The evening times., 1899-06-21
A LITTLE KINDNESS.
The story of a Burglar and u Lucky
Man,
(From the New York SUM-

From the New York SUM-
The thing that fixed my eye in this
room" said the retired burglar. was
travelling bag: not an empty travelling bag.
just lying around. but a full bag. evidently
Just packed and all ready to pick up and
carry off; and when swept my lamp along
little further on the floor il struck a
chair with mans hat on il, and sweeping
the lamp round just a little bit further
still struck a bed with a man stretched
out on 1t, completely dressed. He was
all ready 10 go, and just waiting for the
hour, and he'd laid down there just to lie
down and rest himself or to take rap
till his time came to start.
How he expected to know about that
was easy enough to see from an alarm
clock that stood on the sill of a window
near the head of the bed. | picked that
up and looked at it and saw that it was
set to go off at . O'Clock. 1t was then
about a quarter past .. Whether the
alarm had gone of and failed to wake him
up, or whether ii was likely to ring at
any minute while l was standing there, or
whether It was busted up and wouldn't
go OFF at all was something that, of course,
couldn't tell, but that interested me very
much. | stood there thinking about il
and at the same sort of swinging my lamp
round to finish surveying the room when
the light fell on a yellow paper that was
lying with one end of il kind o bent Up
on top of the bureau. and when | came
to look at this l saw 1t was telegraph
blank. 1t was a message that this nan
had received and put down there on the
bureau. 1t said something like this:
IF you want to see Mary alive you want
to come by the first train
We'll. now, i imagine he must have got
that dispatch somewhere along about mid
night. and he'd packed his bag and got all
ready to start and had an hour or two to
spare and so he'd set his alarm clock
and laid down to wait. You know l don't
think he should have laid down and taken
any chance on that at all, but, of course.
ia got to wake him up; the only question
was how.
Il might have kicked over a chair or
two In his room. or gone outside and
thrown a rock against the window blinds;
but this might not have woke him up, and
there wasn't any time to spare. You see,
knew the train, l had been in this town
on business before, and l had taken 1t
myself. 1t left at PAS, and 1t was now
about 2:2O and something more than
mile to the station. So l just leans over
and shakes him on the shoulder, and when
he turns his head l blinds him for min
ute with the light, and says to him:
"'Old man, it's about time for you to
be getting up
what time II Is! ne says. covering
his eyes from the light, but getting up
at the same time, and l tells him that it's
about 2:20, and up he jumps very sudden.
What he'd do about me, or try to do.
of course, l couldn't tell, but I'd made up
my mind what 1 was going to do when
he finds his feet and begins to get up
says to him:
"Im going to take that train myself
"And walked down to the station with
him. neither of US saying boo.
He got into the smoking car when the
train came along. and got in somewhere
else. l didn't see him get on or where
he was going; didn't look for him; hut
knew well enough that there wasn't any
danger of his going to sleep again.
Years after that, walking down Broad
way, here in this town, l saw that man
coming 1 would have sort OF casually
walked by, myself, and not seen him; but
he saw me, and stopped and shook bands.
"Old man. he says, she's living yet,
thank God! but I never'd have forgiven
myself II I'd have missed that train
And then he shakes hands with me
again and passes on; he never offered to
stake me, nor nothing; and I liked that
best of ALL