The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-01-02
THE RETIRED BURGLAR,

THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
From the New York Sun.
suppose robbing people is pretty
mean business to be in, said the retired
burglar, but sometimes the burglar
gets chance to do people a good turn;
and he always does it. l picked out
one day for my nights work house
On farm just outside town in Ohio.
1t was a prosperous-looking farm
fences in good order, everything about
the house looking neat and trim, and
there was every reasonable indication
that there was stuff in the house worth
carrying away.
When 1 came to look around that
house that night l was surprised.
Everything inside was just as neat and
trim as it was outside, but never was
in house of its size that was so poor.
Actually, on the ground floor there
wasn't a thing worth carrying off !;
they might be living comfortably
enough, but certainly they were
living very plainly and cheaply. The
household plant was old and all run
down. 1t was evidently taken scrupu-
lous care of, but it hadn't been re-
newed in I don't know how long; car
pets worn out. and all that. It is evil
dent that the money was all going for
something else; paying off an old mort
gage. maybe. or supporting boy IN
college, or something. 1t wasn't spent
on things for the house, any way. As
q matter of fact, didn't expect, after
what I'd seen down stairs, to find
things any better upstairs; but 1 was
in the house, and might as we'll go up
and see.
I'd been smelling smoke more or less
ever since came up from the cellar,
but supposed it must come from the
end of wood fire somewhere around
the house, and 1 hadn't paid much at
tention to it, but VIXEN started up the
stairs 1 smelled it stronger. and
it kept getting stronger as l went
up, and when got up where 1 could
look saw smoke in the upstairs hall;
and when 1 had actually stepped up
into the hall 1 saw little flames flicker
ing up between the floor boards in one
corner at the front end of the hall
The house was afre.
Well! You know that was an I'M
pleasant situation. Everybody in the
house was sound asleep, and of course
had to wake 'en up, but if 1 walked
'em up while was in the house nobody
knew what would happen to me.
They might think I'd set the house
afire myself by carelessness with
matches or somehow, and if I was
caught might get into heap more
trouble than 1 would for just simple
burglary. So just hustled out of the
house again to wake 'em up as though
I'd been passing on the road and had
happened to see the fire in the house.
/ got up on the steps and began pound
ing on the front door with my jimmy
and hollerin' fire. 1 thought they'd
never wake up, and 1 pounded and
pounded and kept on hollerin'. In
about minute more ! saw a man hur-
ry across one of the front rooms with
a light in his hand. He came back in
a second or two and opened window
and looked out and holiered Fire.
Fire! Then he was off again some
where in the house and then l was OFF
and down the road. AS went 1 heard
him at a window again hollerin' 'Fire!"
/; 1 Jumped over a fence after I'd gone
down the road little and hid in an
angle. / knew there'd be somebody
along pretty soon, and so there was.
A man from the house that was atre
came in about minute, young man
going like a sprinter, making, no
doubt, for a neighbor or for somebody
that belonged to the fire company or
hose company in town. l looked after
he'd passed, and you could see the
light of the fire now at three or four of
the upstairs windows. The house was
a goner, sure. Some Of the neighbors
had got around by this time, and they
got out some of the things, and pretty
soon fire engine went by where was,
the men Juggling hard, and not so very
many of them. They really couldn't
do much, after they got there; the fire
had got too much start.
Well, she burned down. plumb to the
ground; insured, / hope. l went up
there when it came morning, and stood
around with the rest of the people and
looked at the ruins. 1 saw the man
I'd seen the night before going across
the window with light-he was evil
IDENTIFY the head of the family-and I
saw his wife and two daughters, both
grown up. and the young man I'd seen
the night before going down the road;
that was all there was in the house
They'd al saved their lives, any way.