The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1892-09-02
PUNISHING A THIEF.
How Burglar Was Very Clever
ly Trapped.

As a member of the special staff To
whom is intruSted the duty OF dealing
with telegraph business at race meet
ings and other events of irregular and
itinerary occurrence. 1 have visited
most towns of any Importance in Eng
land, and have been spectator of, and
in some cases a participator in, some
curious incidents. one of which l pro-
pose 10 relate here. Many of the most
successful meetings, from racing
mans point of view, are those held at
places otherwise of very little size or
Importance. AS an example, it will be
sufficient To mention EPSON. 1t was To
a town in the Midlands ordinarily CON
tanning about six Thousand inha bitants,
that /. with five colleagues, including
a supervisor, was ordered in the
autumn of ls7-. The event was a two
day race meeting. The first day was
fine, with occasional showers; the
racing was good; and as large COM
pany was present, we had enough to do
not only At the grand stand, but also
later in the evening At the town office,
whence we dispatched large quantity
of press-work by means of Wheat
stone" which had been sent for the
purpose. 1t was eleven o'clock before
We finished, and we then had a good
halfhour's walk TO our lodgings.
The second day was awful Rain fell
in torrents the whole afternoon. or
course the programme was carried out;
but. beyond official results and re
ceived messages, we had very little to
do. 1t is the only day ! can remember
during which our boss did not stir out
of the office. He generally contrived
To- have some business to transact out
side about the time fixed for each race.
This day. however, the persistent down
pour was too much for him. After the
third race, he sent me To one of the re-
porters on some business. / found my
man in the weighing-r room, a small tenn
porary wooden shed At the back of Tat
tersalEs ring.
When | entered. the Jockeys were
being weighed in. and there was APP
parently some difficulty or dispute, as
the process was an unusually protracted
one. Iwaited. leaning against the back
wall of the shed, and as l did so, be
came conscious of voices whispering
outside / caught the words: "A blokc
with big red nose and one eye" and
mv attention was arrested at once, for
this was n description of our counter
clerk. | listened attentively and with
increasing establishment. The voices
were those of two men; and the giSt of
their conversation was that n plot
which had been formed To rob our office
of the cashboX on the previous day had
failed, owing To the fact that Harper,
our countcr-clerll. had taken the box
into town early in the afternoon, in
stead of, as was the practice, at the
conclusion OF racing. He had, how
ever, been closely watched, and seen Ia
place the box in the local postmaster's
safe At the town office. The safe was
in the room in which we worked in the
evening, and was an old-faShioned, al
most obsolete contrivance. All our
movements must have been very dill
gently followed, as the men knew not
only the exact position of the safe with
respect to the doors and windows, bat
also ut what hour we closed the office.
and the whereabouts of our lodgings
They had also ascertained that no one
remained during the night in or near
the room where the safe was.
The upShOt of the conversation,
which occupied less time than it has
taken me to relate it, was that the
town Office was To be entered that
night Is soon after we had gone a.
would be considered safe. Entrance
was To be effected from the back yard.
through the window of a small room
adjoining the larger one ia which we
, worked. Further details / failed to
ovcrhcar, as the dispute At the weigh
ing-chair, which had gradually grown
warmer, now waxed loud and furious
! Taking advantage of the noise | slipped
/ out and hurried to the Office. Taking
II. -. ILL Ia, Ill l..
| vas for informing the police At once,
| and having the place guarded and the
thieves scared off; but, after lot Of
! persuasion, | talked him over, convinc-
ing him how much more To his credit il
would rebound if he himself captured
the robbers red-handed and unaided by
/ the police. expounded To him plan,
/ the main idea OF which had struck me
! ut the first moment, to which he lis
| tened attentively, and occasionally
| smiled approvingly. When / euded he
said: 1t would do very well but for
| one thing. 1t involves three of VI re-
naming concealed in the Office
! 1 asSented-
''You say they watched us leave last
! night" " he went on, six of US? What
will they think il only three leave
tonight"
/ was nonplussed-
Il rather like the idea" resumed the
boss; but | think we should have help.
/ Suppose we get a couple of Schinken's
men?'
Sergeant Schinken was a kind of
semi-public, semi-private officer with q
staff of men, who were largely EN-
ployed by race committees in the task
of preserving order in the Enclosures,
and including bad and doubtful char
acters. They travelled about from meet
ing to meeting like ourselves, and IN
this way sort of intimacy sprang up
''Oh, they'd just be as bad as the To-
Gals" | said. They'd want to boss
the whole affair, and very likely spoil
it. I'll tell you what: I'll ask three
young fellows 1 know to come and have
n game of cards at our diggins tonight.
I'll tell them to call for us at the Office
half an hour or so before we close. At
closing time we can make some excuse,
and send them off with our own three
men, whilst you, Harper and l remain
He still hesitated. l could see he was
again more than half inclined to let the
police deal with the matter OF course
his responsibility was heavy; and should
anything go wrong, he would certainly
be severely cenSured L had, however,
the utmost confidence in my plan, and
would or could see no possibility of fail
ure; so that, eventually, succeeded in
gaining his consent. This done, | was
only anxious for the racing to conclude,
that we might get down to the tow
and prepare our surprise party. At nv
o'clock the final race was run; and a
hour later we were hard at 1t in tn
town, wiring full accounts of the day
doings. Only the three of us alread
mentioned knew of the projected a
tempt and our counter-plan; and W.
convinced that we would be overlooked
assumed TO the bent of our abilities a