Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-10-21
A CASE OF INSOMNIA.
THE RETIRED BURGLAR RELATES AN
INTERESTING EXPERIENCE.

How He Came to Eat Roasted Oysters
with Gentleman Who CouIdn't Sleep.
he Didn't Make a Cent. but Enjoyed the
Rest and Had q Pleasant Visit.
II found the dining room Of house
that ] was looking over one night"
said the retired burglar, ''filled with q
glow Of light from bright hard coal
fire burning in CRATE at one end Of the
room. There was just little bit Of gas
burning from one burner, but it only
made little yellow tip in the redder
glow from the fire. About half the ta-
Bile was covered with folded white ta-
blecloth, clean and thick and with the
creases still in it. On this cloth there
were plate and plate Of bread and
some butter and vinegar and catchup and
things like that, and ON the other end
of the table that wasn't covered, the
end nearest the fire, there was an old
fashioned square tea tray with the
japanning pretty much all worn off
Looking down by the fire, / saw on one
side of the hearth half bushel basket
pretty near full of big selected oysters,
pretty uniform in size and laid in care
fully with the round shell down
''It was winter night, colder'n
Greenland outside, and this room was
just as comfortable as it could be-, and
that layout did look inviting, and
couldn t even guess who it was for, be-
cause the house was shut up tighter'n
a drum-evidently nobody expected and
nobody sitting up But while / was
standing there wondering over 1t heard
door open-the one next to the one I'd
come in at--and in comes man that
looks at me for minute and says:
This is an unexpected pleasure
''And | says it is to me, too. looking
at him at the same time and seeing
man maybe little bigger'n myself
and perfectly resolute and capable and
able to take care Of himself
But sit down, he says, and eat
something with me. You'll find an
other oyster knife in the left hand side
of the right hand drawer Of that side
board right back Of you And there it
was, and when / turned around again
the man was putting oysters ON the fire
in the CRATE. Five minutes later he was
picking EN- up with pair of tongs an
laying 'em carefully. round shell down.
on the old tea tray Now. viii you
just help yourself?' he says.
You do this very oftenY says
Well. no, l don t. he says, and
shouldn t do it at all if could help it,
but suffer from insomnia, and l find
that when | can t sleep little snack Of
something to eat makes me sleep can
tell generally before go to bed the
nights when / ain t going to sleep, and
such nights have 'em fix up something
to eat in case should need it, and then
come down and find it, like this, and
eating something sort of tranquilizes my
mind, and go back to bed and go to
sleep all right.
He pushed the top shell off an oyster
in front of him over on to the tray and
put little bit of scrap Of butter ON
the oyster and looked at it dissolve a
minute. and then he put on just one
drop Of pepper sauce, turned the oyster
over in the deep shell SO as to get the
dry top side into the oyster juice and
melted butter, and then he ate it. Then
he dipped little hunk of bread into
the juice in the deep shell and ate that,
and then he pushed the empty shell out
of the way on the tray and took another
oyster off the fire with the tongs and
began on that.
''Darned if / could see how man
that enjoyed eating as much as he did
could ever bother about anything, but
he did, all the same, that was plain, or
he wouldn't have been there
"'I don't suppose, he says, that
you ever suffer from insomnia and if
you did it wouldn't make any differ
ence, because you want to be wide awake
nights in your business, eh?' And he
seemed to think this was pretty slick
little sort of joke Then i told him
how came to go into the business;
that when l was young man l had
been a great sufferer from insomnia my
self; that in those days there were not
nearly SO many night occupations to
choose from as now, and that my choice
was limited; that | had not followed
burglary from inclination, but that I
was compelled to do something for
living, and burglary was the only night
work could get at the time, and that's
how came to take it up as business.
lyon don t mean it, he says Put
on the blower and start up the fire a
little. If I'd ha known you were COM
ing I'd had another basket.
"Well. we finished EN- up, and says
to him: What do you think; think
you can sleep now2' And he said he
thought he could And he let me out
the front door and went to bed, I'sRp-
pose. know / went home myself feel
ing comfortable. hadn't made cent,
but it's good thing to take rest now
and then. and always did like roast
oysters New York Sun
ADVERTISING.