The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-06-15
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
n Very Lively Experience Following q
Visit to Farmhouse.

"As general thing" " said the re-
tired burglar, II stuck close to my
legitimate line of work and never
took anything but what I could car
ry off myself and dispose of easily,
but occasionally when I was hard
pressed I would take bulky things
and do the best I could with them.
But it never paid, and something
happened once that made me give
up that sort Of thing for good.
ga farmhouse that I was looking
over one night had nobody in it,
not a soul. They hadn't gone for
long; that was plain enough. Every
thing was left just as it was. They'd
just gone off for the night some
where, maybe to party or some
thing of that sort, but they was just
as far away now as they'd been ir
China, and I might have carried the
house off and they not know it, and
that's what l did pretty rear.
''There was scarcely any small
stuff worth carrying off, and after
I'd looked around little l thought
might as we'll take a load. l could
dispose of it for something. l got
together in the hall a wagon load Of
stuff, trunks and one thing and an
other, all ready to load. l had been
around to the barn previously to see
if there was horse left, because /
didn't know but what they might
have taken the only one, but there
was horse there. He was big,
solid looking horse, nothing partic-
ular about him one way or the 9TH
er, except he looked like strong
horse that could pull almost any
thing. 1 got the harness on him and
hooked him into a farm wagon and
got him around to the side of the
house. 1 suppose l might just as
we'll have taken him to the front,
but there was no use of being reck-
less about it.
well, l loaded the wagon with
the trunks and things till I'd got a
pretty fair load, about all thought
1 could carry and make time with,
and then l started, and we logged
along the road comfortable as could
be for a quarter OF mile or so,
when there was squirrel OF chip
munk or something run across the
road, and I'm blessed if it didn't
scare the old horse, and in about
second and quarter he was run
ming away. And I sat there, hang
ing on to the reins and yanking and
saving and trying to hold him up
and having just about as much ef-
feet on him as though I'd been
baby.
about quarter ofsa mile farther
OIL knew it because I had come
that way-there was a bridge over
a brook that ran across the road,
just a common little bridge with
barked poles on each side for rail
ing. There was road on one side
of the bridge, too, through the wa
ter. There was house just the
other side of this brook, and was
afraid if the old horse went across
the bridge hammering in that still
night he'd wake up the folks and
rouse the neighborhood maybe, SO I
tried to steer him off through the
brook. l thought he'd make less
noise going through the water, and
1 thought maybe the cold water
would sober him, too, and make him
stop, and l got a twist on the reins
and brace on the dashboard and
pulled, and did get him turned off
o little at the fork toward the brook,
and thought I had got him started
for it all right, but he sheered again
for the bridge, and I couldn't begin
to stop him.
1.-The bridge ratings were sup
ported in crotched sticks, and from
these ratings there were poles along
the little approach on each side of
the bridge, the ends of these poles
being in lower crotched sticks.
When the old horse sheered back
from the ford road to the bridge
road, he got the approach to the
bridge all right himself, but he
swung the wagon just enough to
throw the hind axle over the end of
the pole protecting the approach,
and it jammed in some way between
tho pole and the crotched stick sup
porting it and busted the reach of
the wagon and tore off the hind axle
and wheels before you could think,
and the old horse went pounding
across the bridge and half a mile
farther yet with the tail end of the
wagon trailing Oh the ground and
scattering trunks and comfortables
and l don't know what not all along
the road. When l finally got him
held up, l was sitting in an empty
wagon with the dashboard up i'll the
air and the floor sloping down to
the ground.
II might have got another wagon
and gone back and gathered up the