Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-02-05
IN THE HEATER PIPE.
THE RETIRED BURGLAR RELATES HIS
 MOST SINGULAR EXPERIENCE.

He Had an Elegant Lay Ont or Wedding
 Presents at His Mercy When He Made
 an Unfortunate step-In the End He
 Made Contribution to the Collection.
 "In house that I was looking over in town Up the state ono night, said the retired burglar. ''1 came across something that I never struck but that once ill all my experience, strange as 1t may seem, and that was lot of wed ding presents, all just as Shey were ar- ranged for display When I turned my lamp into the room, l wished l had brought horse and wagon; thore was good deal of it that wouldn't have been of any earthly use to me, but 1t seemed pity to leave any of it behind. But if l couldn' t carry 1t all off, could have the fun of picking, and 1 started to look the things over. They were ar ranged on tables an chairs and on the floor around on three sides of the room on the side opposite to the side that l had como i'll at, and on the sides to the right and left; running around those three sides in Sort of irregular order. On the side where I was there were few chairs. 1 thought I'd start i'll on the loft aud work around to the right, and 1 started from the door and had gone about three steps when l went down through the floor, as 1t seemed to me, but what l had really done was to step down through an open register. suppose somebody must have dropped something down through it and have taken it out to get it and forgot to put it back.
 There waa wire screen under the register over tho pipe opening to keep things from dropping down the pipe, but it was very fine light wire. and it didn t stop me at all; I just slid down into the pipe, pushing that along under my feet. When l dropped into the pipe, 1 had been facing to the left; in some way as went down I got skewed around so that when got down as far as did go l was facing to the front; that is, toward the center of tho room. The pipe didn't go straight down, but with curve. l had thrown up my hands as went down, and 1 suppose 1 might have gone plumb to the furnace if I hadn' clutched at the edge of the regis ter opening and hung on. A minute be- fore l was going to take my pick of roomful; now where was l?
 II had started across tho room carry ing my toolbag ill one hand and my lamp ill the other. The shock when I went down had shaken the bag out of my hand, but l had held on to my lamp, though 1t was lying on it's side now with my fingers clutehing through the handle. The falling of the toolbag and the striking of the lamp on the floor and the seraping of the wire gauge down through tho tin pipe must have made all together q good deal of noise, and I expected every minute to hear somebody moving about up stairs and coming down to haul me out, but no- body did come, and l set my lamp up straight, and after I'd waited a minute or two more I started to see if 1 could haul myself out
 AS 1 lay in the pipe my head was below the level of the foor by great effort could raise myself so that the upper half of my head was above the opening, but no higher; there was no room for play; when 1 got that high, found myself with my elbows close to my body and fairly wedged into the pipe; I couldn't get any higher.
 ''I let myself down again, and after awhile l pulled myself up again, and held on by one hand and held up the lamp and swung it round on the things Then I let myself down again, and won- dered what l was going to do. It wash t only uncomfortable there in the posi- tion l was in, it was mighty hot and unpleasant every way. If let go. I didn't know but that I'd slide down against the furnace, and, of course, 1 couldn t stand it for an indefinite length of time, and when I'd been in the pipe 1 should imagine about two hours, I made up my mind that 1 wouldn t try to stand it any longer; I'd got to come out some time, and might just as we'll come out then ill fact, better, for while the chances of my getting away at all were mighty small, they would be bet ter at night than they would be in the daytime.
 So l made mp my mind to kick on the pipe and wake up the house and have the thing settled. So l kicked once. twice, and then l kicked again and by snakes kicked the pipe open at my feet. There was joint there, and I'd kicked it apart. and tho sections 1 was i'll sagged down with my weight, and 1 slid ont on tho cellar floor The sagging down of that part of the pipe detached it from the part above and it fell on the cellar floor alongside of me. That made noise enough to wake every body up; there couldn't be any doubt about that.
 ''l went ont by the same cellar win dow that I came ill by. It was the first and only such lot of stuff that ever struck, and 1 never got thing out of it; in fact, added something to it my self--a set of tools and dark lantern J New York Sun.
 "Tha Pyramid Limp"
 "The pyramid limp , as it has come