The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1897-02-23
/ TIE RETIRED BUReLAR.
An Esperience That Was Very Curious
and Also Highly Exasperating.

EHUtfI1n(t
and Also Highly Exasperating.
"You remember / told you the
other day, said the retired burglar,
"about upsetting couple of buck
cts of paste in a room that was be-
| ing papered and falling down in the
paste and getting all covered with
it and then sitting down in a corner
seat in the next room to scrape the
paste off my shoes and finding when
/ got up that 1 had sofa cushions
stuck to ME all over2 Well, that
makes me think of another sticky
experience I had once that was
somewhat different from that.
"You always look over a bureau
and through the bureau drawers in
a room when you can. You are pref
ty sure to find something about a
bureau worth carrying off, but you
don't always. 1 set my lamp down
one night on top of bureau after
a preliminary survey over it with
out finding anything and then went
through the top drawer without
finding anything there, and then /
stepped back a little to get at the
next drawer easier, or rather was
| going TO step hack, but I couldn't.
was stuck fast. standing there in
front of the bureau. Icouldn' t move
my feet any more'n if they'd been
strapped down to the floor with iron
straps.
Course my hands were free, and
/ picked up my lamp and turned it
down on the floor. found on the
floor in front of the bureau board
about feet long and maybe IS or
20 inches wide, that was standing
on. 1t was screwed down to the floor
at the four corners, and it was COW
cred all over thick with the stickiest
stuff I ever came across What it
was don't know, but the stickiest
glue that ever was would have been
like mild dilution of weak muci-
lage compared to it. I just simply
couldn't move my feet at all. And
unfortunately, for some reason, I
hadn t worn my rubbers that night.
1t was my shoes that was stuck
down, and I'd got to get out of 'enk
OF course could have unscrewed
the board from the foor--I had a
screwdriver right there in my bag
alongside of me-but what good
would that have done9 I'd have had
to take the board along with me,
and, hopping along with board a
feet long and 4 feet wide fastened
to my feet, I'd have made as much
noise as dropping boards in a lum-
Der yard, There wasn't anything to
do but get out of my shoes, and /
bent over 'em carefully and unlaced
'em and then held on to the bureau
and stepped out of 'em, one at a
time, on to the floor. You know, /
hated to leave them shoes there like
that, but there WASH t anything else
to do. looked at 'em minute and
then dropped my lamp in my ulster
pocket and picked up my bag-that
is, tried to pick it up, but I might
just as well have tried to lift the
house. I realized then for the first
time that had set the bag down on
the sticky board, and it was stuck
as tight as my shoes were.
"Well, that made me kind of mad.
I'd carried the old bag for years
and got used to it, and / hated to
lose it, especially like that. But
what could do about it7 Nothing.
And then I almost fell over on the
board myself when Preached for the
bag and it didn't come, and l kind
of felt that it WASH t sensible to fool
around there too long. There wasn't
anybody awake, and / was just as
free to move about as ever, but /
couldn't help thinking that anybody
that would invent scheme like
that might have something else on
foot anywhere around the house. So
! opened the bag and got the things
out of it and dropped 'em in my
pocket, and then I took one more
look at my shoes and the bag stand
ing there in sort of irregular row
in front of the bureau, and then l
left 'em and made bee line out of
the house, carefully avoiding, as far
as could, contact with anything on
the wav Nav York Sun