The Roanoke Times

Aged Thief

Woodstock special to the Washing Post says:

Farmer Helsy, a prosperous young man, rode into Edinburg on Monday and hitched his horse in front of Holtzman's Hotel.

A few minutes later an old man came around the corner, and, seeing the horse, deliberately unfastened the saddle and disappeared with it. Farmer Helsy an hour later mounted his horse bare back and set out to capture the thief.

He overtook him four miles from town. The aged offender acknowledged that he took the saddle and had sold it for $3.

"If you don't believe me," said the old man, "I'll go back with you and prove it. But I shan't walk," he added.

"Well, go on the horse and I'll walk," said Farmer Helsy, alighting. He was pleased at the thought of handing the thief over to the authorities.

The old man straddled the animal, and Helsy stepped in front, holding the reins. They started leisurely back to town. The old man entertained the young farmer with stories of the hardships he had encountered through life.

He had stolen the saddle, he said, solely because he needed $2. He might have got more for it, but did not try. He was so frank and apparently truthful that Helsy had half resolved to forgive him, when the old man suddenly applied his cane vigorously to the horse's side, and the animal plunged off wildly down the road and disappeared, leaving Helsy a victim of misplaced confidence, minus both saddle and horse.

He footed it back to town and then a systematic search was made for the aged thief, which was kept up for twenty-four hours.

He was captured to-day at Wheatfield, but had traded the horse for a $10 gun. During the night he broke into a distillery and made merry. When locked in jail here he took things philosophically, and expressed indifference as to what became of him. He is 65 years old. The officer who caught him is 75.

Farmer Helsy recovered his property.