Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-10-25
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
His Marvcsiousfy Developed Senses
Of Herring and Touch.
lNeW York Sum


ut Is not always possible" sa'd the re-
tired burglar. ito avoid making noise
In a house. which doesn't seem remark
able, when you take into account the fact
that a man is all the time In strange
houses, and more or less Of the time In
the dark; the wonder IS that n man
doesn't fall over something seventeen
times I'm a night and rouse the whole
neighboThood. A mans got his lamp with
him. 20 be sure, but he can't be always
fooling around with that: in his ordinary
goings about he relies upon his sense or
touch which comes TO be very sensitive.
"A great help 10 a man In getting about
is the fact that there IS more or less
samencss I'm housesiin the arrangement OF
the stairs and halls, and things I'm gem
cr8l; he isn't an architect. but he has
at least inspected 4 good many houses.
and 2 glance at the start as a general
thing will tell him how things lie. And
SO. while he's got hi5 lamp. he relies
good deal on his senses Of touch and hear
Ing. | don't know, cut II seems 10 me
that I could feel a door, or wall or
partition before / touched H. by the com
preston of the air between II and my
shoe az / put my foot forward and one
IS in a state OF constant readiness TO stop.
And no matter how hard a mans hands
might be, they are velvet-tipped as far
as the sense OF touch Is concerned. and as
yielding as willow. II he touches any
thing movable he rarely upsets Il, though
he may sometimes; but the only wonder
20 me is, as | said, that he doesn't fan
over things right and left.
"But while he is quiet himself. any
IL
In the house. he can hear with certainty;
he comes TO be very sensitive about that,
too. If a man in a room overhead gets
out Of bed and stands up on the floor,
you can feel him IL you don't hear him.
You know how boards that have been
tr0dden down upon the beams that sup
port them swell up again II they are not
walked upon for a time; the fibres OF
the wood spring back 20 their original
form Then when you walk on EN- for
The first time, when they settle down,
you hear 'em creak, the way stairs do,
the first time anybody goes down EN-
in the morning. You might hear a sound
like this when a man, however quiet he
might be himself, got up and stood on
the floor. But if IL was a perfectly firm
and solid and settled floor. that made
no sound whatever. you could still feel
him by the vibration Of the house caused
by the shifting of his weight, commu-
nicated TO you from the beams of the
floor upon which he stood, through the
walls, and thence through the beams OF
the floor upon which you were standing.
The vibration might be so slight that II
| could scarcely be measured by any known
means, but I'm your condition of sensitive
| ness you could feel It.
II really believe that in a frame house
l could feel a mouse walking on n floor
overhead. / don't mean a rat. Sometimes
you hear rat running across a floor; and
that, under such circumstances, makes
practically as much sound and shake as
n horse would galloping over wooden
bridge; but / mean that / think / could
feel a mouse walking slowly across a
floor overhead; and you can easily I'm
agine that il a man should knock down
anything in a house-anything whatever
why it would make more noise than an
earthquake.
Il still have that sensitiyeness Of touch,
just the same; and. though | don't visit
other peoples houses at a late hour as
] formerly did, | find myself in my own
house just as susceptible as ever TO the
faiutest sound or jar"