New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-25
WOMAN FIGHTS
THIEF. In HOME;
DUEL ENDSCHASE
Fleeing Burglar in Re-
vOlver Battle with
Policeman.
RIVERSIDE DRIVE
ECHOES WITH SHOTS
Mrs. Pearce Feigns Unconscious
ness After Attack-S3,000 in
Jewels Untouched.

In the pitch darkness Of her apart
ment. on the fifth floor at 243 West
Ninety-eighth Street. between Broad
way and West End Avenue, last night
Mrs. Joseph Pearce fought for her life
with a burglar, drove him. down the
fire escape and then used her remain
ing strength in screaming for help.
A hallboy in the apartment house
called Patrolman William j. Seegar. of
the West 10th Street station. who
picked up the trail from the burglars
shadow playing across window on the
first floor. After engaging in a duel
down Riverside Drive. during which
three shots were exchanged, Seegar
captured his man at Ninety-seventh
Street. He gave his name as Joseph
Allen. aged nineteen. and said he live
at 1923 Adams Street, The Bronx.
Neither the patrolman nor the burg
lar was wounded in the duel, which
caused great excitement in all the tall
apartment houses tnat line the Drive
in this neighborhood.
Mrs. Pearce's husband. an employe
in the paymaster's department OF the
-City Controllers office, worked late last
night fixing up the monthly salary
schedule. She returned home about
$3.50 o'clock, having spent the afternoon
and taken dinner with friends.
AS she unlatched the door of her
apartment she was startled, momen-
tarily, by lighted electric light in one
of the bedrooms. She was positive that
she had not left the light burning when
she went out at 2:30 p. m. While she
paused on the threshold, nerving her
self for the slam of the closing door,
the light went out.
Without a moments hesitation. Mrs.
Pearce tiptoed to the mantle in the liv-
ing room, took match and struck it.
In that brief flicIer she saw blur
of something jumping toward her. The
match went out as Allen grabbed her
around the neck and threw her TO the
floor.
Allen is a tall, stocky young fellow,
with a powerful neck-the type that
the police often find engaged in burglar
izing. Mrs. Pearce is short and weighs
only 120 pounds. Her screams for help
ceased as Aliens hand closed around
her throat, but she still had strength
to scratch with her hands and kick with
her feet. They rolled over and over
around the room until Mrs. Pearce de-
cided to use little strategy. She won
dered if her assailant would be fooled
by the old trick of playing possum."
He was fooled.
When she relaxed her muscles and
feigned insensibility, he let go Of her
throat and dashed to the window lead
ing to the fire escape. In that brief
interval Mrs. Pearce had had time to
lay her plans. AS the burglar was half
way through the window she ran over,
grabbed his disappearing legs and re-
doubled her screams for help. Being
close to the open window she was con-
fident some one would hear her cries.
Once again the man and his plucky
opponent wrestled on the floor. Allen
was getting desperate. He could take
no more chances with this woman. He
struck her in the face and knocked her
scnseless. There was no one to grab
him as he slipped through the window.
But Joseph Shaw, the colored hallboy
who had brought Mrs. Pearce up to the
fifth floor in the elevator, heard her
cries. Shaw ran into the street, found
Patrolman Seegar and told him that
loud screams for help were coming
from the Pearce apartment. As Seegar
ran down the hallway toward the ele-
vator, he happened to look through an
open door and saw the burglars shadow
against q window.
Allen had climbed down the fire
escape to the first floor, where he found
an extension leading to the mex. apart
ment, No. 245. By crossing this cx-
tension he reached fence, and was
about to vault over when Patrolman
Seegar took up the chase. Seegar fired
one shot in the air and yelled to Allen
to stop.
Down Ninety eighth Street to the
wall bounding Riverside Park tae
burglar ran, with the patrolman right
after him. Just before he reached the
wall Seegar fired again TO drop his
man. To his surprise Allen whirled
around and returned the shot. Seegar
ducked behind tree and sent another
shot after Allen as he dropped from
the wall to the park.
That was the last shot. After run
ming few steps farther to a place
near Ninety-seventh Street, Allen
dropped TO the ground, threw away the
pistol, and surrendered. He was
locked up in the West Tooth Street
station house after Mrs. Pearce had
identified him.
In his pockets gold bracelet, gold
vanity bag and other articlessof jew
elry were found. Bureau drawers in
the Pearce apartment had been ran
sacked but $4,000 in jewelry had not
been discovered when Mrs. Fearce