The Press., 1897-12-02
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
He Tells of Some Very Unpleasant Expe
 riences With Mirrors

He Tells of Some Very Unpleasant Expe-
 riences With Mirrors.
 "I have had," said the retired bur glar, "some very unpleasant experiences with mirrors. I think I have told you how once fired at my reflection in mirror, mistaking it for another man a mistake that thought should never make again. But within two years after that struck at a man ill mirror, and smashed the glass and smashed my hand and made myself uncomfortable gener- ally. 1t may seem strange to you that 6 man could make such mistakes, but in dim light, and where everything is strange to him, and he's all sort of keyed up himself, don't know as it is after all Still, after that last experience I did think it would be some time before I had any more trouble with mirrors But within year 1 had an experience that was great deal worse than either of them.
 "When I came out of a room in a house was ill one night, on the second floor, looking down the hall-this was pretty near the front where I was-I saw the figure of myself ill a mirror at the other end. It was plain enough, even in that light, but it startled me a little at first, and threw up my gun at it. Of course the igure's hand went up and down, just the same as mine did, and it made me kind of laugh to think of it, and I could imagine the shadow laughing, too, at man who was afraid of his own shadow.
 "Then l went into the next room, and when came out of that into the hall again my eyes sought the mirror again. It wasn't very pleasant to see yourself in tho dark in that way, but it would have been a mighty sight less pleasant not to. But then I was all right, and I stood and looked at it a minute and threw up my arm at it same as before, just up and down, a sort of unnecessary test, but it made me feel just a little easier, and up weEt the arm in the mir TOT with mine, but this time, when mine came down. tie arm in the mirror staid up.
 "'Now. don't raise your hands. the man said, covering me with a gun in his upraised hand. voice kind of drawl- ing, but meaning business, you know. You know when a man means business, and this uan did mean it, and 1 kept kuy uOWu.
 "'Oh, Billl' he says, not moving 8 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 and me. He walked right through the mirror, past the other man, and kept coming. It was all plain enough then. In fact, I'd guessed at it before, as may be you have. The mirror wasn't mirror at all, but a doorway, an opening midway of long hall, and the frame was the frame of thezdoor- way. There were rooms beyond, just the same as those on the side where I was, and it was the doors of those that had seen in the mirror and not the re- fCction 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 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 a rope around my body and arms Then the man with the gun came up, and be- tween them they tied me up good and strong. And that was matter of some four years. ''-New York Sun