Year: 1865

found out that these men were ap
preaching the house." ga -


Being then of one mind, we partly
robed ourselves, lighted fire in tn,
kitchen, and soon being provided with
cigars and grog, got very comfortable
and satisfied with our work. My friend
then began his account, which he gave
much in the following words:


"The burglar, as l told you, ha,
usually the advantage of surprise; he
can select the time at which he make,
his attack, and if his proceedings are
carried on cautiously, he enters house
before he is heard. Few men would
however, venture to do so, unless they
previously had good information as tc
the interior arrangements of the
house; this they obtain either from
the servants, tradesmen, or some one
who visits the locality, or they come
themselves as tramps, or with some
trife to sell. Thus if there are bells
attached to the doors and windows,
they find them; they know tolerably
well the domestic arrangements of the
locality they propose trying their skill
upon. There are, too, conventional
methods of protecting a house, such
as bolts, bars, chains, locks, &c, all OF
which require merely time and proper
instruments to overcome. 1t therefore
occurred TO me that novelty and sim
plicity combined would be more than
match for the coarse intellect of the
burglar, and thus i made my plans,
which, you see, answered very WELL"
mo doubt about that" we replied.
Well now, come up to my room" "
he continued, "and see the apparatus" /"


We entered his room, and there,
close beside his pillow was tin box,
in the bottom Of which was key.


"This is nearly all the apparatus" T"
he said; but you notice some thread
fastened to the key. Trace that thread
and you will find it passes through
that small hole in the sash. From
there it goes down to the back yard,
and now you will comprehend my
plan. / knew that no man could ap-
proach the back part Of the house
without walking up tho back yard
which is only four yards wide. /
therefore tied across the back yard
and about two feet from the ground
some fine black thread. This was
made fast once by one side but slipped
through loop, and led up TO my win
dow on the other. The thread then
passed through the hole i had bored
in the window sash and il was then
made fast to this key. Under the sash
l placed the tin box you see and over
the key was bar to prevent its being
dragged up moro than six inches.--
Each night, before / went to bed, /
just drew the string tight, and fasten-
cd it in the yard, taking care to free
it before morning SO as to keep the
plan secret. If then, n man, or any
thing above two feet high walked up
the yard, the string was pressed
against the key and drawn up sharply
against the bar and the string broken
when tho key of course fell into the
tin box, making quite noise enough to
wake me. Immediately after the
string or threads broke, it would fall
to the ground and the person who had
done this would not have felt anything,
the resistance being so slight. i must
own / should have preferred horse
hair to thread but as it was the latter
answered very well. was fast asleep
when the key fell, but Immediately
awoke, and taking my lantern outside
my door, and came to yours; for l
knew that man only in the back
yard could have dropped my key. So
now you see how the burglars were
trapped, for you know all the rest"


we ought not to be critical" we re-
piled. But suppose they had entered
by the front window, instead of by
the back, how then?"


"You see this thread" he said
grasping one that was near the door |;
'pull it."


/ did so, and Immediately a tin cup
dropped into the hand basin.


"That thread goes down stairs and
is fastened across the front window !;
but l broke that off as / went out of
my room SO that it should not impede
my journey down stairs. Thus l could
at once know whether a man was ap-
preaching the back door or had enter
ed the front window, and in either
case, / think 1 could have captured
him." f.,,


Simplicity had certainly been adopt
ed in the present case, but the means
had shown themselves efficient. o


"People are usually very silly"
continued our friend, "when they hear
or think they do, suspicious noises
at night. The first thing they usually
do is to light candle, which proclaims
to the robber that he has been heard
and must escape; then they go about
the house with this candle, and make
q great noise, so that man may have
plenty of time to get away or hide
himself. Instead of this, if person
were to listen intently, he would be
able to hear any suspicious noises dis
tinctly. and decide upon their cause
then as he must know his own house
better than robber he is the best of
of the two in the dark, and when
after arming himself, no has quietly
opened the door he may wait and
listen until the robbers are heard
moving around when ho may take
such steps as may seem necessary, :
If every person were merely to plar
what was to be done in case of robbers
entering. the house, and then were t.
carry out this if occasion required it
burglary would be too dangerous an'
unsuccessful proceeding to bo popu
lar or profitable, and thus might b'
given up for more honest means o