The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1924-02-07


scare out your way" said the city girl
to her suburban friend. as they seated
themselves at the table in the tea.
room. ''You order for both of US, my
dear, and then tell me about it. /
heard just little from Mrs. Dressler.
whom / saw just moment yester-
day"
We've always been on the lookout
for thieves and tramps and things"
began the friend. when thu waitress
had turned away. "You see, our SUI
Surb is on the trolley line and there
f6re very convenient for visitors from
town. Then, too, Mrs. Sanborn saw
man climbing out of somebody's kitch-
en- window last month, and that made
us nervous They say now that it was
Mrs. Scnborn's oldest be. getting
cookies without rousing the maid, but
you never can tell! The mere rumor
has made US all nervous, because you
do read Of such dreadful things"
"You haven't many policeman,
either, have your"
1--WE have one.' tie suburbanite de-
clared with spirit. "And he's as good
as most police forces. even If he is
old. He was the policeman when !
was child. and suppose he will be
as long as he lives. He knows every
body, and it is rather good thing to
have an old resident on the force"
"He might be little slow getting
after burglar"
ooh, no, he has bicycle. Burglars
usually keep to the roads. don't they,
on account of trying to flip cars and
so on?"
81 don't know. Ny acquaintance is
limited"
s'Well. anyway" continued the
young woman who lives In the suburb,
I'VE hadn't ever had burglar, and
some of us felt that we weren't real
~ enterprising town without such ex-
element. We weren't even suspicious
of the man when he came around ask
Ing for work"
Gracious! Did you believe him?"
"Why, when he came to our house
mother had him fix some screens and
sweep out the cellar. and do lot Of
little things that we always are glad
to have somebody else do. We don't
keep a man ourselves, and we are al
wayl pleased to get the odd jobs done.
The worst OF 1t was that on the
strength Of it our next door neighbor,
Mrs. bravo, hired him to do good
many things for her. She wasn't con-
tent with outdoor and cellar work, but
liked him so much that she let him
work upstairs. And part of the time
there wasn't anybody watching him.
She said she never thought of such
thing as his stealing. She said it just
went to show how you could not judge
anybody by his looks. A nice looking
man is almost sure to turn out to be
a rascal.
''She was very well satisfied with
his work, but about two hours after
she had paid him and he had gone, she
came running over to our house to
ask Y hat he had taken from US. Mrs.
bravo reported that the man had
walked off with pair Of Mr.. Drayo's
trousers. the pair he had paid the most
for, Of course, and Mrs. bravo had
telephoned for the policeman"
Il shot1d think you had good reason
to be excited.
1--WE did! OF course, it took US
good while to find out whether he had
taken anything from u.s., but we
couldn't find that there was single
thing missing. My small brother was
really very much disappointed, be-
cause he did so want the honor of be-
ing 'burgled." as he called it. When
the policeman came we sent him on
right away to hunt up the man, who,
of course, had left town at once. We
gave him good description Of the
culprit and he brought In two In the
next. hour that were the wrong ones.
They were 80 mad. both of them, that
Mrs. bravo had to pay them well to
keep them from raving.
TT took him a great deal longer to
find the right man, but just about dark
he brought him to Mrs. Drayo's. She
wouldn't let him in, but they stood
out on the porch and we all stood
around watching him. He didn't deny
anything except the trousers. He said
he had worked for Mrs. bravo and
without waiting for us to identity him
he said right out that he had done
some odd jobs for u.s."
''Why, how brazen OF him!"
didn't 1t seem SO? A big crowd
was gathering and there was ali sorts
of talk about doing things to the man
because he was to be made an ex-
ample of to brighten away other
thieves. Then Mr., bravo came home.
He saw the crowd as he got of the
trolley and he ran across lots, think
ing his house was on fire or some
thing. The thief saw him coming. but
he didn't run. In fact, he was more
composed than Mrs. bravo.
"As soon as her husband came
nearer she gave a shrek and sat fiat
on the steps. We all thought she was