The San Francisco call., 1904-10-04
Miss Florence Dean Turns on Lights in Home When She
Hears RObb0r and Calls Father to Bring Gun.

BERKELEY, Oct. 3.-With devilish
intent a burglar forced his way into
the home Of Mr.. and Mrs Ezra Dean
at 2130 Essex street at an early hour
this morning, prepared with a sponge
full of chloroform to stupefy the occu-
pants so that he might rob the house
without molestation. The desperate,
however, reckoned without Miss Flor
ence Dean, the daughter of the house.
BY summoning her courage and using
a little strategy, she put him to fight
and prevented what might have been
a tragedy. While making his hasty
departure the burglar dropped the
sponge with it's subtle poison and this
Is now preserved as a souvenir by the
Dean family.
Miss Dean is a trained nurse and that
perhaps is why an unusual, rasping
noise awakened her out of a sound
sleep at 2 o'clock this morning. She
knew that something was wrong and
so got up to listen, at the same time
acquainting Mrs. w. D. Mills, her
sleeping companion, with her fears
in the hallway upstairs before they be-
came convinced from the noise that
some one was unlawfully In the house.
The noise continued in spite of a con-
ttnual conversation kept up by Miss
Dean and Mrs Mills. Soon they heard
the door leading from the dining-room
downstairs into the hallway opened by
the bold intruder 1t was time then for
action and Miss Dean turned on the
! electric lights in all the upstairs rooms
The sudden illumination revealed the
shadow of a man Silhouetted on the
wall. AT the same time there came
from below a strong smell Of chloro-
form, which the women recognized at
once.
Even with the light and the voices
the burglar did not seem to be deferred
from his purpose, evidently believing
that the women were alone in the
house and that he could overpower
them with the deadly drug he carried
, He kept mounting the stairs one by one
and had gained the first landing be-
fore Miss Dean had thought of another
strategy.
Father! Father" she cried, at this
critical moment, hurry with the gunl
He's coming up the stairs. Hurry
Mr.. and Mrs. Dean had been awak-
ened by the strange noise in the house
and had hastened to see what it was
all about. AS a precaution Mr.. Dean
brought his shotgun along with him.
but it was not loaded An unloaded
gun is Of little use against burglars
for ammunition. 1t was while he was
searching for a cartridge that Miss
Dean called upon him to hurry. mo-
ment later he found the cartridge and
clicked it into the gun.
The loading of the gun convinced the
burglar that a warm reception await
ed him and his courage failed him.
Without uttering a word he rushed
down the stairs and out of the house
by the way he had entered and disap-
peared over the rear fence. If he had
gone around the front way he would
have been shot, for Mr.. Dean was pre-
pared to fire upon him. In looking
over the house afterward the family
found the chloroform- soaked sponge on
the, floor
1T was a thrilling experience" said
Miss Dean to-day. MY friend heard
some one walking up and down in front
of the house very early this morning.
though we thought nothing o.s lit. Later
we heard a rasping noise at the back
of the house, but thought 1t came from
next door. But when it got nearer we
got up and Investigated, with the re-
suit that we found a burglar. The fell
low undoubtedly intended to chloro-
form US. could smell the chloroform