The Penn's Grove record., 1888-07-21
A BURGLARS LONG DAY.

A BURGLARS LONG DAY.
1.-THE days go pretty slow up here"
remarked a prisoner awaiting trial in
the county Jail. "Nothing to do but
eat, smoke and talk. 1t would be bet
ter if a man had something to keep his
hands busy"
"You don't know what a long day is
yet" remarked another prisoner on his
right. al old offender, who smoked his
pipe with an air of resignation and
seemed to enjoy the situation. wait
IT'LL you git down below and then you'll
think there's seventy-two hours in a
day and 'leven days in a week. Wait
till you have to starch or iron shirts all
day, run a sewin' machine, nail shoes
or make brushes; then you'll know how
many minutes can be crowded into an
hour and how fur away Crlsmuss is.
I've been there and 1 know, but the
longest day l eve put in wasn't in
quad. 1t was spent in a country gro
Gerry store over in Bergen county"
"Did you work there?" asked the in
terested prisoner.
mo. Leastwise, only for about an
hour, the rest Of the time l just loafed
and waited for the folks to shut up
shop and go home"
"Oh; l see, You were there on bust
ness and were interrupted, as 1t WERE"
"Well, yes, that's about the size of
1T. You see me and three other easy
going ducks was strapped and had been
havin' a purity hard time on the road,
and fixed up n job to git square with
the folks that didn't show us proper
consideration. The station agent drove
us out of the depot where we was tryin'
to git warm, and the storekeeper re-
fused to throw in any crackers with
a hunk of cheese 1 bought. We wasn't
very well acquainted afore we went
into the depot, but we was all treated
alike, and when we walked up the track
together we got kinder chummy and
laid in to get square with the town.
One lad wanted to burn the store that
night, but l couldn't see how that
would be anything in our pockets, and
l proposed to rob 1t instead. They all
fell in with my idea. We hid in an old
hay barrack till night and then sneaked
I into town. When the store closed up
nna nf thu lode upanto1 tn nn rInhf
at it, but we hadn't any tools and /
told him to wait It'll the depot was
closed and then we would git a pick or
q pinch-bar oil something from the tool
closet. l was purity sure l seed pick
in the closet when the agent opened the
door.
"We waited till bout 'leven o'clock,
when the last passenger train come
through, and his giblets shut up the de-
pot and went whistling down the road.
Then we got a fence rail and stove in
the front door just as a freight train
was goin' by, 80 that nobody could hear
the noise. We might have done that
to the door of the store, but we wanted
to git even with the station agent and
ransack his office, besides it was risky
to make much noise so far from the
railroad. When we got into the sta
ton we went through the ticket office
and got eighty cents. Then we smash
the ticket office up generally and cut
the telegraph wires. About twelve
O'Clock we took a pick and started for
the store. We didn't have much trou-
bic in taking a panel out of the front
door and all crawled through the hole.
1t wa purity hard squeezing for n of
the gang, but we pulled him through,
and then we went to work. We psf
the panel back and lit = lot of candles.
Then we hit the cheese and sardines
and fancy cakes, and washed 'em down
with a purity good article of bottled
cider. We had a royal feed on pre-.
serves and pickles. and tackled a key
Of mince meat and made us mince pies
out of solder crackers. Then We went
for the cigars and had a good smoke,
We couldn't do anythin' with the safe,
but we found bout 81 in pennies and
stamps and filled our pockets with
cigars. One of the lads collared a cou.
pie of watches, which 1 didn't know
anything about till afterwards. When
we was ready to sneak, the big Teller re-
fused to back through the hole and lie
went and opened the back door. Then
another Teller found q case of beer I'M
der the counter, and we stopped to sam
pie it. We drank two bottles apiece,
and was just starting for the back dool
when we heard folks running down the
road and heard others talking in the
yard. Here was a 60. We was found
out sure, and trapped like rats in a bar
rel. We doused the glims and chinned
q little while bout what we should do.
I went to the front door and slid the
panel so I could look out. There wa,
nearly a dozen men with guns standing
in the road in front of the store. One
of 'em seed me and raised his gun.
fell backwards, and bang went the
gun. Then they yelled for us to sur
render, and we didn't answer. One OF
tho fellers peeked out the back windeI
and said that the yard was full of nen.
He pushed the back door shut with a
broom and we sat down to think. ]
said that some of us would git killed II
we tried to make a run of it, and all OF
us would have to do time If we surren'
dered, SO the best thing to do gas tt