The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-01-07
EFFECTIVE ALARMS.
THE RETIRED BURGLAR TELLS or
AN ANNOYING EXPERIENCE.

He Encountered . Most Remarkable sys-
tenn of Burglar Alarms In . House with
Unlocked DoOrs-Bells, TIN Pans and .
Baseball Bat-The Explanation.
lone night late" said the retired
burglar, 81 went into a house In a vii.
lage in western Connecticut, entering
by a cellar window, as / usually did
when I was late, SO as not to disturb
the folks. l looked around the cellar
and located the stairs and started mp.
About three-quarters of the way up o
rope that was stretched across caught
me under the chin and toppled me over
down stairs. There was only the stone
wall of the cellar ON one side and no
rail ON the other, so there was nothing
to grab to. and / just tumbled down.
As / bumped along something scattered
along down with me, whang- banging
down the steps over me and under me
and around me, chasing me all the way
down, and when I finally got to the cell
lar bottom that thing was lying across
my chest 1t was the coal shovel, which
had evidently been stood up against the
rope and which Ihad jarred loose.
"But the worst thing of all was that
my lamp was broke. I lost my jimmy
on the way down, but I hung ON to my
lamp, hut now the light was out and
the glass was broke, and the slide was
damned around in front, and / could
not turn it. / felt around till ] found
my jimmy, and then / waited to see If
I'd woke anybody up. ! hdn't hear
anybody, and SO j started again, and
this time ] felt my way up the stairs
carefully to the door. / found it unlock
ed, and / had got it open about an inch,
/ shoald think, when / heard a little bit
of d scraping ON the other side, and the
next instant the dreadfulest racket that
anybody ever heard, the falling Of q
dishpan that must have been hanging
ON the other side on the doorknob or
the key. and at the same time what 1
imagine must have been the potato
masher-I don't know, because I didn't
look for i~t-dropped from the top of the
door upon my head.
'"This door to the cellar opened from
o little square hall or entry way that
had, as / learned by feeling. = door to
the left, to the kitchen, I supg5se, and
one to the right, I guessed, into the
front hall. / waited again, but no sound
from up stairs, SO turned to the right
and opened that door and stumbled the
first thing over a chair close by in the
hall and almost broke my shins. felt
along and found q row of chairs stand
ing close together from that door clean
to the front door. i sat down in of
them and nursed my shin and waited.
Still no sound, and / tried again, amd
got along all right this time, and turned
off to the left and into the parlor, and
back from that into the dining room,
for a wonder without falling over any
thing, and / began to feel encouraged.
But in the dining room there was moth
ing but plated spoons and forks, which
of course / could tell by the touch just
as well as though I'd had an electric
light. If they had any silver, they had
carried it up stairs, as some people do
at night.
ST turned back into the hall and
CROPPED my way through that row Of
chairs to the foot OF the stairs. To make
sure of the first step in the dark / step
ped high and stepped into a pan of wa
ter ON the bottom step. That made ME
mad, but ! didn't make any noise, and
I stepped ont of 1t and started ON up.
At about the third step my leg struck q
string that was strung across these stairs
and set o bell ~a.ringing that was hang
ing ON it, and kicking that string start
ed down ON me from above q shower Of
pie plates. and presently I fell over q
wash boiler that had been SET on the
stairs a step or two up and brought that
down ON me.
"As / was foundering around in this
tinware and string and bells and things
/ heard children's voices up stairs, and
o minute later / heard steps i'm the hall
above, and / could see in the blackness
up there the white Of a nightgown at
the head of the stairs. Then something
came ~slamming against the ba~nisters.
hitting me as 1t ratified down and final
~ landing with a great bang ON the
floor among the chairs in the hall The
minute he threw it, whoever he was,
he ran, and I began to think il was
about time for.me to go too. Ihad freed
myself from the bellcord by this time.
and ] got down the stairs and into the
hall again, and there this time / step
ped on q baseball bat-that was what
had come banging down at me from
~above-that rolled out from under me
and upset me once more among those
chairs.
81 got up and opened the front door
lit wasn't locked-and got out ON the
piazza. Before ! had got to the top trent
gtep I heard a horn blowing from an
mp stairs window on the side Of the
house, and an instant later a shot from
a revolver and big bell ringing. There
was a late moon just rising and a little
light now, and asI went away I looked
back and saw three children all in
white, all leaning out of one window
on the second story. On one side there