Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1876 — How a Brave Woman Drove off a Burglar. [ARTICLE]

How a Brave Woman Drove off a Burglar.

Dr. Terry’s residence is a magnificent brown stone structure, with splendid grounds, situated on Washington arenue, near Fulton street, one of the most attractive and aristocratic sites in the city. The burglary and subsequent developments occurred last Friday eveniqg, just at dark. It appears that Mrs. Terry’s four children have been absent in the country during the summer, but she preferred to remain at home with her husband. A few days ago the servant girl was granted a few days’ vacation, and also repaired to the rural districts, leaving the physician and his lady alone in the house. Dr. Terry was out making calls on his patients Friday evening, as usual, while his wife busied herself with some embroidery in her apartments on the second floor of the elegantly furnished house. The atmosphere was warm, and in order to gain the advantage of a fresh draught of air, the lady had the doors leading from her sitting and sleeping rooms into the hall, wide open. A few minutes before seven o’clock she was startled by a noise down stairs, and after listening intently for a moment, she concluded that there might be a thief in the house. Her first impression was to close and lock the doors, which she did. She then looked about for some means of defense, and recollecting that her husband’s revolver, a handsome silver-plated Smith & Wesson seven shooter, was in the drawer of her bureau, she secured it and placed it in her pocket. As she was about to open the door for a further examination of the premises, the door-bell rang and a gentleman friend called. Mrs. Teny thought she might have made a mistake about the noise she had heard, but while her friend was in the parlor she took an opportunity to remove her solid silver from the dining-room sideboard to her own apartment. After a few minutes’ chat the gentleman went away, and Mrs. Terry, feeling reassured, again went up to her sittingroom. She had hardly taken up her work when she heard a heavy footfall, followed by the noise of the stairs creaking. Brave as a lioness, she hastened into the hall with the revolver in her hand. On the lower part of the stairway stood a short, thick-set man, with a sandy mustache. He wore a black silk cap, and in his hand he carried a bar of iron which looked like a jimmy: The lady and the housebreaker looked at each other a moment and then the man made a movement as if he would ascend the stairs. “Where are you going?” asked Mrs. Teny. “1 ’m going up those stain,” replie the fellow with an oath. Mrs. Terry quickly pointed the revolver at him, and, as her eye glanced along the glittering barrel, she said: “ You come another step and I’ll shoot you.” . : : The burglar swore a frightful oath, but he stood still, and after a moment’s hesitation, retreated into the street. An alarm was at once raised by Mrs. Terry, who pursued the thief to the front door, but he succeeded in effecting his escape. An examination of the premises disclosed the fact that he had effected an entrance by breaking into the rear cellar. He had quite a collection of silver plated ware piled upon the. kitchen table in readiness for removal. —Brooklyn {N. T.) Eagle. ,

—Considerable so-called slang is classic. “ Escaped with the skin of my teeth” is from Job. “Heis a brick” is from Plutarch. That hi dorian tells of a King of Sparta who boasted that his army was the only wall of the city—“and every man is a brick.” We call a fair and honest pan “a square man,” but the Greeks described the same person as Tetragonos —“ a fourcornered man.” —The late Miss Martineau saved her memory from the injustice of the biographer by having her autobiography put in type and corrected before her death. She also left by her will an injunction against the publication of any of her private letters.