Telegram-herald., 1891-05-31
GREEDY GHOULS EOILED
They Make q Bold Attempt TO
steal Barnum's Body.
DISCOVERED 1t WORK BY GUARDS.
The Bedy-snatehers Escape Amer des
Chase by WAfehmen. Leaving BeaiAa
Them . Valuable Cle~ -
Their lAeatity.


BRIDGEPORT, Conn. May Am at
tempt was made 10 steal the body Of
y. T. Bsrnum al an early hour Friday
morning. Ii was made possible by The
sleepiness Of John Callahan aud George
Brakeman, the watehmen who have
stood guard over the vault since the re-
mains of the veteran Snowman were
placed within IL When they went
TO the cemetery Thursday even
Ing, they say, they were very
tired. having had no sleep the day pre-
vious- They had been there nightly for
many weeks, and - they had never
seen any thing 20 excite suspicious OF
any trouble they. with feeling OF per-
feet security, dozcd OF for n short nap
shortly after midnight They were
awakened little before o'clock by
noise which sounded as if il were made
by pick or spade striking . stone.
Their first thought was OF
their charge. Looking toward
the Barnum monument they saw
sight that seemed TO make their hearts
cease beating In the shadow OF the
monument the forms of three men
could be seen. Two Of them were bent
over busily at work. and the other
seemed TO be standing on guard
who's there?" called out Callahan.
At that there was startled exclama-
ton from one of the men. the rays of
dark lantern were flashed in the direc-
ton of the guards. and then the light
was suddenly extinguished. Mr.. Gala
han, in describing the affair, said:
There Was but one thing 10 do. Those men
could only be there for ore purpose al that
hour OF the night and tie chances were that
they might do Us harm II might be cur
lives or theirs. oslled rga.n. and. receiving
no answer, fred in the air. The men
At once started on full run over the
graves, not stopping for shruboery or any,
thing else. We ran after them. nring rs We
went. They mad q good start. but we could
hear them throw their tools into the bottom Of
a wagon over near tho cemetery pump.
Not knowing how many more men We
might have 70 cope With We thought
st just as well not 10 60 any further but
as they started their horse on . run we
could discern the shape OF covered
wagon In tho shadow OF the trees. We then
went back TO the grave and found that they
had made hols about fout feet long which
they nad dug foot deep at the west side OF
the grave. 1he dark lantern the rays Of which
having either been forgotten or dropped by the
frightened scound-els Ia their fight"
Nothing else happened throughout
the night, and at daylight Callahan and
Brakeman covered up the excavation,
replacing the sods. They thought it
best to keep the matter as quiet as pos.
siblc until taey had notified II. Z.
Bowser and Charles 4. Brothwell,
agents Of the Barnum estate. These
gentlemen say that the watchmen
are strictly reliable and that their
story is no doubt genuine. They
had concluded not to make the matter
public until they had communicated
with Mr.. James Bailey and Treasurer
Fish of the Barnum and Bailey show as
TO what steps should be taken They
thought that if they kept the matter
secret the grave robbers might, in o
feeling OF security, become careless and
drop a clew that would lead 70 their
arrest. But as an linking of it reached
the public they decided to reveal the
facts.
The bullseye lantern left by the
would be body snatchers Is of the cheap
kind, made of brown japanned tin
What the object of the body snatchers
in digging at the side Of the grave in
stead of directly into IL is unknown
unless they intended to effect an en-
trance through the side of the vault ip-
stead of trying to remove the two-tor
stone slab which covers the crypt. Mr..
Brothwell has placed the matter in the
hands of the police. 1t is likely that Q
l....arl .r,ll La .,ffn,.oA