Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-22
HORSE THIEF TRAPS.

Nowadays when you compare man to a |
horse thief You wish to degrade him Thirty |
years ago first class horse thief excited |
certain amount Of admiration and respect |
In these days of rapid transit, telegraph,
telephone and police one can scarcely realize
the success which horse thieves won before
the war. They were the dread and the
scoorge Of the farmer and the villager. They
We're better organized than any other class of
CRIMINALS, and not only stole with nerve, but
WIN system. In 1856 there was gang with
headquarters in Ohio, which numbered at
ieast nifty members, and which had agents in
\ ~ '1eosJevery state in the Union. Ihave seen
legal documents toprove that horses stolen in
New hampshire found their way to Georgia.
and that horses stolen in Kentucky were
traced TO points in Maine 1t was no hap
hazard business Spies were sent ont to 10
cate horses, and then men followed to steal
tuen' Nhen horse was taken he was sent
10 u certain agent, a farmer or livery man
Aep0 certain length of time, disguised, il
necessary, and then forwarded to n second
aeeht sui further away In this manner he
was passed out of the state and hundreds of
mics beyond, and not one was recovered
where I'VE were successfully run off. While
ne crime was made very serious one under
.he law OF almost every state it was never
looked upon by participants as being any
.A'uS compared TO burglary, highway rob
oery or arson. This accounts for the fact
Sat men who were honest in all else were
e'Issht passing along stolen horses.
ne years ls57-S were the p2lmv DAYS of
the morse thief. In 1855 general movement
"sis ;, against the fraternity all over the
country, breaking up and scattering organ
izations, and tn beginning of the war fin
ished the business. Except in the far west,
the horse thief now acts INDEPENDENTLY and
alone, and is rare thai one gets safely off
with his prize. During the two years have
named my father had Il farm in central In
diana was 10 wears old, and my health
was so poor that could do no work. Be-
tween 1856 and 1857 we lost six horses by
thieves, not one of which was recovered. One
day a sheriff who was on the trail of a thief
visited our place and gave me some pointers,
and he was no sooner gone than / began to
plan and scheme We had at that time seven
good horses and among them was span of
grays which had taken state fair premium.
The sheriff said We would have to stable them
in bedroom i'll the house to keep them, and
the impending peril set my wits to work.
Father had a large mercantile business in the
village three miles away and the farm was
liz my charge all day We had good barns
and the best of LOCKS, and We also had a
couple Of watcI dogs, but our horses had
been rtolen just the same Indeed, when the
last horse went, the thief coaxed away the
best dog. The stable door was double locked,
but he had used skeleton keys
On the third day after the sheriff-s visit a
couple of strangers drove up in buggy One
of them came in and introduced himself as
the agent of a Cincinnati lightning rod
company, and asked the privilege c inspect
ing the rods which had been put on the horse
barn the year before, He said they were his
comparys rods, but did not seem to be prop
erly affixed. This was one day in May, and
the span OF gravs were in the stable. The
strangers seemed honest and straight, but the
sheriff had warned me to look out for all
corners, and / therefore had my eyes open.
He not only looked at the rods, but he in
spected the staples and examined the doors
and locks. Several things occurred to satisfy
me that he hld come to spy out the situa-
ton, and after the pair had driven away
began preparations for a visitor There was
what might be called vestibule to the
stables. As you opened the door there was
space Of about nine by twelve feet before you
reached the first stall, got piece of green
hickory six feet long and shaved it down to
the size Of an ak handle. One end was
pushed into a hole bored in a grit of
the stable, and by means of a piece Of
clothesline | drew the other end back until
the wood would stand no more. In front of
this bow or sweep l rugged cord running
across the yesubule. 1t ran up partition
and then down 10 the end of she sweep, where
rugged a catch. When the trap was set the
cord was about four feet inside The door and
across the way to the stalls The cord ran
across knee high, and moderate pressure
against 1t pulled down the catch and let the
bow spring back This bow was arranged at
height oG five feet from the floor, and after
a few experiments l was satisfied that It
would work all right From the end Of the
bow, as it was bent back, ran a string over
tie hen house and pig pen TO my chamber
window, 200 feet away ! there fastened it to
Il bell, and a ring of the bell would mean
that the bow had been sprung. The hired
man slept near by, and both OF US had fire
arms. My father, who drove home each
night, was quite taken with the invention,
and was to turn out with Us at the alarm
-Four nights passed without an alarm On
tho fifth night it was dark and rainy, and
felt so sure that somebody would come that
did not undress, Neither did the hired man
We sat reading, when, at a quarter to IL, the
bell suddenly rang and lifted US out Of our
chairs. We seized our guns, ran down and
awoke father, and lighted the lantern and
IN four or five minutes the three of US were
at the barn. The stable door was wide open,
and on the ground outside lay the body of a
man. He had picked the locks and entered,
and he had struck the cord and sprung the
sweep. 1t had caught his throat. and he was
as dead as a herring He was a man of
about 80, well dressed and had 500 in his
wallet. From letters found on him there was
no doubt that he was one Of the agents of an
organized gang, Indeed, there were two of
them. The other sat in a buggy in the road,
and as we came out be drove off No one
could identify the dead man, and, after an
inquest, he was buried in a corner of the
village graveyard.
The papers had good deal to say about
the adventure, and of course gave away my
invention The next man who came would
be informed, and would take care to avoid
It, must, therefore, have recourse to some
thing else | sent off TO St Louis for bear
trap, and as soon as it arrived we planted il
In front of the stable door It was monster
trap, intended to hold anything which got it
foot between the jaws, and we had to use
levers TO bear down the springs Not one Of
our neighbors nor one of the day workers OF
the farm knew Of the arrival Of this trap: bu,
all knew that the hickory spring had beer
done away with IN the stable We pretended
70 believe that the one lesson would keep tbs
fellows away for months to come. One day
about three weeks after the burial of tn
morse thief, man who had come along AM
hlred TO us to dig ditch to drain pom
made an excuse 10 visit the horse barn
was asleep at the time; but the hired mai
reported that his actions were suspicious
he probably wanted to see if any furthe
pitfalls had been prepared ard he was doubt
less gratltied when he found the way to tn,
gray horses clear of danger.
One of the jaws of the trap when set wa
toward the house. | fastened the bell strint
TO this, and whenever the laws sprang tn,
bell would sound an alarm as before. Tn,
dltch digger slept in a room on the other sid
oil the house, and we did not set the tral
uhtll he was IN bed, On the third day aftel
MS Inspection Of the stables, he announce
Ihat he must so to the village in the evening
TO make some purchases We set the traI
al y O'Clock and at half-past 10 the bel
rang We We're waiting for it, and we wer,
out In two or three minutes. The bear ira,
mad It's victim and the victim was our ditci
uiggef' vi al the bowling, yelling, ours
ing and praying you ever heard mixed to
gether this fellows utterances took the cake