Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1888-11-22
a SUCCESSFUL BURGLAR.
he TELLS IT.

| H@SHADSAs Va tue laAtiy WeEe
inclined to be dubious as to its adyan.
tages. The chief objection which we
had to it was that il was one of row
Of eight, all exactly alike, and it wa.
extremely difficult to be sure of tLe
right door.
A weeks practice. however, made
that alright; ours was the fourth house
from the south end of the row; as
walsed from the office along The
street Immediately south of Us, I soon
became accustomed to taking the exact
number of steps. after turning the
corner, which wonld bring me to the
door.
Besides, the hour at which I came
home Il am a proof-rsader on a morn
ing paper and my duties usually keep
me at the Office until near 8 A. NJ
made it necessary for me to carry a
latch.key. While I knew that OF
course our neighbors had exactly the
same conveniences which we enjoyed,
and looked for light to windows in
the same portion of exactly similar
rooms, and experienced the annoyance
OF smoky chimneys when the wind
was in the particular quarter which
affected ours, I did not dream that
the houses were so precisely the same
that the key of one would unlock
another.
We had lived here about a week
when the street-car line near by be-
gan running owl cars. This was a
boon for me, as it saved me a walk Of
some length. The car lines ran WITH
in half a square of the house, being
on the next street north of us.
The first night that 1 rode home /
was so sleepy when got out of the
car that scarcely knew what was
doing. Hitherto the exercise of walk.
ing had kept me wide awake until
got into my own room. / managed
to unlock the front door, however,
and get upstairs; habit making my
movements nolseIess, ss hns- a.
my mother was easily awakened and
did not readily 90 to sleep again.
The room which I occupied was
over the dining room, the door being
nearly opposite the head CT the stairs.
Somewhat to my surprise, the gas was
not burning on the landing; the gitls
had probably forgotten to light it
before going to bed. ] groped my
way carefully along, and at last
reached the door of my room. l
entered; it was, like the hall, pitch
dark. l tried to find the table on
which there should be lamp, and
nv hand came in contract with some-
thing else. l drew a match from my
pocket and struck it. As I held it
screened in my hand I saw that the
room was strange one. Suddenly
all was dark; it was not that the NATL
had gone out, but the brain was
shadowed. knew nothing more.
SHE TELLS IT.
was always rated courageous. /
seemed to lack that instructive fear
which causes some to shrink from
darkness and loneliness. Ny brothers
and sisters often declared that I
would never be frightened; not even,
added May, with a shudder, if a burg
lar were to present himself before me
and demand my valuables. These
would not tempt any well regulated
burglar, being small and OF little in
trinsic value; but I should not like to
lcse them. and l had always deter
mined to defend my property stoutly
if threatened, providing, of course,
that | had sufficient warning of the
robbers intentions to enable me act.
| awoke one morning at that pro-
verbal darkest hour just before the
dawn. I had no iea what time il
was, as the whole house Was wrapped
in silence and darkness; it is from
after events that l am able to say
that it was nearly morning. I had
started suddenly from sleep, but at
FIRST | could not tell what had aroused
me. AS I lay listening for some
sound to follow that which had re
called me from the land Of dreams,
my thoughts turned instinctively to
our next door neighbors. who had
been domiciled in the row for about
a week.
Nobody knew them, although sever
al of the older residents had spoken
of calling upon them-perhaps; for
we liked the looks Of the ladies' aud
they seemed inclined 10 be friendly.
The men. however. seemed to be home
all day and away all night. They
! were not workinpVnen-ore could see