The Somerset reporter., 1896-02-20
IN THE HEATER PIPE.
THE RETIRED BURGLAR RELATES HIS
MOST SINGULAR EXPERIENCE.

MOST SINGULAR EXPERIENCE.
He Had AN Elegant Lay Out of Wedding
Presents at His Mercy When lie Made
AN Unfortunate Step-In the End He
Made a Contribution to the Collection
'In house that was looking over
in town up the state one night, ;" said
the retired burglar, II came across
something that | never struck but that
once in all my experience, strange as 1t
may seem, and, that was q lot Of wed.
ding presents, all just as they were ar
ranged for display. When | turned my
lamp into the room, | wished / hal
brought horse aud wagon; there WAS
a good deal of it that wouldn't have
been of any earthly use to me, but it
seemed pity 10 leave any Of il behind.
But if | couldn' carry it.all off, could
have the fun of picking, and | started
to look the things over. They were ar.
ranged on tables and chairs and on tho
floor around ON three sides Of the room
on the side opposite to the side that
had come in at, and On the sides to the
right and left; running around those
three sides in sort Of irregular order.
On the side where | was there were u
few chairs. thought I'd start in on
the left and work around to the right,
and | started from the door and had
/ gone about three steps when | went
down through the floor, as it 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 d and forgot to put
it back
There was wire screen under tho
register over the 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; just slid down
/ into the pipe, pushing that along under
my feet. When | dropped into the pipe,
| had been facing to the left in some
j way as | Went down | got skewed around
/ SO that when | got down as far as | did
! 60 | was facing to the front; that is,
! toward the center of the room. Tho
j pipe didn't 90 straight down, but with
curve. had thrown up my hands as
went down, and | suppose l might
i have gone plumb to the furnace if |
/ hadn I clutched at the edge of the regis
i ter opening and hung on. A minute be-
fore | was going to take my pick of
roomful HOW where was /?
1 Il had started across the room carry
ing my toolbag in one hand and my
/ 1u,nrN IN, h, a.h or Tho ch,u1y Ill /
] Went down had shaken the bag out Of
4 my hand, but had held on to my lamp,
/ though it was lying on its side NOW
with my fingers clutching through tho
/ handle. The falling of the toolbag and
the striking of the lamp ON the floor
/ and the scraping Of the wire gauze
down through the tin pipe must have
made all together good deal of noise,
! and ! expected every minute to hear
somebody moving about up stairs and
coming down to haul me ont, but no
! body did eeme, and | set my lamp up
/ straight and after I'd waited a minute
or two more | stSrted to see if | could
/ haul myself out.
'As | lay i'll the pipe my head was
! below the level of the floor; 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 | got that high,
found myself with my elbows close to
my body and fairly wedged into the
pipe | couldn't get any higher
q let myself down again, and after
awhile | pulled myself up again. and
held on by enc hand and held up the
lamp aud swung it round on the things
Then | let myself down again, and Won-
dered what | WAS going to do 1t WASH t
only uncomfortable there i'll the posi-
ton | was i'll, it was mighty hot and
unpleasant every way. If | let 90.
didn't know but that I'd slide down
against the furnace, and, of course,
cOuldn t stand il for an indefinite length
of time, and when I'd been in the pipe
/ should imagine about two hours
made up my mind that wouldn' try
to stand 1t any longer; I'd got to come
out some time, and Knight just as well
come out then; i'll 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 i'll the
daytime.
$50 / made up my mind to kick on
the pipe and wake up the house ard
have the thing settled. So | kicked
once, twice, and then | kicked again
and 10y snakes kicked the pipe open
at my feet. There was a joint there, and
I'd kicked it apart, and the sections
was i'll sa2ged down with my weight,
and slid out on the cellar floor. The
saggin2 down Of that part Of the pipe
detached 1t from the part above and 1t
felt on the cellar floor alongside of me
That made noise enough to wake every
body up; there couldn't be any doub,
about that
Il went out by the same cellar Win
dow that came in by. 1t was the first
and only such lot of stuff that | ever
struck, and | never got thing out Of
it; in fact, added something to il my
eef-a set of tools and a dark lantern.
New York Sun.
Danish Women.
Danish women are ahead Of any othel
women ON the face Of the globe in one
particular-they have Just announced