The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-17
OUT AND ABOUT.

We were sitting around the open fire
on one of those chilly nights last week.
when the talk turned on the Elm street
! burglary of a few days ago and bur
glaries in general. There was pause,
however, as the little company of
friends watched the doctor extract a
huge log of hickory from the basket
and apply it with scientific precision to
the dullest spot in the smouldering en-
! bers; and then, as he took his seat by
the side of the wood box and the flames
lit up into a resinous glow that red
dened the very shadows in the dusky
| room, the talk which, like the fire,
/ had flickered and then fallen, crept
! back into animation.
1t was the old army officers young
wife, on the left of the fireplace, who
| picked up the talk where it dropped.
| Il have a friend" she began, whose
| bed room is right over his dining room.
His chamber is heated by a hole cut in
the floor over the dining-room radiator.
| On the night that I am going to tell
you about, the family went to bed as
usual and to sleep; along toward morn
| ing-it was between l and 2 o'clock
| Mr.. G. awoke to find a pale light shin
| ing into his face. Getting up, he looked
| down the aperture into the dining room
below, and what do you think he saw?
The table was set for breakfast, and
at the table. in his own place. sat a
man eating and drinking at his leis-
ure. He had lighted the chandelier and
was stretching his legs under CPS
mahogany as if he owned it,
Quickly getting into his clothes and
arming himself with revolver, Mr.. G.
slipped down the back stairs, noiseless-
ly turned the do9r knob and pounced
upon his man, who, being unarmed,
yielded promptly, after looking down
the barrel of the others revolver.
Aren't you ashamed to walk into a
mans house like this?' snorted Mr.. G.,
as he Indignantly shook his victim by
the soruff of the neck Che was tooling
MIN or to the nearest police station.
Well, suppose it would have. been
more polite if I'd rung the front door
bell, replied the burglar"
A murmur of indignation went up.
from the little company.
Such impudenoe!" commented the
retired army officer, having listened
to his wife's story as politely, as If he
We're hearing it for the first time.
Dld ne get his burglar safely locked
up asked the littlest one, and after
she had been assured on this point, and
the doctor had artistically replaced the
hickory, which had fallen down in a
splendor of fireworks during the story.
the minister spoke up.
Iou Know l come from Philadel-
phia," said he. "Well, there's a suburb
outside Philadelphia where some of my
people live, and that suburb is a regII-
lar happy hunting ground for burglars
Feople count on having their houses
purgfed once a year regularly, and of
IhRV n oh
nnding their valuables gone. The first
year afeer they were married. my bro
tner Jim and his wife lost all their we'd
dlng silver. Mary said she would make
their next visit less expensive, so she
replaced it with plated ware. The next
year, when the gang made it's annual
tour they left the plated forks and
spoons, but walked off with nearly all
the family's wardrobe. Mary went
around in a macintosh and a low
necked muslin gown till she could re-
plenish at Wanamaker's, and Jim
started for his office next morning in
his shirt sleeves and carpet slippers"
Grandpa chuckled. Didn't he meet
ms pantaloons or overcoat going into
town."
"Yes. At one of the way stations,
man boarded the car and sat down in
the seat in front of Jim, who was read
ms Ills LSVBer. II OCCURRED 10, MN as ne
glanced over the financial news that
there was something familiar in the
mans back, and by the time he had
reached the editorials, which he had
habit Of sandwiching in between the adj
vertisements and the telegraphic--"
Here the minister paused for drama
tic effect, leaving his auditors in terrible
suspense. The doctor utilized the mo-
ment's silence to turn the hickory log
over on its back
"Yes?" asked the littlest one, when
she. could stand 1t no longer
We'll, by the time he had reached the
editorials" continued the minister
Jim was beginning to wonder if he had
a double, for so far as his casing went
the man in front of him was Jim all
over. The man might have eluded Jim
even then if he-the man-who was
rumfnaging in his vest pocket had not