The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1897-06-03
TO SCARE BURGLARS.
a FEW DEVICES SOMEWHAT OUT OF
THE COMMON RUN.
They May Happen to Brighten People Who
Are Not Burglars, but There Is No Doubt
That Most of Them Art Calculated to
Scare Every Time.

A little party of women, brought to-
/ gether last week by a family reunion
over i'll Brooklyn, had under debate u
communication recently printed in The
Sun respecting domestic devices to serve
as burglar alarms.
eve believe in tin" said one. "John
cut a little groove like half of an anger
hole across the tops of the front and
back doors, a few inches back from the
outer edge, and before we go to bed we
poke into each one a stick supporting
some old tinware ON the extreme end.
A leaky watering pot, with some old
tin cups inside, hangs on one, and on
the other an old dishpan, with a couple
Of baking tins tied to it. So long as the
door stays shut nothing happens, but if
it is pushed open the least mite Of q
crack down comes the tinware with q
chatter fit to wake up everybody in the
ward"
"That's all we'll enough for your
doors, but how about the windows? A
thief can open one of these new tangled
catches by poking q table knife up be-
tween the sashes, as easy as you'd say
scat"
But that wouldn't open our win
dows. John has bored holes slanting in
through the window casing into the
sashes and put long iron pins i'll them.
IL is just as if every window was nailed
fast, and a burglar, to get in, would
have to cut away the whole sash"
did any of you ever try newspa-
pers?' asked another. "No? Well. let
me assure you, from my own experience,
there is nothing better. Lay one or two
dry newspaper sheets i'll the lower hall
and pin a couple on the stairs. 1t is i'm
possible to step on them without MAX
ing q noise that, in the stiffness of
night, would surprise you if you never
tried it before. And you can't pick them
up or fold them or slide them out of the
way OR step over them without more
noise. As for the ones ON the stairs,
they are simply the thief's despair. My
husband laughed at me when l first put
them down, but within a week, as it
happened, their efficacy was proved. [
was awakened one night by the rustling
of paper i'll the hall below and awoke
my husband. We lay quiet and listened.
Presently there was another rustic.
Then a long silence. Then more rus
thing, and as the sound of it died way
we could hear somebody swearing in a
whisper. 1t was so funny that my hus-
band burst into a roar of laughter, and
the fellow down stairs jerked the front
door open and fed"
Il don't think soaring a burglar
away is enough punishment for him."
commented an elderly woman. HE
ought TO be hurt somehow. DIR. =.
thinks so, too, and his warm welcome
for the unlimited is something that, as
he says, Just about fills the bill. The
bolts on our front door and the arc light
before it free us of all approximations of
attack from that direction, but twice
our house was entered by petty thieves
through the back door, which faces a
dark garden and is in the shadow of a
vine covered porch. The second time
inspired Mr.. 3. with an idea. At one
side of the door, about the height of a
mans face, he fastened to the wall a
springy bamboo cane, with a tin cup
wired to its free end. During the day
it can be turned up on the wall out Of
the way, but at night, when he sets it
for business, it is sprung out about IL
feet and held there by a short stick and
a figure 4 trigger so set that opening
the door will trip it. The tin cup, I
omitted to mention, holds a good ounce
of cayenne pepper.
"For a month after Mr.. b. rugged
that continuance up nothing happened,
and he was getting low spirited over
the neglect of the burglars to take note
of his new invention. Then, one night,
the sharp 'spang' of the cane against
the wall rang sharply all through the
house and woke us up. That was fol
lowed Immediately by language on the
back porch fit to make your blood run
cold. We got to the window in time to
see two men in the garden, one leading
the other, who was bowling and swear
ing terribly. We fancied that some of
the pepper had got into his eyes. Before
Mr.. B. could get his pistol they had
disappeared in the shrubbery, and we
have not been troubled since"
"That trigger, set to go off when the
door was opened" remarked another
woman, reminds me Of horrid thing
my husband brought home with him
from a trip out west last year. 1t was
like a pistol barrel, with a long screw
ON one side for fixing it to the door
frame and a long spring on the other to
project owe the edge of the door. A lit
tie touch would make the spring fall
hard ON a cap and fire the thing off.
The first night after Jack got home,
when l was setting a chair upside down