Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-01-07
@THE@
HIRED BURGLAR
W sSsSss sSSS9ssSg ~ W. ssS$9$S


added the first speaker.
So it was. There had been an
epidemic of petty burglaries in the
town of Benton during the late fall
The articles stolen were of trifiine
value, never money, usually food
taken from barns and hen sheds, but
the constant fear Of possible mid
night awakenings put the good peo-
pie of the town into state border
ing upon panic. The unknown thief
might grow more ambitious and
more daring. He might invade their
very houses. Whose house would
be first selected as the object of his
unwelcome attentions?
The burglar, or burglars--whoever
they were-evidently were not pro-
fessionals; at least, up to the pres
ent they had not ventured after
bigger game. Nevertheless, the un-
certainty of the thing made the
nervous more nervous and intro.
duced the hitherto uninitiated into
the knowledge that they possessed
nerves after all.
The board of selectmen, three
worthy citizens, feeling the popular
pulse, and realizing that election
day would come in a few months,
dete rmined to take active steps to
ferret out the despoiler of the towns
barns and hen roosts. The step
which, after mature deliberation, the
select men decided to take was not
as a result of unanimous vote OF
the triumvirate. Selectman Dorcas
had raised dissenting voice, accom-
panying it by a sarcastic allusion as
to the sanity of his colleagues. Mr.
Dorcas kept general store. Among
host of other things, he sold re-
volvers and ammunition, the sale oi
which during the past two months
had wonderfully increased ; so tha,
it is barely possible that he was Civ:
ing thought or two to his own in.
terests as well as to those of the
town of Benton.
The motion of Selectman NORTH
was:
"Mr. Chairman, as the burglar we
are all 80 interested in catching
seems, from evidence laid before oul
eyes-mine, at any rate-to be well
acquainted with the barns and her
roOsts of the town, and appears
therefore to be resident, l move
that we order all residents of the
tOwn-men, women and children
to prove where they were between
the hours of 10 and IL o'clock last
Tuesday night, at which time, as we
all know, occurred the last, or rather
the latest, of these pestiferous bur
glaries."
Almost out of breath Mr.. North
had sat down to give place to Mr.
Dorcas, who had jumped to his feet
and cast glance of withering scorr
upon his colleague. But Mr.. Swain
the chairman, cast the deciding vote
and the resolutions was carried.
AS might be expected, the resul,
OF the special meeting of the board ot
selectmen was not received with
unanimous favor by the people Of
Benton. The town was not very
large, but it was large enough (what
town isn'tD to contain more than
one estimable citizen, who, for good
and sufficient reasons, did not care
to have his fellow townsmen-to say
nothing of his wife-know where he
had spent a certain hour of certain
night and what he had been engaged
in. Of course, those fortunate citi.
zens who chanced to have nothing to
conceal did not see anything very
preposterous, idiotic or assinine in
the latest exhibition of acumen or
the part of their chosen law makers
Deacon Thomas Snow, however
was not one of these neither was
his brother in.law, Zenas White nol
Amos Bristow. When Snow de.
clared that the selectmen had acted
in preposterous manner his opin.
ion was echoed, through the medium
of varying epithets, by White and
Bristow.
"Can we," demanded Snow, EN-.
phasizing the pronoun, "afford--"
"Dare," interpolated White.
"--dare to admit where we were
aud what we did last Tuesday
night ?"
The others groaped, and White
said
"What would folks say 2"
"What, indeed |"
"Let me think this thing OUT
said Snow.
Nobody objected, so Snow thought
81 don't believe such monstrous
order can be carried out the people