The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-01-19
BRAVE TOM THUMB,

Tom Thumb was q brave little
man. He had lots of presents in his
pretty house in one of the prettiest
of the New England towns, and some
of these presents were most valuable.
There was snuff-box from Prince
Albert, the husband Of Queen Vic
toria, presented to Tom Thumb when
he was shown to the court at Wind
sor. This he priced very highly, as
well as q number of other elegant
things which were given him by the
nobility and gentry of Great Britain.
On one occasion the knowledge that
he kept these articles in the house
excited the undisguised envy of
party of burglars, who thought they
would have an easy job with the small
family. Ton was awakened at dead
of night to the knowledge that burg
lars were in the lower rooms. His
wife begged him to let them complete
their work on the plea that his life
was more valuable than all the gold
and silver in the world. But the
little man, who though small in stat
ure, had the courage of q giant,
went to his bureau drawer, took
out two handsomely chased revolvers
One was gift from the Crown
Prince of Prussia-and crept down
to the parlour, where he saw two
men busy at work on safe construc-
ted in the wall. ''Stop that" he
said quickly, cor here's bullet for
each of you" The men turned
round in alarm, and almost laughed
to see the diminutive figure that stood
few feet off. One of them threat
ened him. eff you make step
towards me l fire." said Tom, and
they saw revolver in each of his
hands. "You're q plucky little
fellow" exclaimed the other burglar,
land, by, I'll have nothing to
do with this Then, addressing
Tom, eff we go, will you keep
quiet?" ,'Leave my house," said
Tom. At this moment Mrs. Stratton,
who had come down and saw the
scene, screamed aloud. The two
burglars thought no more about it,
but made a rush and scrambled out
of the window. In the flight one of
them dropped q gold signet ring,
which Tom was ever after proud to
| show as memento of his encounter
with burglars. He was never after
molested. Tom was very fond of
sailing. Once he had the tiller and
was Swimming along the sound with
party OF friends. A four-year-old
boy, who was playing about the dock,
fell into the water. The mother
screamed. "Hold the tiller and
bring her around" shouted Tom,
and in an instant he was in the water
swimming towards the drowning
child, whom he soon reached, and
whom he held up in the water for
fifteen minutes, while the people on
board bunglingly tried to get the
thirty-foot boat around. sit was
said of Tom Thumb remarked an
actor, "that at the time of the
Newhall House disaster in Milwaukee
Tom Thumb fled with his jewellery,
leaving his wife behind. This is not
true. She had tainted, and when
they were found towards the foot of
the stairs, he was carrying her as
we'll as he could, and would not let
her go when assistance arrived, so
that they both had to be carried out
together. When he reached the
street he tainted too. But his pluck
stood by him during the critical
period, and he saved his jewellery
too" Tom Thumb used to say that
he would give up all the money he
made to be the size of any ordinary
man; this was particularly the case
when he would come across some
cowardly bulley. AT one time he
was so annoyed by insults levelled at
himself and his wife by such people
that he kept "heeler" by him, who
on the slightest provocation, would
"clean out the crowd" in regular
Sullivan style. This class soon found
it out, and Tom had quiet time of
it. Tom was well off, but not ac-
tually rich, when he died. AT one
time his fortune was quite large but
it dwindled down in various specula-
tons, and he was compelled to take
the road again. When he passed
away he was worth fully 10000
dollars, however, which was a good
deal in such a small many. Y.