The San Francisco call., 1896-01-16
Henry D. Morton Slumbers While
a Burglar Makes a
Valuable Haul.
$1,000 WORTH OF JEWELS GONE
He Tried to Make a Crease in His
Trousers, but Alas! 1t Was
a Decrease.

Morton, superintendent of the Garratt
prass foundry and also one of the partners
OF the special delivery industry was slum-
oerlng serenely on the second floor of his
residence, at 30 Ellis street, gentleman
OF the Spike Hennessy breed slid in the
front door, up the stairway and extracted
the diamonds from Mr.. Morton's shirt
front, to say nothing of his capture of
something like $1,000 worth Of iewelry be-
longing to Mrs. Morton.
lie must certainly have been an artist in
the business for he left absolutely no trace
OF hlmself-or the jewelry.
Il cannot understand how he got in the
| house without some one hearing him."
SAID Mr. Morton yesterday evening, land
what is more, am compelled to look upon
hlm as one of the cleverest thieves en-
gagged in that occupation. 1 came home
Saturday night at about Ills and went
Immediately to bed, doing off in a few
minutes as is nv custom. | am sound
sleeper and must have been entirely lost in
Slumber by midnight. After that do not
know what occurred and was not aware l
had been robbed until l arose the next
morning. Neither wife or myself heard
any unusual noises from the time We went
to sleep until we got up.
|
thing was missing from my bedroom was
when picked up my white shirt after get
ting out OF bed. noticed that my diamond
| STUD was missing and exclaimed: Hello,
my shlrtstud is gone. Perhaps it dropped
out ana it's on the floor | searched for it
and found nothing. / then put, my hand
IN my trousers pocket and felt large
vacancy there also. When | retired there
was 500 in gold in my right-band pocket,
| but 1t had disappeared with the diamond.
| The next thing we investigated was the
| lewelry boxes. There were four of them
in all, but only one contained valuable
! lewelry. 1t was missing, but the other
three were apparently undisturhed. The
missing box contained a variety OF lewelry,
some of which was set with diamonds, and
| its total value was somewhere in the neigh
borhood OF $1,000. Nothing else was dis
| turbed. My watch-chain, which was evi-
| IDENTIFY concealed by the fact of its being
under my vest, as it lay on the chair, es-
capped association with the burglar, and l
am happily in possession of it STILL
He certainly was very quiet and knew
| what he was about from the time he en-
tered until he left l had carefully
smoothed out my trousers and deposited
them gently across chair, so as to pre-
serve the crease, just as we all do, you
know, and he simply lifted The right flap,
took the coin and dropped the flap back
| IN place again. Not single thing in the
room was in the least bit disturbed, and
! had l not missed the articles and the
money | would never have known that
| stranger had entered.
How many doors did he have to pass
through after getting in by the front en-
| trence?"
"None at all. never close my bedroom
| door while sleeping and everything was
wide open. He had no trouble to speak of
! after effecting an entrance into the house.
! Ha oH +n hof 7 Il
! dicted to locks and keys and helped i'm
! self without any commotion. | have
| placed the matter in the hands of the
| police, but have been unable to give
them the slightest clew to the burglar,
and they are absolutely in the dark SO far
robbed before, and that is doubtless
| the reason l left everything so exposed.
| | should have known better, as there have
been several clever robberies in this City of
| late"
Perhaps you have taken precaution to
prevent. further thefts around your resi-
| dence2" was suggested to Mr.. Morton.
Have lP' he exclaimed with knowing
look. 'WelI, L should say so. l have
had new locks and burglar alarms put in
all over the house. There is a man up
there now doing things up in good shape.
l know it is like the man who lost his
horse and then put q paddock on the barn
steal, SO 1t isn't SO bad plan after all. In
future will be prepared for such gentle
men In variety of ways, and | think
will have something to say about who
comes into my bedroom at late hour
| without knocking"
| Yesterday there was rumor around po-
lice quarters that Mr.. Morton had lost two
4-carat stones, valued at something in the
| nelghborhood of several thousand dollars,
but Mr.. Morton modestly says he did not.
He was relnctant about going into details
regarding the number of pieces contained
In the jewelry box and said he preferred
not to particularize.
Mr.. Morton is inclined to the belief that
the man who got into his house is one of
the same gang that looted the optical
stores OF Hirsch, Kahn & Co. on Kearny
street some weeks ago and also Muller
institution on Market street within tie
| past SIX months. Not fragment of the
material taken from these places ever ap-
peared again in this City through the
| pawnshops, which is the customary chan
mel into which most stolen property event.
ually pours.
The most rigid lookout has been kept
for these goods and not trace of them
dlsposlng OF them through the East. where
the higher class of criminals prefer to do
business rather than suffer the inconven-
lence OF what might follow such reckless
ness on this coast. The detective force has
had its hands full trying to locate the
gang, but nothing has ever come of their
efforts The town seems to be infested
with thieves who find it profitable to carry
on business that so far has not been in
terr1pted by the minions of the law
They do not tackle small-fry concerns,
and when they make haul it is generally
worth the risk incident to completing the
job.
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Mithridates, in the first century before
| Christ, had very large collection or mu-