Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-07-04
RALPH MELu|CK
IN CUSTODY

AuOtner yOuUnIul burglar Is III UHe
tolls. Justice was swift. The burglary
was committed Tuesday afternoon;
clue was soon obtained and the bur
glar arrested a full confession follow
ed and the money was restored-all
before midnight. By noon yesterday
the burglar was in the custody of the
sheriff
The prosecutor in the case was Jesse
Boyer, driver of one of the Mccormick
busses, whose home is ON Pine street.
Mrs. Boyer was out of town on visit
Tuesday and the dwelling was alone.
When MIR, Boyer returned home at
evening ne found that some one had
broken into the house, the rear window
shutter having been forced upon and
the window raised
About all that was missing was two
children's safes, which contained some
five dollars in change. Mr. Boyer at
once reported the robbery to the chief
of police. who at once set an invesiga-
tion on foot.
Suspicion pointed to Ralph Mellick,
a colored boy about - years of age,
who had been observed by some of the
neighbors acting suspiciously about
the rear of Mr. Beyer's residence dur
ing the afternoon About II O'Clock
Tuesday night the officers called Ralph
up out of bed and put through the
sweating process.
The little fellow strenuously denied
all knowledge of the robbery but en-
deavored to assist the officers in clear
ing up the affair by explaining that
he saw a tramp in the rear of the Bey.
or dwelling Tuesday afternoon He
finally weakened and reaching into
his pocket produced a dollar bill,
which he acknowledged was part of
the booty. For awhile he insisted that
the dollar bill was all he had. but fin
ally he went up stairs and produced
the remainder, which was secreted in
tobacco box. In all $5. % were recov-
cred from the boy and returned by the
officers to Mr. Boyer.
The bov could extract the money
from the safes only by breaking them
open. After securing the money, ao.
cording TO his own confession, he
threw the two safes down into the
cesspool.
The booty having been returned it
was probably thought that no arrests
would be made. Mr.. Boyer. however,
took the view that boy capable of
such work was dangerous factor in
the community and that the best home
for him was some institution where lie
might be trained into better habits
He accordingly swore out warrant
yesterday morning and shortly after
10 O'Clock the lad was arraigned before
Justice Oglesby.
Ralph is a bright looking little fell
low He made clean breast of the
whole affair and went through with
the recital without the least SHOW of
feeling or even indicating that he ap-
pANtlaNVt thhN NiiVit " as tiI4 hS
wrong about it, 1t had been suggested
that he used Mr. Beyer's axe in break
ing the window shutter open. This
the little fellow denied, but produced
a 3law hammer, which he said he had
used, and taking it in his hands ap-
piled it very deXterously to one of the
doors in the Justices office to demon
strate what a useful tool hammer is
in forcing open window shutters, He
had no desire to shield himself at all
and while about it took occasion to
confess that he recently stole three
half dollars from behind the counter
at G. Shoop Hunts drug store.
The youthful defendant stated that
his mother lives in Pittsburg and that
he has his home with his grandmother
in this city. The Justice decided that
the boy would have to be held in ord
er to give the court an opportunity to
act on his case. He fixed bail at one
hundred dollars, but no bondsman ap-
pearing he placed the boy in custody
of the sheriff.