PRISONER WAS BEFUDDLED
Man of 76 Found Intruder in His Stable and Took Him to Lock-Up.

Jeromus Rapelye, a Maspeth horse doctor, who, before consolidation was commissioner of highways in Queens County, and who was once overseer of the poor in the Newtown section, appeared in the Jamaica Court of Special Sessions yesterday as the complainant against Entos Felster of 326 West Seventy-first street. Manhattan, charged with unlawful entry. Rapelye wanted the court to know that despite his 16 years he grabbed the prisoner as he was about to enter the stable at 2 o’clock in the morning, and, unaided, walked him to the nearest police station, which is at Newtown.

Chief Justice Russell, who was on the bench with Judges Forker and O’Keeffe, asked the venerable veterinarian if his prisoner appeared to be drunk at the time he tried to get into the Rapelye stable, “I don’t think so,” quickly answered Rapelye. “I socked him in the jaw once and that must have sobered him up.”
Rapelye said that Felster pulled lock, staple, and all out of the barn door and that he was awakened by his watchdog’s barking. Rapelye fired a shot out of his bedroom window and a neighbor caught and held Felster until the horse doctor came and led the man to the police station.

The defendant, who pleaded guilty, declared that he had been visiting a relative in Maspeth on Christmas Day and had been drinking rather freely. When he found himself in front of the stable, he was under the impression he was at the door of his home in Manhattan.

The court sent Felster back to jail pending a further investigation into the case.