Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-03
A BURGLAR IN PETTIO0ATs.
Arrest of a Negro House Breaker fl
 Woman,s Attire.

Arrest of a Negro House Breaker 1R
 Woman's Attire.
 From the St. Louis Republiol
 The Central district police made an arrest yesterday which will probably put stop to the stealing of lead pipes from vacant houses for time at least. For the past three months complaints have poured into the various sta tions from real estate agents concerning these thefts, ana while the police made arrests and uncovered some of the plumber they could never get their hands on the person who was doing the bulk of the stealing. This is con- sidered a mean species of stealing, as 1t costs ten times as much to put in new pipe and re- pair the damage done as the thief receives for the pipe that he cuts out of the house. We'd nesday afternoon young negro, who had some information of the thefts, was run in- to the Central Station and turned over to Capt. Joyce It was from the information this darky gave that the police yersterday located the thief and secured his arrest. It was no easy job either, and the officers who made the capture are entitled to some credit. Capt. Joyce assigned Patrolnen Dick NoDon- nell and Con Hough in civilians clothes to arrest the negro, and after making some in- auiries, learned that their man was living on the second floor at 743 South Second street.
 They learned that bis name was Dave Brown and that he also sailed under the alias of John Adams. When they reached the house on Second street about o'clock in the afternoon and inquired for Brown the young negro woman who met them at the door told them that her husband was not living there; that he had moved away. She then locked the door and piled chairs ageinsttt. The of fcers then called every police officer in reach k1ah h0r fr oa1fr | the negro If he attempted to escape. In the meantime large crewd collected to see | what all the police were doing in front of the house.
 Hough and MoDonald secured ladder at 8 ! neighboring engine house, and returned to | the house determined to capture the negro. 1 They raised the ladder to the second story 1 window, while the crowd stood on the side l walk and street eagerly awaiting develop ] ments. They ascended by means of the ladder and | were soon on the inside. A few minutes later | they came down stairs with what the crowd ! thought was negro woman walking between them. This was Brown dressed in Womsn's ! clothes, disguise he had selected to fool the l police. His ruse failed, however, but this may | have been due to some extent to limited time he had to don his wife's clothes. The skirt | was to short fer him, and his black trousers could be seen below the bottom of the white 1 garment
 When the officers entered the room they found the odd-looking specimen of humanity | crouched behind 8 calico curtain in front of 6 | closet He was taken to the Four Courts, the
 police turning deaf ear to his appeals for permission to take of the feminine apparel. When he reached the Central station the but | tons holding on the skirt came out, and the garment dropped to his heels, showing his
 black jean trousers. The basque was then
 taken of, revealing pair of very dirty cor sets. The darky looked orestfallen while the
 police were stripping him of his feminine out
 fit.
 Papers and pawn tickets were foand in his pockets in large numbers, showing that he
 had besn stealing on wholesale plan. The papers showed that ne had sold many hun. dred pounds of lead pipe to the St.Louis Met
 al Company, doing business at Broadway and Howard street He admitted that he had sto- len the pipe Wednesday in the neighorhood of Ninth and Chateau avenue, but denied that he had visited any other vacant houses. He
 will be prosecuted in several cases.