The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-10-10
A FAMILY OF
BURGLARS.
down."
Topeka State JOnradi.

In a large town in the North of Ire.
land many burglaries and robberies
had been committed and many detect
ives set to work, and many failures had
been the result before was sent down
to investigate the affair.
The fact is, the rascals who had COM
mitted these depredations We're so well
up in their business, so cunning and
shrewd, as well as bold and daring,
that they left no trace of themselves
anywhere by which clue could be
gained to fix reasonable suspicion.
And yet the neiarious work went Oh
AT irregular intervals, sometimes only
a day or two elapsing between one
burglary and another, and sometimes
a period of weeks; but the dark busi-
ness SO certainly continued that no
master of a house felt perfectly safe be-
hind his locked and bolted door, while
ladies everywhere became nervously
timid and afraid of their own shadows.
Yet no one of these latter, as far as
my knowledge goes, was ever molested,
or ever got even sight of midnight
robber.
Money, watches, jewelry of all kinds
and valuable plate were the articles
usually taken and rarely anything else.
OF the valuables not n trace could
subseq quently be found, showing that
the scoundrcls We're too well ofl'and too
cunning To dispose of them i'm the usual
channels.
When | was sent for to try my skill
in ferreting out and bringing the guilty
parties to justice, and had everything
explained TO me, agreed to enter upon
my task on condition that every other
detective should he recalled; that il
should he given out that the mystery
was too deep to be solved that il should
not be known was anywhere i'm the
neighborhood, and that / should be
left to take my own time and pursue
my own course, with money enough at
my command to carry out any plan l
might adopt.
started out with the theory that
these burglars knew, before operating,
exactly where valuables were conceal
ed, and what they had to al to'get pos
session of them; that they had no or
dinary means of concealing their plum
der till ii could he disposed of at dis
tance-perhaps across the channel !;
and that to find the operators must
look for them i'm high rather than in
low life.
Upon my arrival i'm town, | engaged
rooms in first-class hotel, dressed my
self like a gentleman Of means, and de-
scribed myself as Frank Henderson, of
Dublin.
After that soon managed to let it be
understood that / had been an officer
in the army; that l had only retired
on coming into possession of a large
fortune left by deceased uncle, and
that / was new travelling, partly for
pleasure and with view to purchase
an estate, my uncle having made it n
condition in his bequest that | should
buy land and settle down.
OF course / requested all this to be
kept profound secret, because l wish
ell it to be known; and, of course, it
.,.a., mad, lynnx,, 20 and ,.-;1a bx. a,.ar,.
man or woman who heard oft telling
it TO some other man or woman as
profound secret.
In the course of the next two or three
weeks found quite number of the
best town people making my acquaint-
ance and received numerous invita-
tions to visit at the houses of the fore
most gentry.
During the next month my visiting
list became so extensive as to include
all the leading families in the place
and as l encouraged gossip of all kinds
/ soon became conversant with all the
prominent incidents connected with
these families during the preceding de
cade.
Among great many facts gilmore
or less interest-but which, as they
have no connection with my story, |
shall not here record-I learned who
were old families and who were new
who were rich and who were compara-
lively poor who had property to sell
and who had not, and last, but not
least, who had been robbed during the
past two years.
Among the newcomers who had
taken up their residence i'm the town
within that period was family of the
name of MLysaght, consisting of a
mother, her married son and
his wife, another son, and two bloom
ing daughters.
Curiously enough, their house had
been broken into and robbed shortly
after their arrival, and as considera-
BILE sum of money and much valuable
jewelry had been taken, the married
son, as head of the family, had at once
offered large reward for the detection
and punishment of the Williams, but
without result.