Evening star., 1937-03-14
Monument Tip Stolen
By Washington Vandal
Houses Removed in Some Cities, While
Wreckers in Capital Building Program
Found Work Done.
their deeds in the annals of railroad

Ing.
Engineer Bell finally got his wits
together again and proceeded to act.
He took out down the track after the
engine vanishing in front Of him. He
was chasing it aplenty when it crashed
into string of cabooses resting on
siding. Then the secret Of the ghost"
locomotive was revealed. Out of the
cab hoped big, burly colored man,
brandishing knife. He was arrested.
Theodore A. Tausch is a well-re-
spected American citizen dwelling on
the West Coast. Travelling about
in connection with his business, he
stopped recently at a Los Angeles
hostelry. A man watched him and
kept an eye on his suit case When
Mr.. Tausch was not looking, he
sneaked it and vanished. Mr.. Tausch
was much perturbed; not so much
as to his loss as to what the thief
would do when he opened the stolen
suit case. For Mr.. Tausch happened
to be collector Of reptiles and had
in that suit case a batch of rattle
snakes. He laughed grimly to think
of the thief softly closing the door to
some distant room, boiling it and, in
the privacy engendered thereby, open
ing the suit case. He could imagine
him yelling at the top Of his voice for
some one to come rescue him from
his prize"
7 Asst Summer two flyers in their
plane became more or less sus-
ceptible to the heat Of the day. They
saw fine bit Of water below, Edge
water Beach. Md, and they decided
to drop down, take swim, and later
go along on their journey. Down they
few, landed, hitched their plane to
tree, and went into the water. Dis
porting themselves there, they forgot
to keep their eyes on the plane. Some
sneak thief slipped up from the rear
and siphoned all the gas out of its
tank. Not much Of loss, but ter
rible inconvenience. Perhaps the
thieves thought it was good fun to
see this couple scout around for q
few miles until they could rustic
enough gas to continue on their way.
THE humor Of thieves does not seem
to concern itself more with the
penalty attached to theft than 1t
does to the kind or size Of the theft
Fancy seems to rule the activities of
the light-fingered gentry.
In Virginia, under an old pirate
statute, the theft of a boat invokes
the penalty of death. This drastic
punishment for tampering with a
mans property on the water does not
seem to have affected in the least the
decision of the thief or thieves who
made away with the cruiser Geneva,
belonging to w. r. Shackleford of
Newport News. Perhaps the dire
penalty only brought more zest to the
pilfering.
Did the thief who stole 80 rabbits
snd 6 guinea pigs from the Lincoln
General Hospital, Lincoln, Neb., have
something against the human race or
was he just having fun? Or per-
haps he had in mind to do some ex-
perimental work himself with the
rabbits and guinea pigs.
More than likely, however, he
thought that here was a chance to
get some live meat for his scant dinner
table. But II he eats the guinea pigs
and the rabbits the chances are that
he will turn up his toes and land
thu oil S,,v
lated with diseases deadly to the hu-
man race. Some were full Of tuber-
culosis germs. Others were used in
connection with arthritis.
Police are still looking for the thief
who broke into the Orthodox Greek
Church at Atlanta, Ga, and stole some
$500 worth Of wax candles. That he
might not be said to have overlooked
anything, he took along two gallons
Of olive oil.
WASHINGTON officials are still
w pondering over the thief who
stole the cap Oh Of Washington Monu-
ment. He went up In the air to get
his loot. The cap is aluminium and,
at the time Of its purchase, years ago
when the Monument was finished,
cost in the neighborhood Of $1,000.
A year or 81 ago, when Federal Of
flcials were refurbishing the Monu-
ment, pointing up the cracks and
touching it up generally, scaffolding
was built the entire height Of the
555-foot shaft.
It was during this period, when the
scaffolding reached the topmost top
OF the Monument, that the cap was
stolen. Just whether it was one of
those prsnks that thieves like to play
or not will never be known. But it
Is known that the theft upset Govern
ment officials whose duty it Is to care
for the historic stone needle.
To this the d'F the Whereabouts Of