San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-29
PITTSTON PUZZLED.

Nobody in Riverton could account for
The burglaries that were occurring with
such startling frequency 1t seemed that
all the best efforts of all the best citizens
in town were wasted in the effort TO over
take the rogues, and in spite of all they
could do the stores were entered as if the
very clerks were in partnership with the
thieves, and even the marshal were blind.
Then the fellows who had been playing
such havoc with the cash drawers and cut
lery cases were not entirely satisfied with
that, and they had time and again entered
residences and had taken cash from the
clothing that was worn during the day,
and which seemed never to be safe from
the hand of the housebreaker.
Old man Pittston had done all that he
could to make his stock of goods safe, and
when he went down town one morning and
found his statesmen aghast at the work of
the thieves in the night just passed he
swore he would find out who did it and
would send him to the penitentiary, even
if he were his own brother. He called in
Ludlow, the grocer, who kept next door,
and they two went at the business of fer
reting out the miscreants in the most me-
thodic manner.
"You slip down to your store at 10 clock
tonight, go in and stay right there till
morning." said Ludlow, land I'll do the
same at mine We will sleep there every
night for month, going home in the morn
ing before anybody is up. If there is any
thing in this town in the shape of thief,
we will get him, sure"
LETS just make a little change" said
Pittston. you go in my store and will
60 in yours"
Ludlow said "All right" but somehow
his neighbors thought he was a little re-
luctant about it. They did not keep up
the arrangement for a month. Ten days
over the counter and ten nights under it
were enough to satisfy them that good
bed at home was better than watching for
burglar. Ludlow began to think there
wasn't anything in the scare anyway, and
Pittston agreed to try watching just one
night more and that was ALL He wouldn't
give up the comforts of home for all the
stores in Riverton. So he went to the inn
provised couch that night and fixed things
hstle more comfortably than usual. He
was getting score of aches in every bone
since this beastly vigil began. He went to
sleep about IL o'clock, and he remembered
hearing Ludlow's lazy clock strike IL. At
ter that he had dim recollection of going
into the bank and ordering four pounds of
dry goods and yard of tenpenny nails. to
be used in making handouts for the man
who had broken into the stores. That was
all
When he awoke the sun was shining
right in the window at the rear of the
store, and he could hear the butchers cart
iolting up to the market two doors away
Pittston got up, matchmaking a man
who would sleep in the fumes of grocery
store, and wishing he might be a Turk il
ever he did such a thing again. He got
his trousers buckled up and was grouping
about for his shoes when it occurred t
him that the front door stood slightly ajar
The butcher strolled past, looking in, hi:
clothes all flecked with tallow and stained
with blood. Pittston walked forward in
his stocking feet, his mouth gaping and
his eyes getting bigger every minute. The
butcher darted down and examined the
doorsill and then stood up and yelled;
Here's Ludlow's store broke oper
ag'inp'
Ludlow himself came out of Pittston':
place of business, where he had put in !
faithful night, and there he and the dry
goods man stood face to face.
"Have you allowed my store to be burg
larized?" shouted the grocer.
where's your shoess" asked the butcher
"Where's your coat?' added the baker
Poor Pittston was in heap of trouble
He volunteered to stay in this mans store
cherishing at the time adm idea that Lud
low himself was in the robbers ring, anC
here he had slept while his neighbor'.
place of business was being plundered. HI
grieved deeply over the wrong he had done
that neighbor in thought, and felt crushed
as few men in life ever feel, while he went
about hunting for those shoes and that coat
He never found them. The rascals who
broke into the store were sufficiently eX
pert to pry the front door off its hinges, u
carry away the cash drawer bodily and Il
steal the very clothing of the man who lay
there TO guard the treasures. He was dis
graced in Riverton. Some of the boldei
ones even talked of having him ARRESTED
and charged with the burglaries that haC
been startling the town, but he was too
well established for that, and nothing
came OF the talk. But it went TO his hear
with all the directness of an Indictment.
That ended the spasm of home deteCtiv,
energy, and it was not a week before Pitt
ston's store was entered and roll of sill
was distracted bodily. With IL went 10
of staple goods that could no more hav
been identified if found than could
bushel of wheat in bin, but that stk b
would have known if he had seen it on n
head of naked black man on the bank
es tie Congo.
Then some one went to the postoflice an
took all the pennies and postage stamps i