The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-08-05
DOG CAVE ALARM
Mr.. Elliott's Spaniel Fright
ened a Burglar Away.
AN EXCITING THIEF CHASE
The Reserves, S. P. @. A. Om-
GERS and Neighbors Joined
in the Search.


A small water spaniel prevented . buR-
glary at an early hour this morning ana
gave the alarm which started an excit-
ing thief chase. which called out all the
reserves of The Gregory street station,
and which lasted nearly an hour. The
thief escaped. but he had a narrow
escape. The dog belongs to James Eli
lott, of No. 217 Montgomery street, near
the corner of Grove street.
Miss Elliott attended performances at
theatre in New York. After she re-
turned she started to go down stairs for
a glass of water, but she changed her
mind and went to her room. The other
members of the family were asleep. Miss
Elliott had reached the door of her room
when she heard peculiar noise In the
basement At the same time the dog
began barking loudly. Miss Elliott called
for help, but the barking Of the dog had
already aroused her brother George, and,
hastily dressing and grabbing his revolv-
er, he rushed into the hallway and down
stairs.
The dog was snarling and barking and
it sounded as if it was attacking some
person. Young Elliott went to the bace-
ment There he found things IN great
wide open The table which had been
in the centre Of the kitchen had been so
placed as to block the passage way from
the hail. and a space had been cleared
through the dining room SO that a rapid
egress could be made from the kitchen
through the dining room and out OF the
front door. When Elliott reached the kit
chen the dog was barking IN the yard
et,1 Ii 1f,rr
and was Just in time to see, by a light in
a house in York street. a raan climbing
over The rear fence. He got a coed
glimpse of the man. who was about six
feet tall and wore a dark suit OF clothes
and black slouch hat Elliott. seeing
that he had no chance of getting near
the fellow. fired his revolver point blank
at him. The thief was dropping over the
fence just as Elliott fired and the shot
did not take effect Elliot scaled the fence
after the burglar. but the thief had dis
appeared. probably by way of the yards.
About the same time as George Elliott
fired the shot his father blew a cab whis-
tie out the window The shot and the
whistle aroused nhe neighbors. who rnsh-
ed 10 the rear windows to see what the
trouble was. Many of the men. dressed
and arming themselves, Joined in the
thief hunt
Poiceman Carroll, who was at Mont
gomerys street and Van Worst Park heard
the shot and responded quickly, did
Policeman Cannon, who was patroling
York street. Carroll called out the re-
serves of the Gregory street station. un-
der Rsoundsman Higgins, and they were
on the scene within five minutes after
the shot was fred. With policemen and
citizens, there were over twenty persons
on hand to hunt for the burglar. Rounds
man Higgins distributed his force around
ithe block bounded by Montgomery. York
Grove and Barrow streets. Careful in
quiry was made but nobody had seen the
fugitive on any of these streets.
The block where the burglary occurred
is one which furnishes many advantages
to a fleeing person as it is filed with al
leywavs and openings on all the streets.
Still it appeared when a force sufficient
TO make a systematic search had arrived,
that the burglar must be within the
boundaries of the block. An s. p. e. A.
officer who had responded to the pistol
shot. secured several lanterns and asys-
tematic search of all the alleyways. back
yards and cellars in the block was made
1t was a pitch dark night. No moon was
shining and the searchers were hardly
able TO distinguish each other at dis
tances of ten PAGES. Everything favored
the fugitive. After an hours search the
police were forced TO give up. Not the
slightest trace Of the thief could be
found. This is the third attempted bur
glery and thief chase that has occurred
In that block within nine months Noth-
ing was tolen from the Eliot house.