The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-02-04
NO USE FOR LADDERS.
THE RETIRED BURGLAR TELLS OF
TWO UNFORTUNATE EXPERIENCES.

Ease, but That Wasn't All-How a De-
tective Got a CIew and Worked It-Es-
capped Once With Broken Arm.
4 Ladders, when you find them han
N.Y." said the retired burglar, may
Aeem like very convenient way of get
King into open second story windows,
but after two experiences that / had
with them 1 gave them up and stuck to
she cid fashioned way of doors and Gel
Ear windows.
"In a suburban town that visited
once found 'em painting Queen Anne
house in the rainbow style that they
used to paint houses III, and that, sup
pose, they paint em in still to some ex-
tent. The men had ladders up, no stage,
and noticed that at the close of the
day one of them was painting near a
window, and wondered if he'd leave
his ladder there when he stopped work
= at night. l sauntered around that way
after dark, and there it was, and it was
summer, and the window was wide
open. Nest folks in the country, when
their houses are being painted, are apt
to be little skittish about the ladders,
and if enc should be left like this one
they'd be pretty sure to close the win
dow near it and lock it, but these folks
didn t appear to he disturbed, and as far
as my getting intoethe house was con-
cerned it was just about as easy for me
to walk up that ladder and step off
through the window as it would have
been to walk in at the front door with
1t unlocked
Later, about o'clock the next
morning, went up that ladder and in
at the window without the slightest
trouble, and there was nobody sleeping
in that room. 1t was all just as easy as
it could be. poked around the house
and gathered up what stuff there was
worth carrying off and went back to
that room and the open window and
down the ladder and off.
"a month after that, as was walk
ing across the platform Of station on
the same road that the other town was
on to take a train, there was man
laid his hand on my arm and says,
Now, don't make fuss about it, and
it'll be good deal easier all around.
And recognized in him the detective
of the road, man that | knew meant
business, and / went along with him.
'sBeing a man of brains, he had gone
up to the house where the robbery was
as soon as he had heard of it, which
was the day after. There he had put
himself in the burglars place and fol-
lowed in his footsteps as near as he
could. He had had the ladder placed in
just the same position, and he had gone
up that and stepped off into the win
dow and followed over his track inside
tbs house as close as he could guess at
II and then he'd come back to the win
dow and got out on to the ladder, and SO
down to the ground.
1.-The ladder went up on the right
hand side of this window, and while it
was easy enough to reach it, still it
was quite little step from the sill to
the ladder, and he noticed that when
he had got his foot on the ladder he
swung back little toward the house,
so that his elbow just touched it in the
angle between the window frame and
the clapboards. He gave little push
on that elbow naturally and threw him.
self out again On to the ladder. Then
he stopped and looked at the spot where
his elbow mad touched. The paint was
dry and there was no mark, but he call
ed up the painters and learned that on
the morning before-that was the morn
ing after the house had been robbed
the paint at that place, on the cupboard
by the window frame, and on the frame
itself had been smudged a little, and
they'd touched it over. That was all
the detective wanted to know. From
that time on he had been looking for
man with two paint spots of different
colors on the left elbow of his coat, and
/ was the man.
1t may seem amazing to you that l
hadn't rubbed the paint off. / had rub
bed some Of it off, and was going to
rub the rest off the next day, and then
I kept setting that next day ahead, as
we are apt to do, and | finally wound
up by letting it go altogether, the rest
of it. There wasn't one chance in a
thousand of its leading to anything, and
even as it was might have talked my
self out Of the paint, but l had watch
that I'd got in the house in my pocket,
and that settled it.
''That was one ladder This was the
other:
Locking around the outside of
house in the country one night, found
ladder lying on the ground against
the rear of the house They had some
fruit trees in the garden. and suppose
they'd been working over them, or on
the grape arbor maybe, and were going
on with the work next day and had left
the ladder out instead of taking it down
cellar for the night. 1t was summer,
and on the side of the house there were
two windows open in one room.
thought I'd set the ladder up then and
go in one of those windows. / set the