Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-08

1HEN the FanShawe's home was
robbed Gardendale simply fold
Nh "a its hands and sighed. The
wv Fanshawe domicile was equip
ped with all sorts of burglar
proof thngs-an electric alarm, mysterf-
Gus window catches, noisy dog. two pis-
tolls one shotgun. coIicky baby and Mr..
Fanshawe's insomnia. Yet in spite of
such model safeguards the burglars made
II very pretty job OF 1T. Therefore. Car
dendale was beyond the point of speech.
Since the burglar age began the town
police had not captured a single house
breaker. The Citizens Protective Asso-
citation and its two watchmen also had a
zero score. The individual citizens. be-
yond firing stray shots. blowing whistles
and footing tin horns at unreasonable
hours were in the same state of impo-
tence. Several of the men folk wore the
distinction of having seen burglars, a few
o. having shot at them. but nobody except
Mr.. McIvor ever claimed 10 have hit one
and he could not produce the target.
The park section of Gardendale con-
tanned a transplanted colony of city folk
who settled there because it was carefully
restricted. You had to have SO many feet
of land to build on, your house must not
have fiat roof. 1t must not be tene
ment, store two-famiiy dwelling
in short. it had to comply with so many
exact rules and prohibitions that the park
was highly select and oStentatiOuSly proud
of itself.
But IL was not restricted ca ga inst bur-
glars Since the coming of the first. near
ly year ago. Gardendale passed its nights
In state of excitement and suspense.
The Brace and Bit Gang began it, They
had a villainous way of boring circle of
holes around the lock on Il gentleman's
door and then removing the lock. Half a
frnn nd ha.. 0y
bored before the Brace and Bit Gang be-
came compassionate and quit.
month had not elapsed before UMPIRE
tcDtious yet effective jimmy -wielders came
TO spend their evenings. They made a
specially of splintering window sashes,
and they were workmanlike about it, The
second-story men who followed them oc
caSioned less alarm because they worked
during the family dinner hour and did not
give people horrors in the middle of the
night. However. they prospered. They
got less of the parks silverware. but more
of its jewelry. But the coming Of the
hold up brigade was really very serious
matter. Three respected citizens who had
been detained in town until the last train
were further detained on their walks from
the railroad station by insstent wayfar-
erS.
Gardendale's failure TO catch or ami
hiIate a burglar was not due To lack of
house the men bought revolvers. When
they had demonstrated their inability to
hit live targets at unknown distances on
dark nights they bought dogs. There
was the small noisy and cowardly dog {:
the alert and puguaCiouS dog and the
large silent and no-osp dog. each house
holder buying according TO his fancy and
judgment Some OF the dogs barked when
their owners came home late and then
slept the rest OF the night Mr. Britton's
hill Snn liSn hpn no
dark night Mr.. Britton set foot on his
porch the dog quite unexpectedly be-
gan to chew his leg. But Mr.. Britton got
his pistol and ungratefully shot THE only
really good dog in the park. This seemed
To discourage the other dogs. whica there
after gave their time to lighting among
themselves. killing cats and roofing up
flower beds.
and without burglars so impartially that
after while the Gardendale citizen would
merely turn off the switch cuss the gong
and go back TO bed. Mr.. Finch invented a
scheme OF his own. The central idea was
10 welcome burglars with uncanny hospi-
tality and disarm them through their own
establishment. At night he hung a sign on
the front door. Don't use brace and bit
or a Jimmy. The dining room window is
unlocked" If they should venture inside
after this they would find little placards
telling where to seek booty and how to
get IL without damaging the furniture or
waking the family One morning Mr..
Finch found that the front door had been
ijnlmied remorselessly. the drawers in the
sideboard defaced. pictures cut out of their
frames oriental rugs stained win some OF
his choicest claret and everything in gen
eraI A state of wreck. He couldn't under
stand IL until he found this note on the
dining room table:
Mi partner Bill done this. Bill done
tho work while | siaid on the walk and
Sldent come in til he had il all packed up.