The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-09
RURAL BURGLAR ALARMS.
Trap Guns. Dynamite. wash Boilers, and
BeIls Used In Pennsylvania.

Bells Used In PennsyIvanIa.
READING. Jan. s.-Farmers. country store
keepers, and others in the sparsely settled dis
tricts OF east Pennsylvania, are alarmed by the
frequency with which burglaries are
by tramps. and they are setting up various odd
devices for their protection. The ordinary
electric burglar alarm has not yet come into
general use. Tran guns are one device. At one
store recently a country merchant set n gun
trap. SO that IL the front door was opened at
night 1t would pull a wire fastened to the trigger
Of the gun. Burglars got into the store by a
rear cellar hole and carried of a wagon load of
plumber, laughing at the trap gun.
The trap-guns sometimes shoot the storekeep-
ers themselves and as they do not always keep
away the burglars other means of protection are
sought. In place OF the trap-gun. some mer-
have a weight SO arranged that 1t will fall II the
doors are opened. One merchant has two large
tin wash boilers suspended above his doors. SO
that they will fall and make a loud noise in case
the store is entered at night. Such devices are all
wei enough where there are sleepers over tho
cries. cigar factories and the like, in dark villages.
at some distance from any dwellings, the case is
Of dynamite was used attached to a weight.
When the door was forced by burglars a weight
fell and the dynamite exploded. The burglars
ran off and the front OF the shop was wrecked.
The trouble Is the quantity Of dynamite to be
At one Lancaster county factory there is n
large bell in "A tower. A thin wire holds back
the tongue or ciapper OF the bell. II the factory
door is opened at night the clapper is released
and the bell Is rnng,. loud enough TO be heard all
over the village. At many AN old farmhouse
they still have a small tower on the roof con-
tanning a bell with the clapper string running
down into the family bedroom and the end OF the
rope hanging at the farmers bedside. II bur
glars come or II help Is needed at night from
any cause, the bell can be rung without getting
Years ago farmers paid very little attention
TO securing their premises at night. Now every
thing is changed. 1t is one mans business after
dusk. to take the big bunch of keys from the
kitchen window and go out and lock the poultry
house, the corr crib, the carriage house, the
stables. the baru doors. in fact everything but
stealing hogs. but they have butchered cattle
in the field at night and hauled of the beef.
Good locks are used, not the ordinary padlocks
which expert tramps long ago learned to open
with a bent nail.
The operations OF a trap gun may figure in
ager OF a creamery put up a trap gun, and one
night 1t went on with a bang. A country paper
published a story about II. ana associated the
reported shooting OF a man with the trap gun,
and the man instituted q suit for libel.
Some up-to-date farmers living near towns
latest burglar alarms. One farmer near Allen.
town has his harm and farm buildings connected
with electric wires. and uses electric lights in
the stables for early and late work in winter.
He also has electric bells 10 ring at night il
burglars gain entrance any whore about his
as he 10 supplied from The city wires. This fea-
ture of farm protection will DO generally adopt
cd in time, but the trap gun, dynamite. and bells
Will still b rugged up ~ Eenote places