Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-07-31
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
He Tells of some Very Unpleasant Expe
 riehees With Mirrors.

 He Tells of some Very Unpleasant Expe-
 riehees With Mirrors.
 "l have had, said the retired bur glar, some very unpleasant experiences with mirrors 1 think have told you how l once fired at my reflection in mirror, mistaking it for another man a mistake that 1 thought should never make again But within two years after that I struck ut man in mirror. and smashed the glass and smashed my hand and made myself uncomfortable gener- ally. It may seem strange to you that a man could make such mistakes but ill dim light, and where everything is strange to him, and he $ all sort of keyed up himself, l don { know as 1t is after all Still, after that last experience l did think il would be some time before l had any more trouble with mirrors Bnt within year 1 had an experience that was great deal worse than either Of them.
 ''Wheu came out of room in house I was i'll one night, on the second floor, looking down the hall-this was pretty near the front where l was-I saw the figu of myself ill Il mirror at the other end. 1t was plain enough, even ill that light, but it startled me little at first, and I threw up my gun at it. Of course the figure hand went up and down, just the same as mine did, and it made me kind of laugh to think 0f it, and I could imagine the shadow laughing, too, Ut man who was afraid of his own shadow
 sThen I went into the next room, and when l came out of that into the hall again my eyes sought the mirror again. It wasn t very pleasant to see yourself i'll the dark i'll that way but it would have been mighty sight less pleasant to But then I was all right, and stood and looked ut it a minute and threw up my arm at it same as before, just up and down, q sort of unnecessary test, but ii made me feel just little easier, and up went the arm ill the mir Ter with Mire but this time, when mine cMue down, the arm in the mirror staid up.
 ''' Now, don't raise your hands, the D1an said, covering me with gun in his upraiscd hand, voice kind of drawl- ing, but meaning business, you know. You know when man means business, and this man did mean it, and I kept my hands down.
 Oh, Billp he says, not moving Il muscle and not shouting it out, but just kind of drawling it out like the other.
 "Then man appeared beyond the man that was holding me up coming toward him aud me He walked right through the mirror, past the other man, and kept coming. It was all plain enough then. Ill fact, I'd guessed at it before, as may he you have. The mirror wasn { a mirror at all, but a doorway, all opening midway of long hall, and 1 the frame was the frame of the door way. There were rooms beyond, just the same as those on the side where was and it was the doors of those that had seen in the mirror and not the re- hection of those on my side And it WAS out of one of those doors that Bill came. The man with the gun had been ready for me the first time I looked but it must have been that Bill wasn t 1 then. But Bill was ready now, and he came on past the other man, careful to keep out of his range, of course, mak- ing for me, and he came around behind me and took two or three turns of rope around my body and arms. Then the man with the gun came mp, and be- tween them they tied me up good and strong. And that was matter of some four years. New York Sun.