Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1902 — Burglars on Every Corner. [ARTICLE]

Burglars on Every Corner.

Attempted Housebreakings and Choloroformings of Nightly Occurence. ' The success of a burglar in “touching” E. L. Hollingsworth, last Thursday night, seems to have been the signal for a whole series of attempted burglaries and robberies; and they have since been of nightly occurence. Friday night there was not much doing in burglar circles. The only instance reported that night being David Gasaway, who lives on River street, near the ballpark. He heard some person or persons trying to effect an entrance into his house. He awoke his family and went to a neighbor’s for the rest of the night. The burglar probably left when he beard him ad didnot return. Mr. Gasaway had a pretty good look at the man, through the window, and describes him as tall and with a'big mustache and stubby beard. The night before, at Mr. Hays’ bouse close by, some one was heard about the house and on

the porch, and later both Gasaway and Hays saw 'and followed him, He ran to the south end of the ball park and turned down to the river, and the men saw him wade out into the water some distance, and then lost sight of him. That man’s antics were more that of a drunken man than anything else. Saturday night about midnight Mrs. Grant Warner, on Front street, who had stayed up till late with her sick son, heard a noise at a window and got up, and after examining several windows found that some one had been preparing to enter the house at a dining room window, having torn loose the wire of the window screen all along the bottom and half way up one side. Mrs. Warner, as soon as she made this discovery turned on the lights and called Mr. Warner. The burglars bad by this time decamped. From there they evidently went to Isaac Hemphill’s house, a little further north, on the same street, and began working at one of the window screens. Mrs. Hemphill heard the noise and got up. In so doing she accidently tipped a chair over, and the noise frightened the burglars, and they ran, but she saw them run across the street. A few minutes Jater Fred Paroells who had gone home late from the barber shop and was standing outside his father’s house, saw two men '’rubbering” around the bouses of Mrs. Mattie Grant and her neighbors, and they finally went into Mrs. Grant’s partly built new house, adjacent to her present residence. Fred and his father went over and called up Orlen and Van Grant, and one of the latter fired a shot into the building where the burglars were hiding and 'they ran out and escaped. That same night H. F. Parker, the photographer, who boards with Mrs, J. W. Medicus, on south Cullen street, and sleeps down stairs, with his head near an open window bad a call from the burglars. Two times he awoke with a choking sensation and after dreaming that some animal bad him by ,the throat, and with a generally distressed feeling and which feeling continued more or less all day Sunday. In the morning when Mrs. Medicus came down stairs she noticed a strong odor of chloroform about the bouse and asked Mr. Parker if be bad been using chloroform for the toothache. Mr. Parker then investigated and found a small round hole in the window screen and he has no doubt that some parties made at least two attempts to chloroform him into unconsciousness by squirting the drug upon bis pillow

by means of a syringe, through the screen. Sunday night an almost exactly similar incident to Mr. Parker’s occured at the residence of Mrs. Hester Hoyes, on Van Rensselaer street. Her son Tom sleeps down stairs also near a window, and he too was awakened with a very dizzy and distressed sensation, and is satisfied some one took a shot at him through the window with a charge of chloroform. The family heard some one outside the house, evidently trying to get in, but he seems to have left when they got up. R. D. Thompson, who lives next door, was called, and a little later he and Tom saw a man crossing the street, but whether the same one or not they could not be sure. ■ All these reckless but unsuccessful attempts to enter houses suggests the belief that the > 1 lars are not professionals, but crude local talent. So also, still more, their attempts at chloroforming, by the long range method. If they were professionals they would probably know that people can not be chloroformed into unconsciousness in that way. It is probable that only two men are concerned in these acts. One is quite tall and the other rather short. Of course, where there are so many real attempts at burglary, there are some false alarms. Thus it was reported that some one got into Fred Phillips’ house. Friday night, while no one was at home, a light having been seen there. It turned out, however, that it was Mort Murray delivering some ice, he having been given a key to the house for the purpose. Mrs. J. F. Hardman also had a scare Saturday night on going home, after having been out, leaving the house locked. On entering the house she found a portion of a cigarette on the floor, and at once concluded some intruder had been in the house. A careful examinaticu however, shewed all doors and windows securely fastened, and no signs outside of anyone having tried to get in; and it was concluded that the cigarette got there by some other manna than by burglars. Several parties are under suspicion for these burglaries, and arrests are possible, at any time.