Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1887 — Page 6

THREE AGAINST ONE.

In tbe fall of 1886 I was employed as a clerk in a general store at a cross mads in Southern Indiana. The store, aahnrchand a blacksmith shop, with two residences, made ap the buildings, sad the families of the merchant and blacksmith were the only residents. Tbe country about was thickly settled upon, however, and trade was always geod. Before the merchant engaged me heannounced that I would have to sleep in the store nights, and that unless 1 bad pluck enough to defend the place against marauders he did not w*ht me at any price. He showed me a shotgun, a revolver and a spring-gnn, which were used, or on hand to be used, to defend the place, and the windows were protected with stoat blinds and doors by double locks The close of the war had drifted a bad population into Indiana. The highways were fall of tramps, and there Were hundreds of men who had determined to make a living by some other means than labor. Several attempts had been made to rob the store, and it had come to that pass that no clerk wanted to Bleep there alone. The merchant Beemed satisfied with the answers I gave him, and on a eertain Monday morning I went to work. That same night a store about four miles off was broken into and lob-

bed and the clerk seriously wounded. Two nights later three horses were stolen in onr neighborhood. At the and of the week a farmer who was on 1 • bis way from our store was robbed on the highway. If I had not been a bight sleeper from habit these occurrences would have tended to prevent too lengthy dreams as I lay in my little bedroom at the front of the second story. The revolver was always placed under my pillow and the shotgun stood within reach. The spring-gun was set about midway of the floor. It was a double barreled shotgun,each barrel containing a big charge of buck-shot, and the man who kicked the string and discharged the weapon would never know what hart him. It did not seem possible that any one coaid break into the store without arousing me. There was uo door to my room, and after the people in the neighborhood had gone to bed I could hear the slightest noise in the store. I had looked the place over for a weak spot and had failed to find it, bnt my own confidence came near proving my destruction. I should have told you, in describing the Btore, that fust over the spot where set the spring gun was an opening through which we hoisted and lowered such goods as were stored for a lime on tbe second floor. When not in uss this opening was covered by a trap door.

Toward evening on the tenth day of my clerkship, I hoisted np a lot of pails and mbs, and I had just finished when trade became so brisk that I was called to wait on customers. Later on I saw that I had left the trap door open, and I said to myself that I would let it go mntil I went to bed. The store had the •nlv burglar proof safe for miles around, and it was customary for farmers who had SIOO or so to leave it with us. He received an envelope in which to enclose it, and he could take out and put in as he liked. On this evening four or ive farmers came in to deposit, and, as I afterward figured up, we had about $1,500 in the safe. There were two strange faces in the crowd that evening. One belonged to a roughly dressed, evil eyed man, who announced himself to be a drover, and the other a professional tramp. I gave the latter a piece of tobacco and some crackers and cheese, and he soon went away,and we were so hnsv np to nine o’clock that, I did not give the drover mm h attention. When we same to shut up the store he had gone from my mind altogether. We counted __ ip ihe cash, made some charges in the day book, and it was about ten oiclock when the merchant left, I was tired cut,and took a candle and made a circuit cf the store, set the spring gun, and went to the trap door as I went to my room, but«l did not shut it. It was a, rather chilly night in October, and we had no fries yet, and as I got under the blankets the warmth was so grateful that I soon fell asleep. It was the first night that I had gone to bed with ont thinking of robbers and wondering how I should act in case they came in. I did not know when I fell asleep. I suddenly found myself half-upright in bed, and there was an echo in the store as if the fall of something had aroused me. It was one o’clock, and I had been asleep almost three hoars. Leaning on my elbow, I strained my ears to catch the slightest found, and’ after a minute I heard a movement down stairs. While I could not say what it was, a eor, of instinct told me that it was made by some human being. Every thing on the street was as silent as the grave. My window curtain was np, and I could see that the sky bad thickened np and was very black. I did Jot waiter the noise to be repeated. I was just as sure that some one was in the store as though I had already seen him, and I crept softly out of bed, drew on my trousers and moved out into the big room, having the revolver in my hand. There was no door at the head of the stairs. I intended to go there and lisien - down the stairway. As I was moving across the room, which was then pretty dear of goods as far as the trapdoor, I (gidenly recollected this opening and -■ f'" • ' ■

changed my course to reach it It was terrible dark in the room, and one unfamiliar with the place would not have dared to move a foot. Half-way to the ' trap I got down on my hands and knees, i and, aa I reached the opening, I settled down on my stomach. There was a dim light down stairs. That settled the fact that some one was in the store. After a minute I heard whispers, and then the movement of feet, then a certain sound, which located the intruders to a foot They were at the safe in the front of the store. T drew myself forward and looked down the opening. I could see a lighted candle and two 'or three dark fiigures at the safe, and I coaid hear the combination being worked. My first thought was to drop my hand down and open fire in that direction, bnt I remembered that we had so many articles hanging np that no ballet had any chance of reaching the safe. I was wondering what to do when I heard one of the men whisper “It’s all nonsense. We might work here a week and not hit it.” “But I told you to bring the tools and yon would not.” “Oh, dry up,” protested another. “What we want to do is to go np and bring that counter-hopper and make him open the box.” “I’ll give the cussed thing a few more trials,” said the first man, and I heard him working away again. My eyes could not have told me the number of

robbers but my ears had. There were three of them, and they were no donbt desperate and determined men. They spoke of bringing me down and opening tbe safe as if no resistance was antieipated or taken into account. Indeed, they might well reason that they had me at their mercy. The rain was now falling, the night was very dark, and a pistol shot in the store could not be heard in either of the dwellings. If they frad reflected that I might be armed they would offset it with the fact shat I was a boy of eighteen, with a girl’s face and probably a girl’s nerve. I don’t deny that I was a bit rattled, and that my lip would quiver in spite of me, but I was at the same time fully determined. To get at the fellows was what bothered me, but that trouble was soon solved, “There,” whispered the man at the combination, as he let go of it, “I won’t fool here another minute. That kid knows the combination and we can make him work it. Come on.” They were coming up stairs. The best place (or me would be right at the head of the stairway. The stairs had a half turn in them, and I would fire upon the first man who came within range. I heard the men coming back to the stairway and my nerve gave way. It was not from cowardice, but the knowledge that I was to kill a human being upset me. I decided to retreat to my room and if they persisted in coming that tar I

would shoot. The trio had rubbers on their feet, out they came upstairs without trying very hard to prevent making a noise. The one who came first had the candle, and as he got to the bead of the stairs I saw a knife in his other hand. They made no delay in approaching my room, and with a great effort I braced myself for what I saw must happen. They Could not dee me umil within three or four feet of the door, and their first intimation that I was out of bed was wheu they heard me call out, “stop or I’ll shoot. I had them covered with the weapon, and for fifteen seconds there was dead silence. Then they got a plan. The man with the candle dashed it on the floor, and I supposed they meant to rush in on me in the dark, but I checkmated it by opening fire. They then either meant to retreat down stairs or toward the rear floor, for I saw the three together moving off and fired at their dim figures. Three seconds later there was a great shout of horror,followed by the tremendous report of the double- barreled spring gun, ‘ and then there was absolute silence. 1 think I stood in tie door shaking like a leaf for fully three minutes before the silence were broken by a groan. Then it came to me that the robbers had fallen through the open door upon the cord 1 leading to the gnn. I struck a match, lighted my own candle, and, going to the opening, saw three bodies lying below. Running back to the bedroom to recharge my revolver,! then went down stairs to investigate. It was as I suspected. The three had pitched down together. The top of one’s head had been blown off by the shot, a second had a hole in his chest as big as your fist, while the third, who was responsible for the groans,was severely wounded in both legs. It was three months before he could be put on trial, and he then got four years in prisoh. The whole thing was a put-up job. The “drover” was a Chicago burglar called “Clawhammer Dick,” and he had hidden himself in the store that night, and then let his pals in the back door. They had a horse and wagon in the rear of the building, and the plan was to rob the store of goods as well as to get at the money in the safe. A bit of carelessness on my part not only saved the store and probably my life, but wiped out a very desperate gang. Ooe of the curiosities of this curious age of ours was caught in the wateis of the Choptank river, in Maryland, a few days days ago, by Mr. Wm. E Bradley. It was a good sized terrapin, with a healthy, well developed oyster on its back, and wAaboth literally and figuratively an oyster on four legs.

BACK FROM HEAVEN.

A Tennessee Oirl is Dead Twsnty-flve Minutes. ' Fayetteville (Tens.) Observer. There is one yonng lady, Min Delia Street, of Giles county, who claims to have ‘ spread her white wings and sailed over the sea” to the celestial city last March. The fact has not nntil the present time been in print, and would.probably never have been published had she remained in that lethargic country. There have been at different times persons who have made similar claims, hat the public instead of listening to them with credulity, looked the claimants rather with commiseration, and regarded the fervid acconnts of what they saw as the imaginings of a diseased mind or perchance the product of a disordered liver. Missßtreet is what is known as a “country girl,” and has not enjoyed the educational facilities of large cities, but she is lively and vivacious, and in poifit of intelligence is the eqnal of those raised under the same circumstances, but it is not reasonable to think that a person of such limited advantages could, unassisted, describe anything in as glowing language as she does. It can not belaid that she is more observant than her associates and displays wisdom begotten of vears of experience, for she is Stand I** with reluctant feet Where the brook and river meet— Wo man hood and girlhood Beet.

Her description of the new Jerusalem, which is vivid, is reduced to writing,and is offered in girlish diffidence and youthful innocence. It is slothed in the most elegant and ehaste language, and describes a country more glorious than any upon which the feet of fancy have ever trod, and bears the imprint of a superior mind. There are coincidences connected with this case that challenge attention and show that there was a power greater than the finite involved. About the first of February of the current year Mies Street informed her parents that on the 27th of March following, at four o’clock in the afternoon, she would be taken violently ill; that she would grow worse until the following day at 9 o’clock p. m., at which time she would die and remain in a state of death for twenty-five minutes, and during that period of suspended animation she would visit that “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” She asked het father not to send for doctors, as human instrumentality could not prevent her journey to Paradise, and also to let him not be alarmed, declaring with implicit confidence that, after enduring the sting of death for twenty-five minutes, her mortal and immortal natures would reunite and she would again become a living soul.

Of course the parents were uneasy about the idol of their fireside, and began to think that her reason was abdicating its throne. On the arrival of the day on which she announced she would be taken ill they evinced great solicitude, inquiring hourly as to her condition She answered cheerily and continued to admonish them not to be alarmed. The hands of the clock toiled around until 4 was finally reached, and to the girl’s parents they never seemed to move so rapidly. While the time-piece was upon the stroke of the hour the young lady was prostrated with sickness and violent pains racked her body. Despite her entreaties, the father sent for skilled physicians, who vainly administered their most potent remedies, and at 9 o’clock on the 28th they pronounced life extinct. The sickness and death dccurred as she had predicted, and in time so did the resuscitation. The father remembered the declaration that she would return to life and looked at the clock, and lo! the pendulum had ceased to vibrate, and the time-niece that had for years faithfully tolled off the hours had stopped while upon the stroke of 9. When the girl returned to consciousness the clock started of its own accord, finished striking the hour, and has run Bince without interruption. By reference to the watch of one of the doctors it was found that she had been insensible—shall we say dead? for twen-ty-five minutes. After the return of animation her tongue was paralysed, and*she indicated by signs that writing material was wanted, which was provided, and she wrote letters which she says were dictated by Christ, and the description previously referred to. The whole covers nineteen pages of foolscap paper. She Bays she is commissioned to read her manuscript wherever she goes. While in the house of the blest she wasasked by a woman to write after returning to her great grand daughter, Mrs. Annie B. Shelton, of Kinteroißh, Sumter County, Ala., and tell her how anxiously her great grandame waited her coming Our informant is not positive as to the correctness cf these names, but thinks that of the old lady was Mrs. Annie Belmont, who said she had been dead ninety-five years. By writing to the address the girl gave it was learned that a woman of that name had died in that place in 1772, and that she had a great grand-daughter resident there. Miss Street says she will be told in 1889 the date of her death. ; The statements as given above are established by unimpeachable witnesses. We attempt no explanation, bnt simply give the facts.

ON THE WILD IRISHCOAST.

How the Peasants of Bmtry Bay Toil Unremittingly for a Pittance. London Daily New*. ■ _ „ *’• Besides fishing np herring and hake the poor people at the head of Bantry Bay fish np sand. “Sand raising,”, as it is called, is as important an industry as catching fish. This kind of sand is known sometimes as “coral sand,” is used for farm manure, and' costs from eight to nine shillings a boat load—a poor price considering the toilsome character of the work and the cost of the* boats required to carry it on. A sand boat costs J 65 when new and M a year n repairs. The utmost a boat owner er owners in a boat can do in a day is to bring to shore two boat loads. The proceeds have to be. divided among a number of workers, while the working season lasts for a portion of the year only. In spite of all their lifelong labor from morning to night, in winter and summer and in calm and storm, these crofter fishermen are in a state of chronic poverty. They do not live by their scrappy patches of holdings. They earn with difficulty from the sea barely enough to buy sleeping rcom and a foothold on the land. They even do more than that; they partly create, with the help of tbe Bea, the very soil for which they pay rent. The calcareous deposit, which they call “coral sand,” they have used to reclaim these shores of rock and bog. They have used the seaweed for the same purpose, cutting it np from the deep water with a primitive machine

which may be described as a marine scythe; and the seaweed has to be paid for, if not as a separate item, then as included in the holding. Coral sand, sea weed, tbe refuse of honse and pig sty, and basket loads of soil found among the boulders, these are the ingredients out of which, after years of work, the crofter fishermen have produced the tiny green patches which dot innumerably the rocky shores and the graybrown sides of the incomparably picturesque mountains that surround Olengariff the beautiful. And the dwellings of these hard-working people! They are more fit for the pigs that go grunting and snouting in and out of them than they are for beings created in the inage of God. A dry stone box with earthen floor and without windows, two or three recesses stuffed with straw for beds, and the whole filled with peat reek, such is the ordinary house where a fisherman and his wife live with half a doxen or more children. In one each house which I visited there were seven children. - -

“Sunset” Cox Describes Turkey.

New York World. Congressman 8. 8. Cox talked for an hoar and a half last night to a hall fall of members of the Narragansett Club and their friends, at the club house, at No. 397 West Fif y-fourth street. He

told them what he learned about Turkdy and its people while he was United States Minister to that country. “The Sultan told me repeatedly that what he wanted was to insure exact justice and equality to all,” said Mr. Cox. The people are democratic republicans, and cannot do too much for Americans, because we let them alone. While I was there all the nations of Europe made Turkey the subject of diplomacy, and I thanked God all the time that I was an American with nothing to bother me, for the United Statep is so far off that onr people can’t steal anything from Turkey. The Turk is not a sick man, and is very much alive. I never saw so much courtesy and kindness as Turkish parents show to their children. It is that, together with hospitality, that gives them their power.” Referring to Bulgaria,, he explained that it was its position south of the Balkans that made it the key to the (Orient and gave to the country its Importance. “It is a republic something like the United States,” he continued, “and is gove; tied under a constitution given it by England that makes the. p-ople their own rulers. And yet England steadfastly refuses to give her own people home rule while prescribing it for others.” This, and reference to the Turkish policy of home rule, called forth loud applause. Mr. Cox said that the Tarim were misunderstood and maligned. “Their religion gives them not more than five wives, but nearly all are satisfied with one,” explained the ex-Min-iater. “The Saltan has so many that he has to have their addresses on their rooms so as to remind h’m of their names. There are no hereditary legislators or nobibs in Turkey. The reason why the harem is kept up is to preserve the power of the Sultan as a ruler. A> Tark hesitates a long time before patting away his wife, and there is none of the nastiness in divorce proceedings such as we have in this country. “The reason why Bulgaria is free is because a South street merchant named Robert gave ffiJO.OOO to found a college there, and it is the American influence that gives her people freedom.” Speaking of the natural resources of the country tribnt ry to Constantinople as a trade center, the lecturer said that there was an oil region so rich that even the Standard Oil Company wanted to bay it np. “Everything there is oil,and even the money is greasy,for I had some of it myself once,” he said. 1 A man’s temper is one of the few things which improve by disuse.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

i —The farmer stores his eider now And Unhappy fellow; The harder that the aider gets The suieker he’ll get mell w. —Detroit Free Pres*. Kansas has twenty-three colleges in full operation. Lotta will quit the stage forever after next season, her mother says. Over *,OOO young ladies in New York City are professional type-writers. Tally-ho coaches are to be run from Washington, D. C.,to Mount Vernon. A novelty in parlor gas resembles a rose bush standing inla corner. The pedal either, a new musical instrument, is coming into New fork favor. The New York Central is patting down rails weighing eighty pounds to the yard. Governor Hill, of New York, has appointed thirty women to the office of notary public. The newest cut in corsets is s cut of 10 per cent in the wages of the employee who make them. Broadway, the longest street in New York, extends ten miles, while Benson, the shortest street, is not more than one hundred feet long. “Why do you drink so much?” said a clergyman to a hopeless drunkard. “To drown my troubles.” “And do vou succeed in drowning them?” “No, hang ’em! they can swim. 0 Kansas City had a white Thanksgiving. The Times quotes a stanea as expressing the condition:

First it blew,’ And then it snew. And theii it thew, And then it Mb ksrrid. There are in the State of Kansas I,SOf flour mills, with an invested capital of $96,238.t0. During the year they ground Hi,480,302 bushels of grain, and turned out 12,8*7,382 barrels of flour. The number of mills was doubled during the past eleven months. Sara Bemhart was asked by a reporter: “Do you know, Mademoiselle, that you are reproached for having four children and no husband?” “That is absurd. Isn’t it better than having, like some women in this country, four husbands and no children?” A man clad in nothing bnt a shirt walked np to the ticket office on the platform of a station in Dublin and applied for a ticket. He had delirium tremens, and had gone into the waitingroom, taken off his clothes, and left them there. He was dressed and arrested and fined five shillings and costs at the Police Court. The Baltimore American tells this quaint little story: Said an aged matron to me once: “When my cousin William came home from a three year’s cruise his old bine cloth suit with brass buttons looked very old-fashioned, and I said, ‘Cousin William, you should buy yourself some new clothes; you can afford it.’ Bnt he answered, ‘I do not

worry about my clothes, cousin Mary; I have brought home four shot hairs full of gold pieces, and the girls will marry me now.’ ” And to my “Did any one marry him?” she replied, while a faint tinge mantled her aged cheeks, “Yes, I married him.” Following the example of Frederick Douglass, Miss Flora Batson, who is recognized as the greatest female balladsinger the negro race has thus far produced, will shortly marry her business manager, Mr. James G. Bergen, a white man. Mr. Bergen is a handsome man of the blonde type, and lias seen about forty-five summers. He was born in Petersburg, 111. He has been a widower about a year. He has a son about twelve years of age. Miss Flora Batson was born in Washington twenty-three years ago. It is said that the profits from Miss Batson’s concerts have amounted to $20,000. The venerable but vigorous General F. E. Spinner, formerly United States Treasurer,writes from his camp at Pablo Beach, Fla., to his friends, the boys of America, to spare the birds. “I well recollect.” he says, “that I once shot a robin. He flew some distance, and fell in the tall grass. 1 went and picked him np and found that I had inflicted a fatal wound in his breast. Tne poor, wounded bird looked np into my face so imploringly that it caused me. to shed tears, and now, to day, at the age of eightyfive years, lam haunted by the pitiful, imploring look of that poor, innocent, dying bird, and feelings of deep remorse come over me whenever! see a robin. I would be willing to make great sacrifices to be made guiltless of the wanton murder of that noor, innocent bird.” The General makes a special p iea for thatsweetest of all Amsrican songsters, the ill-named cat bird. But as for the English sparrow, he says with righteons wrath, “kill him wherever you find turn, in season and, out of season. He has never been known to do any good, and is of no use. Give him no quarter, but go for him as you would for anv other tbieL” __ -

The Walk Didn’t Grow.

Melrose Journal. Mr FWn and Mina Allibone were walking in Green’s pasture last Sanday, and sat down on a mossy bank. “Isn’t this moss beautiful?” said Miss Allibone. “I love to loot at it; how it grows upon yon.” Allibone, but it does not on me; I’m not a mosebaek.” This remark shortened their walk ■boot two hos» <_

POVERTY IN EUROPE.

Four Thousand Children Starving in Vienna—Some, jqf Them Dead. London Standard. An inquiry recently instituted into the condition of the Vienna poor attending, the elementary schools resulted in appalling disclosures. Upward of four thousand children were Buffering from the pangs of hanger, some of them being on the verge of starvation A long list of heart-rending cases came te light, and no donbt wat felt that not a few of the unfortunate little ones had died of inanition. The intelligence, heralded abroad through the local press, at once became sensational, and the starving school-children are now the idols of the hoar. The children, cross-examined by a relief committee, corroborated the evidence already taken. It transpired that their principle food consisted of dry bread and occasionally a little weak soup or coffee. Jt is quite true that some of them affirmed that they were habitually given a glass ol spirits to stifle the cravings of their appetite and keep out the cold. ♦ One boy positively stated that his father was a good man, and that when he could not give him anything to eat he let him drink as much -_aa he liked. “Jr, ja,” exclaimed hie school fellows, “and that is why you often come drunk to school.” The parents of the starving children are for the most part day laborers, though some undoubtedly belong to a less respectable class. As soon as the work of relieving the children was taken in hand subscriptions were opened at the editoritorial offices of th 6 metropolitan press. Seldom has an appeal te public charity been more readily and more generously responded to. The poorer elapses have largely contributed. The popular newspapers are full of advertisements from people who can not spare much money, but who offer to give one or two children their daily food. Almost all these advertisements add that application can be made without distinction of religion. All ths hotel and restaurant keepers are feeding a certain number of hungry children every day.

A Prairie Yacht.

Ufnneapolti Tribmne, For some time Mr. Henry F. Snedigar, of Iroquois, has been experimenting with what he called a wind-wagon, and at last has been successful in eo attaching a sail to an ordinary road wagom that the vehicle is rapidly propelled by the wind*. Mr. Snedigar was in the citj--a day or two since, and gave an exhibition of his wind-wagon. The sail was some six feet liigh, of three corner or jibsail shape. It was attached to a onehorse road wagon by a mast and stay ropes. men occupied the wagon; one managing the sail, the other did the steering. This was done by ropes fastened to the thills in such a manner

as to easily turn the front wheels to the right or left, quickly guiding it in the direction desired. The wagon and its two occupants*went through the streets at the rate of six miles an hour, when out of the business part of the city it was allowed to go from ten to twelve miles an hour, with a pretty stiff breeze. Mr. Snedigar came from Iroquois te Huron, a distance of eighteen miles, in an hour and a half, the wind blowing only slightiy. Mr. Snedigar says that when the wind has a velocity of twenty-, five milee an hour he can travel fr >sa twelve to fifteen miles with ease. The sail is so arranged t K at it can be used on either a heavy road wagon or light buggy. Hundreds of people witnessed the exhibition here, and were delighted with it. It is not unlikely that others will adopt this method of travel and sail wagons become numerous in this prairie country, where there is usually wind sufficient to furniEh the power, and where good roadiare always found.

Natnralisarion.

There is one peculiar thing about the nationalities represented by the hundreds of applicants to be naturalised daily in thai there are but few English men among them. The Britishers appear to be adverse to throwing off-their allegiance to the fatherland, and although there are hundreds of them in St. Louis but few of them become naturalized. The Germans take the lead in the naturalization business, and a majority of them take out their“papers” as soon aB they arrive in America, and take the oath of allegiance to the United States. The Irish follow the Germans, the Swiss come next, the French next, the Canadians next, and the Austrians and Italians are about equally reoresented. *

The Little Ones.

A few mornings since at breakfast, n a rich Ciffcon home, a little tot paralyzed his maternal progenitor by exclaiming: “Mamma, I love yon better than I love oatmeal.” “Do you love that much, dear?” was the tender rejoinder. “Wf 11, 1 ain’t stuck on it.” A four year old grandchild oL-Henni-bal Hamlin was told that if a bit of bluO sky eonld be seen among < he heavy clouds caused by a passing shower a certain party of children woul i vat be able to go to the picnic 'which the - up and seeing A wee spot of hi ne, exclaimed with delight. “I Bee you, God, with your pretty blue eye looking down, here, and now ke can go.