The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-07-13

jIzfsss- d, nit burglary, to
}tGesESssSsSS$SNS take a knife with
(NSSssssaasSLs--S% you, or loaded
- club, or pistol, but
Billy claimed that the doing of this
showed lack of mental ingenuity.
Any muscular fool can bludgeon the
senses out of half-nwakencd house.
holder aroused from his first deep sleep
by the NOISY entrance of a thief through
the kitchen window, but bludgeoning
Billy looked upon rs clumsy and nm
necessary. The consequence was that
Billy, by strict attention to business.
and the cndcavor TO please customers,
soon began to build mp for himself an
enviablc reputation among the police.
They never caught sight OF Billy or his
| pals. but they always recognized his
handiwork by the neatness and dexter.
| ity OF IT. They did not even know his
name, but they called him among
Themselves Billy Haven out Of respect
for the memory of detective of that
name, who was especially good Mt
| tracking crimes of kind whose origin
was obscure, and the clue TO which was
not visible. They said among them.
selves when their attention was first
directed to the kind of burglary the
new burglar was doing, that this was "A
| job Billy Haven would like the unrav-
cling of If he were alive, and so thev
drlfted on, never getting IA sight of the
burglar, until the crimes were called
Billy Haven Jobs, and finally the nm
known cracksman came to be called
Billy Haven.
- "a, :. WIZ flav.6.
was at work, the inmates of the house
never Knew robbery had been COM
mitted until next morning. Billy and
his gang left almost no trace of their
visit except the disappearance of the
most valuable things in the residence.
At last these neat burglaries ceased,
and there were no traces OF Billy for
years. II is probable that the nuthori-
ties would never have known any par
ticulars about Billy's career. If it had
not been that convict dying in
one OF the prisons told about Billy's
last and successful coup, which enabled
Haven and his gang TO retire into re-.
spectacle, but monotonous private
life.
gilly, it seems, he'd long looNed
with hungeriug eyes on large man
sion that stood in II lonely purt of
lonely suburb. II was entirely sur
rounded by II high brick wall, and
Billy felt that if he and his mates ever
got inside that mansion they could
work in uninterrupted security.
Inquiry showed Billy that 1t was the
residence of Mr. Slider, the we'll
known banker. n man intimately con
nected with numerous prosperous
companies, and man of great re-
puted wealth. The name of Slider was
power in the city. Billy's investign.
tions led him to the knowledge that
Mr.. Slider was amOst careful man, who
had arranged every electrical appliance
then known for the discovery of
burglar. he appeared to realize that
If once burglar got entrance into the
big house, the family would be, com
paratively speaking, Mt his mercy; and
30 II WIS that every window was pro.
tected by half dozen different de-
vices. The door-mats and windows
were so arranged that after everybody
went to bed the hghtest football on
any of them would light all the electric
lamps in the house ; would ring large
bell IN the tower; would telegraph Il
warning to the nearest police station,
and would set more gongs ringing nll
over the place than n burglar who was
at all nervous cared to hear.
Billy realized, then, that the
ordinary methods would have ten
deucy 10 fail if applied to the big
house standing in its own extensive
grounds, and so he resolved that when
he and his pals entered the house it
would be by the door, and not by one
of the windows, and it would be Mt n
time when the family had not retired
to rest.
Billy's plans, when matured, were
very simple. He obtained the costume
of police inspector for himself and
the clothes of an ordinary policeman
for each of his four pals. He got,
likewise, a very good imitation of
warrant of arrest made out in the
name of Mr.. Slider, Billy was the man
of brains in the gang, and the other
four, realizing this, did exactly as he
told them. They were in a perfect
I Al