccUut
of our daily loss of sleep: so we finally
had the expert up again, and he ran a
wire to the outside of our door, and
placed switch there, whereby Thomas,
the butler, could take off and put on the
alarm; but Thomas always made ono
lite mistake-he switched the alarm off
at night when he went to bed, and
switched it on again at daybreak in tho
morning, just in time for the cook to
open the kitchen door, and enable that
going to slam us across the house, some-
times breaking window with one or
the other of us. At the end of q week
we recognized that this switch business
was deluSion and snare. We also
discovered that q band of burglars had
been lodging in the house the whole
time-not exactly to steal. for there
wasn' much left now, but to hide from
the police, for they were hot pressed,
and they shrewdly judged that the de-
! tectiyes would never think of q tribe of
burglars taking sanctuary in q house
notoriously protected by tho most i'm
posing and elaborate burglar alarm in
| America.
"Sent down for the expert again, and
this time he struck most dazzling idea
he fixed the thing so that opening the
KitcheR door would take off the alarm.
1t was q noble idea, and he charged &C
cordingly. But you already foresee the
result. [ switched on the alarm every
! night ut bedtime, no longer trusting to
Thomas frail memory; and as S1on as
/ the lights were out the burglars walked
in at tho kitchen door. thus taking the
alarm Off without waiting for the cook
to do it in the morning. You SEQ how
aSgravatingly we were situated. For
months we couldn't have any company.
Not a spare bed in the house; all occIl-
ped by burglars.
|
The expert answered the call, and ran
another underground wire to the stable,
and established switch there, so that
the coachman could put on and take off
the alarm. That worked first-rate, and
a season OF peace ensued. during which
we got to inviting company once more
and enjoying life.
but by-nnd-by the irrepressible
alarm invented new kink One win
tors night we we're flung out of bed by
the sudden music of that awful gong,
and when we hobbled to the annuncia-
tor, turned up the gas and saw the word
Nursery exposed, Mrs. McWilliams
tainted dead away, and l came precious
near doing the same thing myself.
seized my shotgun and stood timing
the coachman whilst that appalling buzo
zing went on. l knew that his gong
had flung him out too. and that he
would be along with his gun as soon as
he could jump into his clothes. When
l Judged that the time was ripe / crept
into the room next the nursery, glanced
through the window. and saw the dim
outline of the coachman in the yard be-
low, standing at a present-arrs and
waiting for chance. Then I hoped
into the nursery and fired, and in the
same instant the coachman fired at the
red flash of my gun. Both of us were
successful. l crippled nurse and he
shot off all my back hair. We turned
up the gas and telephoned for sur
geon. There was not sign of BURG
lar, and no wiz low had been raised.
One glass was absent but that was
where the coachman's charge had come
through. Here was a fine mystery-a
burglar alarm going OF at midnight
of its own accord, and not burglar in
the neighborhood.
The expert answered the usual call,
and explained that it was false
| alarm. Said it was easily fixed. So
| he oVerhauled the nursery window,
charged q remunerative figure for it,
and departed.
| ''What we suffered from false alarms
| for the neAt three years no stylographic
| pen can describe. During the first few
months l always flew with my gun to
the room indicated, and the coachman
sau!od forth with his battery, to support
me- But IL ere was never anything to
windows all tight and secure.
we always sent down for the expert
next day. and he tiAed those bar
tlcular windows so they would keen
quiet week or so, and always re-
this: ''i>o
Ninnio,' $2.l6
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