Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-04-29
THE RETIRED

|
He Tells of Some Very Unpleasant Expe-
riences With Mirrors.
Il have had" said the retired bur
glar, "some very unpleasant experiences
with mirrors. / think / have told Won
how / once fired at my reflection in a
mirror, mistaking it for another man
a mistake that / thought l should never
make again. But within two years after
that / struck at a man in q mirror, and
smashed the glass and smashed my hand
and made myself uncomfortable gener-
ally. 1t may seem strange to you that a
man could make such mistakes, but in
a dim light, and where everything is
strange to him, and he's all sort of keyed
up himself, l don't know as it is after
all. Still, after that last experience I
did think it would be some time before
/ had any more trouble with mirrors.
But within a year / had an experience
that was a great deal worse than either
Of them.
when l came out of a room in a
house / was in n night, ON the second
floor, looking down the hall-this was
pretty near the front where I was-I
saw the figure OF myself in a mirror at
the other end. 10 was plain enough,
even In that light, but 1t startled me q
little at first and / threw up my gun at
It OF course the figures 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 nan who was afraid
Of his own shadow.
Then I went into the next room, and
when I came out of that into the hall
again my eyes sought the mirror again.
II wasn't very pleasant to see yourself
in the dark in that way, but 1t would
have been . mighty sight less pleasant
not TO. But then / was all right, and I
stood and looked at it q minute and
threw up my arm at ii same as before,
just mp and down, q sort Of unnecessary
test, but 1t made me feel Just q little
easier. and up went the arm in the mir
TOR with mine, but this time, when
mine came down, the arm in the mirror
staid up.
"'Now. don't raise your hands,, the
man said, covering me with q gun in
his appraised hand, voice kind of drawl-
ing, but meaning business, you know.
You know when "a man means business,
and this man did mean it, and / kept
nay hands down.
"'Oh, BillP he says, not moving a
muscle and not shouting il out, but just
kind of drawling it out like the other.
"Then a 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. 1t was all plain
enough then. In fact, I'd guessed at it
before, as may be you have. The mirror
wasn't a mirror at all, but a doorway,
IN opening midway of a long hall, and
the frame was the frame of the door
way. There were rooms beyond, just
the same as those ON the side where l
was, and it was the doors of those that
I had seen in the mirror and not the re-
Fiction 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 / 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, max
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 hat was.a matter of some
four ystG.."-New York Sun.