Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-02-06

miles from New YORK. MY Iam1ly con-
sists of myself and wife, our boy George
William, aged two; two maid-servants
and a man; but in the summer we have
frequent visitors and at the time Of
which 1 am about to write my Aunt
Martha was staying with US.
My house is large and pleasant, and
we have neighbors near enough for so
cisl purposes and yet not too near
or too many to detract from
the rural aspect of our surroundings.
But we do not live in paradise; we are
occasionally troubled by mosquitoes and
burglars.
Against the first Of these annoy
ances we have always been able to
guard ourselves, at least in a measure,
and our man and the cook declare that
they have become so used to them that
they do not mind them; but to guard
against burglars is much more difficult,
and to become used to them would, /
think, require great deal of practice.
For several months before the period Of
this narrative our neighborhood had
been subject to visits from burglars.
From time to time houses had been
entered and robbed, and the offenders
had never been detected.
We had no police force, not even a
village organization. There was small
railway station near our house and six
miles away was the county-tOwn. For
fire and police protection each house
hold was obliged to depend upon itself
Before the beginning of the burglari-
GUS enterprises in our midst we had not
felt the need of much protection in this
direction; sometimes poultry was stolen,
but this was a rare occurrence; and al
though windows and doors were gener-
ally fastened for the night, this labor was
often considered much more troublesome
than necessary. But now great
change had taken place in the feelings
of our community. When the first rob-
berry occurred the neighbors were in
clined to laugh about it, and to say that
Cartain Hubbard's habit of sitting up
after the rest Of his family had gone to
bed and then retiring and forgetting to
close the front door had invited the en-
trance of a passing tramp. But when
a second and third house, where win
dows and doors had not been left open,
had been entered, and, in a measure,
despoiled, people ceased to laugh, and if
there had been any merrihent at all on
the subject it would have been caused
by the extraordinary and remarkable
precautions taken against the entrance
of thieves by night. The loaded pistol
became the favorite companion of the
head of the house; those who had no
watch dogs bought them; there were
new locks, new bolts, new fastenings
At one time there was a mounted pa
troll of young men, which, however,
was soon broken up by their mothers.
But this trouble was unavailing, for at
intervals the burglaries continued
As matter of course a great many
theories were preached as to the rea-
sons for this disturbance in our hitherto
peaceful neighborhood. We were at
such distance from the ordinary CEN
ters of crime that it was generally con-
sidered that professional burglars
would hardly take the trouble to get to
US or to get away from US, and that,
therefore, the offenses were probably
committed by uns lspected persons
living in this part of the country who
had easy means of determining which
houses were worth breaking into and
what method of entrance would be
most feasible. In this way some fami-
lies. hitherto regarded as respectable
families, had fallen under suspicion.
So far mine was the only house of any
importance within the distance OF
mile from the station which had not in
some way suffered from burglars. In
one or two of these cases the offenders
had been frightened away before they
had done any other injury than the
breaking of a window-shutter, but we
had been spared any visitation
whatever. After time we began to
consider that this was an invidious dis
tinction. OF course we did not desire
that robbers should break into our house
and steal, but it was a sort of implied
insult that robbers should think that
our house was not worth breaking into.
We contrived, however, to bear up under
this implied contempt and even under
the facetious imputations of some of our
lively neighbors, who declared that 1T
looked very suspicious that we should
lose nothing and even continue to add to
our worldly goods while every body else
was suffering from distractions.
did not, however, allow any relaxa-
ton in my vigilance in the protection of
my house and family. Ny time to suffer
had not yet arrived, and it Nigh not ar
rive at all, but if it did come it should
not be my fault. 1 therefore carefully
examined all the new precautions my
neighbors had taken against the en-
trance of thieves, and where l approved
of them adopted them.
OF some of these my wife and did
not approve. For instance, tin pan,
containing iron spoons, the dinner-ben
and miscellaneous collection OF hard
ware, balanced on the top stair of the
staircase, and so connected with fine
cords that thief coming up the stairs
would send it rafting and bounding to
the bottom, was looked upon by us with
great disfavor. The descent of the pan,
whether by innocent accident or the ap-
proach of a burglar, might throw our
little boy into fit, to say nothing of
the terrible fright it would give my
Aunt Martha, who was maiden lady of
middle age, and not accustomed to a
chatter in the night. A bulldog
in the house my wife would not
have, nor, indeed, dog of
any kind. George William was not
yet old enough to play with dogs, es-
pecially a sharp one, and if the dog
was not sharp it was of no use to have
him in the house. To the ordinary burg
lar alarm she strongly objected. She
had been in houses where these things