Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-11
MANY HOUSES SACKED
During the Absence of Their Owners
From Tarentum Campground.
SOME UNPLEASANT DISCOVERIES.
The Fair Grounds Also Robbed of Furniture
and Other Movables.
STEPS TO DISCOVER THE GUILTY ONES

Pittsburg and Allegheny people who are
Just now moving up to the Tarentum Camp
meeting Grounds for their usual sojourn
there are every day making fresh discoveries
OF depradations made by burglars during the
past winter. The city people who reside
there during the heated term usually leave
their cottages furnished throughout so as
to avoid transporting their goods % miles
to the city and back each year. During the
winter the 80 or 40 cottages in the woods
were broken into and more or less taken
from each one of them. In the aggregate
two or three wagon loads of goods have been
hauled out of the grove. The robbers hardly
dared operate in daytime lest they should be
seen by the janitor, and bits of candles lying
about or lamps indicate they made their
visits far into the night. The grounds are
two and a half miles away from the town of
Tarentum, and on account of this isolation
are peculiarly exposed. Ono man who
lived in the neighborhood reports that on
one occasion he saw a two-horse wagon full
of household goods driven out of the camp
ground lane and that when he hailed the
driver from a distance the fellow whipped
up his horses and disappeared down ravine.
Funny Features of the Discoveries.
Many ludicrous features occur in the dis
coverv of the robberies. One family from
Allegheny went out three weeks ago to stay
only for a week to clean up their cottage for
rental. The women had left their working
dresses in the cottage, so they only brought
street costumes with them. They had left
four beds, last fall, well supplied with COM
forts and blankets, and of course bothered
about none of those things. But when they
got ont in the woods, late in the evening,
thew found all their dresses gone, every
stitch of bed clothing missing, bed-ticks
ripped omen and not q dish left. They had
nothing to wear, nothing to cook or eat with
or nothing to sleep on. Their preClcament
was most unpleasant. To make matters
worse, that very night the F1ttsburg storage
Company's warehouse on Seventh street
burned, and all their household goods of the
vacated city home were compleAly de-
stroyed. They received the news in the
woods next morning.
In several other cottages whole barrels of
dishes, glassware, etc, were taken. In one
cottage last week the owner found some of
his own china replaced with a stray dish or
two left there by mistake by the robbers
who had carried it about from another cot
tage. It is evident that women also had
something to do with the thieving, for par
ticular liking was displayed for women's
dresses. In one cottage occupied by a Mt
Washington family the walls of an upstairs
apartment had been left lined with dresses.
Not garment remains.
How the Robberies Were Committed.
The method of tho robbers was to cut
the straw on the floor, and then use the ticks
as bags in which to carry out the plunder.
Cottagers are naturally very much cha
grined over the losses. The money loss is
not much, but the Inconvenience is great.
Some will have to practically refurnish their
summer homes throughout, conveying the
goods up from the city. One gentleman who
had been robbed twice before spent several
days last fall mailing up his cottage, and
when he crawled out of q hole in the root,
he rejoiced in the belief that he had at last
got ahead of the winter thieves, but this
spring he found his cottage one of the worst
OF the victimized. He declares he will do it
up next fall in a style that will defy even
crowbars to open. On the whole, there
were goods enough taken off Tarentum
Campground last winter to furnish quite
little community of dwelling houses some
where in Western Pennsylvania.
The fair grounds of the Tarentum Agri-
opened only last summer, have also suffered
numerically at the hands of the thieves.
Chairs, and all sorts of stuff have been
carted off from these grounds. The fair
meeting grounds. The matter was broug hit
up at the annual meeting of the trustees
Tuesday. Every step will be taken to bring |
the guilty parties to justice and prevent a |
recurrence of the depradations next winter.
Notwithstanding the robberies, the indica-
ing will be held on the campground this
summer. The lot-holders, at their last meet
ing, fixed August Il as the date for the COM
mencement of the religious services.
The Grounds to Be Open Sundays.
The encampment will last over two Sab
baths. A prolonged discussion occurred
over proposition to repeat the experiment
of last year and close the gates on Sabbath.
1t was finally decided to throw open the
gates on Sunday, making the services as
public as on any other day. However, the
trustees who met subsequently, passed a
resolution requesting the railroads not to
BATH and to charge a hitching fee for all
vehicles, except lot-holders, entering the
grounds on that day. On sabbath and all
other days admittance will be free to per-
sons entering on foot.
This is the forticth year of the camp
ground age. A celebration of the anniver-
sarv will be held, and the trustees delegated
TO a committee all the arrangements. The
old stage coach and the canal boat used to
bring Pittsburgers to this campmeeting be-
quite number living vet who attended the
first campmeeting. 1t is hoped to have
these persons present. Tarentum was the
original campmeeting in the neighborhood
OF PittsbUrg.
RS. P. Mccall, of Tarentum, received a
ing from the Presidency. He desired to rest
from any official capacity with the grounds,
SO the following officers were elected for the
ensuing year: /. Z. Stofiel, of Pittsburg,
President; Henry Zurich, of Hites station,
Secretary and Treasurer; the Committee on
Grounds and the Ladies' Association were
consolidated, and the beautiful grove will be
greatly improved at their hands. Smoke is
already arising from the chimneys of many
OF the cottages in the woods.
APPETITE is generally restored to deli