Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1909-10-30
CATCH SUSPECTS
AFTER BATTLE
Officers on Engine Chase Three
Alleged Robbers.
BOY AND GIRL GIVE ALARM

Lad Hurled Disc Through Postcffice
Window Just as Safe Was Blown.
Burglars, Surprised at Attack, Open
ed Fire With Pistols and Fled--Were
Captured In Barn.
Jersey Shore, Pa, Oct. ga SEN
sational chase, in which fifty railroad
men, an engine and posse of officers
figured, ended In barn near Avis,
when three men. suspected of being
implicated in the robbery of the local
postoffice and railroad station, were
captured The robbery was one OF the
boldest in the history OF the county.
The men worked without even turning
out the lights in the building and with
the safe placed Immediately In front
of the window and in full view OF the
street.
Above the postoffice Is the telephone
exchange, and directly across the
street is the rival company. Night op-
orators In either building might have
given an alarm and summoned help in
an instant.
Miss harrison an operator, in fact,
first detected the operations OF the
gang in the postoffice.
Alone In the building. she heard a
noise. Later John McAllister, call
boy for the New York Central. went
to the exchange. The operator told
him of the noise, and the two opened
the shutters to look at the postofflce.
In plain view and with all the lights
in the room turned on one man was at
work on the safe. His companions
were keeping watch, one outside the
door and the other standing In the
hallway leading to the exchange above.
Boy Opens Attack.
Unarmed, young McAllister picked
up an insulator and threw 1t at the
postoffice window. The disc crashed
through the glass just a few minutes
before the charge, which the man had
placed in the door of the safe. explod.
cd with bang. Uncertain from what
direction the attack had come the
three men began firing at random
across the street. One shot pierced
the window of the Irwin building and
four struck different places in the wall
of the telephone building and one went
through the window of the exchange.
barely missing the pretty girl oper-
ator.
The three men, alarmed at their dis
covery. ran. leaving the safe open and
its contents scattered. Postmaster
! Masters telephoned a description of
the three men as given him by Nc
Alllster and the telephone girl to Lock
Haven, Avis, Newberry and Williams
port.
Chase Trio on Engine.
The first answer to the postmaster's
warning came few hours later, when
word was telephoned that three men
had been seen jumping from a freight
train and making across the fields.
Constable Overdorf and s. r. Camp
bell went to Avis.
Taking a freight engine from the
railroad yards, the officers and about
fifty men from the shops drove out of
the yards at full speed in the direction
taken by the three men.
The point where the suspects had
jumped from the train was pointed
out, and the officers after an investi-
cation finally found the hiding place in
barn. Barricading themselves, the
men opened fire on the officers. Bullets
few thick for a time. and 1t was not
until the fire within had ceased, evil
IDENTIFY from lack of ammunition, that
the constables entered the barn and
placed the three men under arrest, one