Alex McKenzie
Cincinnati Dailey Enquirer, 30 March 1870, page 3
NEWPORT
A SMALL EXCITEMENT IN NEWPORT-Burglars Sought But Not Found
There have recently been several attempts at burglary upon the premises of Captain Alex McKenzie on Front street, betwee York and Monmouth Newport. One of them was quite successful, six gallons of wine, some dozen cans of preserved fruit and other property being carried off.
The perpetrators were supposed to be soldiers from Newport Barracks and a watch was set for them. Last night at about ten o'clock they were seen by a son of Mackenzie (sic) to enter the adjoining lot and as he supposed to go into the back entrance of the house, situated thereon and at present vacant.
The alarm was given and an armed official and unofficial party, surrounded the house and cut off all avenues of escape, as they supposed. A lantern was procured and a bold party entered, forgetting in their hot blood valor to leave the rear of the premises guarded by a lad of eight winters. An anxious group of citizens and one reporter halted on the pavement in front of the house and listened for the sound of the desperate struggle that would ensue when the last door had been forced and the armed and ruffian burglars turned at bay.
Two heavy kicks at the door in a back room, resembling pistol shots, were heard and someone said, with bated breath, "they're at it" when a weak, childish voice, from the back yard cried, "There they go over the fence!"
And so it was, for when fifteen minutes later the Horsfall and Mariana party returned from their fruitless search from cellar to attic, an examination showed that the chase had all the while been seated in a little on story house in the back yard, had watched till the opportune moment when the whole party entering the house left the way clear and then cut for it, scrambled over the back fence and were away.
We regret to add that the ladies of the robbed premises, looking out on the scene from a darkened port above, were forced to be listeners to the expressions of disgust at the place of the rascals concealment, which followed upon the discovery of their escape. Motto-when you send a ferret into a fox's hole, leave a hound without.