Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-23
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
An Experience that Was Very Curious
and Also Highly ENnsperatinE.

"You remember | told you the Other
day." says the retired burglar, in the
New York Sun. "about upsetting &
couple of buckets of paste in room that was
being papered and falling down in the paste
and getting all covered with it, and then sit
ting down in a corner seat in the next room
TO scTaDe the paste off my shoes and finding
when / got up that had sofa cushions stuck
to me all over? Well, that makes me think
of another sticky experience l had once that
was somewhat different from that.
You always look over a bureau and
through the bureau drawers in room when
you can. You are pretty sure to find some
thing about a bureau worth carrying off
but you don't always. l set my lamp down
one night on top of a bureau, after the pre-
liminary survey over it, without 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 back. but l couldn't | was stuck
fast, standing there in front of the bureau.
| couldn't move my feet any morn If they'd
been strapped down to the floor with iron
straps.
"Course my hands were free, and
picked up my lamp and turned ii down on the
floor. In found on the floor in front of the
bureau board about four feet long and
maybe eighteen or twenty inches wide that
| was standing on; it was screwed down to
lIe HOOI III the IOuT CDTnDTs, ana III was COW
cred all over thick with the stickiest stun
ever came across. What it was | don't
know, but the stickiest glue that ever was
would have been like mild dilution OF
weak mucilage compared to II. l just sim
ply couldn't move my feet at all. And, un-
fortunately, for some reason 1 hadn't worn
my rubbers that night 1t was my shoes
that was stuck down. and I'd got to get
out of EN-. OF course could have un CT wed
the board from the fOor-I had screw
fIptNF fTrhf boo nI, 4
me-but what good would that have done?
I'd have had to take the board along with
me- and, hopping along with board four
feet long and foot and half wide fastened
to my feet. I'd have made as much noise as
dropping boards in a lumber yard. There
shoes and | bent over 'em carefully and
unlaced 'em, and then held on to the bureau
and stepped out OF em, one at time. on TO
the floor. You know, Il hated to leave them
shoes there like that, but there wasn't any
thing 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 1t up, but might just as we'll
have tried to lift the house realized
then for the first time that I had set the
bag down on the sticky board, and 1t was
stuck as tight as my shoes were.
well, that made me kind o. mad I'd car
ried the old bag for years and got used to
IL, and | hated TO lose IT, especially like
lhdl' nut WhHl coulu uo hpout IT. NOln-
Ing. And then | almost fell over on the
board myself when / reached for the bag
and II didn't come. and kind of felt that 1t
wasn't sensible TO fool around there too
much 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 |
he house. So | opened the bag and got the |
hings out OF II and dropped 'em In my |
pocket, and then took one more look at
ny shoes and the bag standing there In a
'ort OF irregular row In front OF the bureau.
md then left 'em and made bee line out
Il the house, carefully avoiding, as far as
could, contact with anything on the way"