Show A PAINFUL INCIDENT The Postmaster Thought HoM Boon Robbed and Got Into Trouble An incident recently occurred in one of the towns of Seneca county New York in volving Republican postmaster in serious embarrassment As the postmasterthough a bachelor has generally been of exem i plnry habits a pillar in two churches and I one of Congressman Floods most active workers the incident has a the local I paper sometimes remarks of other sad i events cast gloom over the entire coin munity j I Owing t the lack of a safe in his officeti this postmaster has been in the habit of I I taking his money and postage stamps j I home with him every night in a small 1 sachet This sachel he took to his bedroom bed-room and usually placed under his pillow I i i But one night he neglected to put the sachel in its usual place merely dropping i it near the door a he entered his bedroom j That same night the nurse girl employed byanother boarder in the house found it necessary to carry tho child in her charge to its mothers room In passing through i the unlighted hal she mistook the door and entered the bedroom of the postmaster I ter I terThat vigilant official instantly awakened i with the belief that there was a burglar in the room and reached under his pillow for I his snchel Not finding it the thought crossedhis mind that the burglar had already al-ready secured it and he bounded out of bed and seized the nurse girj who was groping about in the darkness He was just getting his gripon her throat when she shrieked and dropped the child which he rather by involuntary impulse than deliberate delib-erate intent saved from wreck by catching hold of its clothing The girl finding herself her-self released ran out of the room and into her own where she locked tho door and fainted The child was by this time screaming terrific screams ami the dazed postmaster was trying to think whether to drop the soft moist thing into the wash basin or throw it out of the window when its father fa-ther and mother entered tjio room with lighted candles Tho mother rushed upon the postmaster crying Give me my baby and having rescued it left the room The I infuriated father demanded What have you been doing with my child and began to jerk the postmaster around in a way that might be called wiping the floor with him It is probable that the postmaster was at that moment nearer to insanity than men often are who escape it but the rough treatment treat-ment he received saved him It i known i that the mind works rapidly in the pre ence of great danger and it seems that by the time the postmasters legs had whacked L 0 4rtlip f A IIi I-Ii Ii J rfq 11 > ii J I 1 1 i r I l v 1 J f r BEGAN TO JERK THE POSTMASTER AROUND against the bedpost and washstand had upset a rocking chair smashed a mirror and sent the hairbrush perfumery bottles and collar box on the dressing case flying about in disorder his mind had got back to the lost sachel which he believed the burglar bad captured The thought nerved him for a mighty effort and grappling with his now exhausted assailant he flung him on his back in a corner of the room Then lie yelled Robbers and began to search for his sachel He had just found it and was preparing to meet another assault sault from the outraged parent when several sev-eral other male boarders in the house who had been aroused by the disturbance entered en-tered the room and culled a halt on the proceedings It required a great deal of heated talk to explain matters and itis probable that the explanation never would have been satisfactorily satis-factorily made had not the door of the nurse girls room been broken in and the girl required to tell how she came to part with the child Even then half the people who henid the story did not understand it and the weekly paper published in the town having consented through friendship for the to refrain from postmaster mentioning men-tioning the affair the public have been left to draw very erroneous inferences Some of the neighbors suppose the postmaster to be crazy while others contend that even on the supposition that ho was walking in his sleep it was very queer that he should steal an infant out of its cradle to torment itKew York Times |