The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-01-24
A STRANGE EXPERIENCE.

the probability of the following story,
told to me as the truth by an eminent
and trustworthy gentleman OF San
Francisco, they have yet to learn and
comprehend some of the most vital
things of life He said to me:
GA few summers ago my family left
Town to spend some weeks in the coun-
try. / gave the servants vacation and
arranged to stay alone at my house.
For a change had bed placed in the
Hrawing-room, which was in the front
of the house on the lower floor. On
one side of this room was the vestlbule,
into which the outer door opened, and
on the other an exterior passage which
opened upon the street through gate,
and which ran back alongside the house
in the rear of the premises. 1t was
paved with boards, some of which had
worn slightly loose. The gate was
closed with an ordinary lift latch.
eve had lived in the house number
of years, but had never slept in that
room before. The front of the room
was taken up by bay window, which
was furnished on the inside with ordi-
nary slat blinds. My bed was placed
at the opposite end of the room, against
the sliding doors.
81 had arranged to take my meals
downtown On the first evening of my
solitary occupancy I returned to the
house shortly after dinner and read
in my improvised bedroom until ten
o'clock Then / pulled down one of
the upper sashes of the window, closed
the blinds and went to bed.
"Ordinarily, | would fall quickly
asleep on retiring, but the novelty of
my position, and perhaps some bust
ness anXieties, kept me awake for an
hour or two. This worried me and
made me nervous. The stiffness of the
night came on, but still l remained
awake. 1t was while / was lying in
this state that l heard the latch of
the gate opening into the side passage
cautiously raised, then some one step
cautiously fwithin, leaving the gate
open, and then footballs proceeding
stealthily toward the rear of the house,
causing a loose board here and there
to squeak.
81 listened with the most eager and
strained alertness, for my immediate
conclusion was that a burglar, perhaps
having observed the departure of the
family and assuming that the house
had been temporarily deserted, had
come to plumber the place. I heard
him try and then abandon the secure
ly barred door opening from the rear
porch upon the passage.
ga lattice extended from the lower
rear porch to the upper. Without
Ie; ,,Ar IL
nimbly scale the lattice and step upon
the floor of the upper porch. A hall
door and a bed chamber window both
opened upon this porch and l was curl
GUS to note which the burglar would
attack, and began to wonder If they
had been locked.
"He chose the window. l heard the
sash lock snap under the pressure of
his old chisel. After pause he stepped
into the room and proceeded to ran9ack
it. 1t was my wife's room, AMI al
though | knew that she had provided
elsewhere for the safe care of her furs
and other more valuable clothes, re-
tlected there must have been left a
number of things which a burglar
might think worthy of attention.
heard him strip blanket from the ped.
spread it upon the floor and proceed to
pile upon it the plumber which he found
in the trunks, ehiffonnieres, closets and
the like. Then he stepped to the open
door into the passage and stood listen
ing for moment.
"These occurrences had surprising
effect upon my nerves. The door be-
tween my temporary bedroom and the
Sestibule was open for ventildtio and
1 realized that l was almost in physical
touch with the man who would not
hesitate to kill me should that prove
necessary to his safety. knew that
sooner or later he would descend the
stairs, at the foot of which was the
open door of my room. 1t would not
have been difficult for me to waylay
him and make an effort to cripple or
Kill him it the darkness with one of
dozen of the convenient articles which
! remembered were the room, includ-
Ing heavy poker, some bronze stat
nettes, chairs, stools and the like. Or
d1narily. as you are aware, ! am not
timid man. but tell you now that an
unaccountable fear assaied me and
held me prisoner. 1t requires good
deal of candor to make that admission,
\ but it is necessary to a complete under
i standingof this remarka BILE experience.
!, after standing in listening atti-
! tude moment. the burglar slowly and
cautiously descended the stairs, and,
as / expected, left my room alone and
proceeded to the dining-room. l knew
! that the solid silverware had been sent
] away for safekeeping, and so was not
It SURPRISED when the burglar, after hand
! ling the plated ware which he found
!. and making 1t tinkle softly and gently,
: left it, made an Improbable search of
s other rooms and returned to the foot
d of the stairs. This brought him again
10 to my door. He paused on the TIRES
&c hold, listened in silence moment and
then started upstairs. In that mo-
s, nent / suffered such a reasonless agony
of terror as cannot be explained on or
s dinary grounds | held my breath lnti
was nearly suffocated, and when the
~ man turned to leave was cold to the
7e marrow.