Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-08-15
The Sturg Teller.
A BURGLARS LONG DAY.

s'The days 60 pretty slow up here"
remarked prisoner awaiting trial in the
county iail. 'Nothing to do but eat,
smoke and talk. 1t would be better If a
man had something to keep his hanos
"You don't know what long day. is
vet" remarked another prisoner on ms
right, an old offender, who smoked his
pipe with an air of resignation and seem
ed to enjoy the situation. "Wait till you
git down below and then you!l thlnk
there's seventy-two hours in day and
;Ieven (lavs in week. Wait till you have
to starch and iron shirts all day, run
sewin' machine, nail shoes or make brush
es: then You'll know how many minutes
can be crowded into an hour, and how fur
away Crismuss is. I've been there and l
know; but the longest day ever put in
wasn't in quad. 1t was spent IN country
grocery store over In Bergen county.
ssDid you work there?" asked the inter-
HNo. Leastwise, only for about an hour.
The rest of the time just loafed and wait
ed for the folks to shut up shop and go
home"
"Oh! see; you were there on business
and were interrupted, as it were"
''Well, yes, that's about the size OF II.
You see, me and three other easy going
ducks was strapped and had been havin' q
purity hard time on the road, and fixed
up a lob to git square with the folks that
didn't show us proper consideration. Inc
station agent drove us out of the depot
where we was tryin' to git warm, and the
storekeeper refused to throw in any crack
ers with a hunk of cheese bought We
wasn't very we'll acquainted afore we
went into the depot, but we was all treat
ed alike, and when we walked up the track
together we got kinder chummy and lald
in to get square with the town. One iad
wanted to burn the store that night, Dut
couldn't see how that would be anything
in our pockets, and I proposed to ro6 IL
instead. They all fell in with my IDEA.
We hid in an old hay barrack III night,
and then sneaked into town. When the
store closed up, one Of the lads wanted to
90 right at it, but we hadn't any tools and
i told him to wait till the depot was
closed and then we would git pick or
q pinch-bar or something from the tool
closet. I was purity sure seed a pick IN
the closet when the agent opened the door.
tWe waited till bout 'leven o'clock,
when the last passenger train come
through, and his giblets shut up the de-
Dot and went whistling down the road.
Then we got fence rail and stove in the
front door just as freight train was goln'
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 station we went through the tick
ct Office and got eighty cents. Then we
smashed the ticket Office up generally and
cut the telegraph wires. About twelve
o'clock we took pick and started TOR the
store. We didn't have much trouble in
taking panel out of the front door and
all crawled through the hole. It was pur-
ty hard squeezing for one of the gang, but
we pulled him through, and then we went
to work. We put the panel back and lit q
lot of candles. Then we hit the cheese and
sardines and fancy cakes, and washed
'em down with purity good article OF
bottled cider. We had a royal feed on
preserves and pickles, and tackled keg
of mince meat and made US mlnce pies
out of soder crackers. Then we went for
the cigars and had good smoke. We
couldn't do anythin' with the safe, but we
found bout 81 in pennies and stamps ana
filled our pockets with cigars. One of the
lads collared couple of watches, which l
didn't know anything about till after
wards. When we was ready to sneak,
the big feller refused to go back through the
hole, and he went and opened the back
door. Then another feller found case of
beer under the counter, and we stopped TO
sample it. We drank two bottles apiece,
and was just starting for the back door
when we heard folks running down the
Here was 60. We was found out sure,
and trapped like rats in barrel. We
doused the glims and chinned little
while bout what we should do. went
to the front door and slid the panel so l
could look out. There was nearly dozen
men with guns standing in the road IN
front of the store. One of 'em seed me
and raised his gun. I fell backwards, and
bang went the gun. Then they yelled
for US to surrender, and we didn't answer.
One of the fellers peeked out the back
winder and said that the yard was full! OF
men. He pushed the back door shut with
broom and we sat down to think. I said
that some us would git killed if we tried
to make run Of it, and all of US would
have to do time if we surrendered, so the
best thing to do was to separate and find
a hiding place the best we could, and may
be they would be satisfied if they ketched
one or two of US. We all sWore that we
wouldn't give each other away, and then
we separated. It was pitch dark and l
couldn't see any place to hide, but I re-
membered that the shelves didn't run all
the way up to the ceiling, and just climb
ed up the front of them and laid down on
the top shelf, which had high cornice
along the front. BY squeezing down flat
and gettin' as close to the wall as 1 could,
I managed to fix myself so that I felt sure
that nobody could see me unless they
climbed a ladder and looked from the other
side of the room. The dust was an inch
thick up there, and it made me sneeZe a
dozen times, but when had been quiet a
while it settled, and felt safe so long as
I didn't stir it up again.
"Long about 6 o'clock in the morning it
began to be light, and the fellows outside
got braver. They came up to the door
and kicked in the panel and hollered for
US to give up or die. After bout half an
hour or more somebody unlocked the front
door and pushed it open. couldn't see
anything but the top of the door and bit
of the sidewalk on the other side of the
road, but listened and heard an old man
urging a constable to 60 in and 90 his
duty. Finally, guess as many as tWen-
ty men came in, and heard them blow
ing and cooking and unlocking their guns:
There must have been at least three OF
them, judging by the stuff they eat and
drank heard the old mans voice saying,
and a minute later heard shout Here
is one of them. Come out of that Pull
him out! Surrender, or I will blow a
hole in you y and heard one of my un-
lucky chums being drug out from under
the counter, the worst place he could think
of hiding, because he might have knowed
that it would be the first place they would
look.