Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-03-12

and batter the walls Of the Office build
ing. The interior Of the safe was OPEN
ed up to the burglars who forced open
small drawers with chisel or jimmy
and got into a small iron door by driv-
ing it In with hammer or crowbar.
There were indications Of the use Of
chisel around the safe door, and the
probability is that the whole job must
have required several hours.
The oil mill, within rs yards Of the
office, was in operation all night, and,
of course, at the time the explosion
occurred. One Negro claims to have
heard the explosion in the seed house,
and says it was between IL and 1
o'clock. He did not pay any attention
to It, because it did not occur to him
that 1t indicated anything serious.
Several people living in different parts
Of town also claim to have heard the
explosion and they seem to unite in the
opinion that it was along about 2
o'clock in the morning.
Although there was found in the
Office section Of razor blade that had
probably been used as a wedge, and
some other articles that the cracksmen
had employed, there was nothing that
could be made by the local detective
talent to serve as a satisfactorily clue.
And up to this time there has been
nothing to suggest the identity of the
r,r1a 10 In q
state Of facts put together by Police
man A. Rose.
1t seems that day or two before the
burglary, there appeared at boarding
house here a pock- marked man and his
wife, who represented that they were
expert carpet cleaners from Chicago.
They claimed to be able to make old
carpets as bright and clean as new
without taking them from the floor.
About the same time there appeared
in the town two strange Negroes
whom it afterward developed, were in
the employ of the carpet cleaner.
Policeman Rose and Sheriff Logan
investigated the carpet cleaner during
Saturday morning. The people at the
boarding house remarked several SUB
picious circumstances. For instance, on
the day before the man had referred to
the contents of a bottle in the presence
Of servant as glycerine. He did not
say what the glycerine was for. The
boarding house people were not able to
say that either. the man or the woman
was out Of the house during Friday
night; but they were up at an unusu-
ally early hour on Saturday morning.
Policeman Rose was able to account
for the whereabouts of the Negroes
Friday night, except between the
hours Of about IL o'clock p. m, and 3
o'clock a. m.
On the strength Of suspicious arous-
ed by the circumstances related, Police
man Rose and Sheriff Logan took the
carpet man in custody and made par
tial search Of him. What seemed to be
pistol in his hip pocket turned out to
be a bottle, and the scared expression
that came over the fellows face when
Policeman Rose put his hand on the
bottle gave rise to the further suspi-
cion that the bottle might have con-
tained o-glycerine. The fellow had
some tools in satchel that might have
been used for either carpet cleaning
or safe-breaking, and while the officers
were not thoroughly satisfied, they f.
nally decided to let the entire party de-
part. The man and woman took the
Three C's train for Rock Hill, and the
Negroes also managed to get to that
town.