Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-06-25

The Experience OF Three Young ThiAves
In an Annapolis Professors House.

"Whenl was a cadet at Annapolis"
said a naval officer in conversation
with a reporter, 81 once got suspended
for a year in the following manner;
L was q member of the lowest class. q
'Plebe,' and only fifteen years old at
the time. There were three of us in
the class who were sworn friends.
One of the boys struggled q lot of dime
novels into the academy, and we read
them until we began to feel that we
must fight Indians or commit a bur-
glary at once, if we cver expected to
mount to any thing. We held Il ON
sultation and discussed the matter.
Indian fighting was what we most
yearned for, but. unfortunately, there
were no Indians handy, and a journey
to the wild West in search of them was
decided to be impracticable. Burglary
was the only thing left us and to this
we turned with avidity. The next
question was what to steal. The
burglarsi in the dime novels had always
stolen money or silverware, but
somehow, much as we r%everenced and
admired our heroes, none of us quite
liked the idea of doing that. But, hap
Ply thought! the examinations were
coming. Why not burglarize the house
OF the professor of mathematics and
steal an examination paper? We knew
he had the papers all made out. The
thing was at once decided on. We
then began to provide ourselves with
what we considered a complete burglars
Kit. We made false keys that were so
false that they would not lock or I'M
lock any thing, made a rope ladder,
and bought an alarm clock and dark
lantern out in town. A night was
fixed onfor the daring deed, and at one
o'clock our alarm clock woke us up to
glory. Armed with our burglar tools
we sailed forth, and after Guiding the
sentries and Waterman arrived at the
house of the professor of mathematics
and effected an entrance through the
coal-hole.
''The professor had an Office back of
the dining-room, and for an hour we
searched this Office with our dark
lantern, looking in vain for the exami-
nation papers. Not daring to stay
longer we decided to give it up for that
night, but come again the following
night. Our ignominious entrance
through the coal-hole grated on ortr
feelings. None of our new burglars
had ever done such Il thing, and so be-
fore leaving the house we drew back
the fastenings of one of the parlor
windows in order that we might enter
in a more orthodox fashion the next
time we came. Then we made our
perilous way back to our rooms in the
barracks. That day we learned that
the professor had another office back
of his bedroom on the second floor and
we decided that there was where he
kept his examination papers. When
our alarm clock had again called us to
act the part of heroes at one o'clock,
we stole to the professors house and
went in through the parlor window.
Softly we crept upstairs in our stock
ing feet. The door of the professors
bedroom was open and he was snoring
frightfully. We found the little Office
back OF the bedroom and once being
in there locked the door from the in
side and opening the window let down
III rope-ladder SO that we would have
a means of escape if we should he
discovered. We carefully searched
everywhere, but found no eNamina-
ton papers. There was a little safe in
the ROOM, with u combination lock.
The burglars we had read about had
always been able to open q safe with q
combination lock. but somehow we
couldn't though we spent half an hour
trying. just as we were about to give
it up and retire, we discovered u paper
which had fallen down back of the
\ sofa r. ,,rovn1 70 hn tho y o,,inotio an
paper of the third class in comic Sec
tions. One of our gang had u friend
in the third class who was pretty sure
to be found deficient in the examine
ton and he wanted to take the paper
and give it to him. The rest OF us con-
sented on the condition that it should
go to no one else. We got safely back
20 barracks and in the morning the ex-
animation paper was given to the
shaky cadet. Another third class man
caught him studying it and the result
was that all of the third class had the
paper at their disposal if they wanted
it. A few days later the examination Of
the third class in comic sections
took place. 1t was a particularly hard
examination and the professor OF math-
cmatics took his seat with Il smile that
morning, confident that it would weed
out the poor scholars in the class.
Judge Of his amazement when every
member Of the class passed an abso-
lutely perfect examination. Cadets
who never before had been able clearly
to demonstrate the simplest problems
now tackled the most difficult and COM
plicated proportions and elucidated
them with an ease and clearness that
ought to have charmed the professor.
But it didn't. He smelt Il rat of the
largest size. There was an investiga-
ton and the whole thing came out.
We three burglars were imprisoned for
awhile on the Santee and then sus-
pended for a year. The admiral wanted
to dismiss us from the service, but the
the Secretary, good old soul, would not
consent to it.-N. Y. Tribune.