The Press., 1900-02-15
COWED THE BURGLAR
A NOISE THAT MADE HIM ABANDON
A HOUSEKEEPING.


That Made the House Tremble-His
Emotions, Years Later. When the
Source of His Scare Was Revealed.
Gas a rule" said the retired bur-
glar, 81 did not pause to look at pic
lures in the houses l visited. There
wasn't time, even if had had the in
clination. But sometimes ones atten-
ton would be fixed on a picture by cir
eumstances. For instance, as l was
passing my lamp one night along a
parlor shelf to see If there was any
thing there, the light fell. art the same
moment, on a silver snuffbox and a
laguerreotype Of a man in uniform
that stood right beside it, and as I
dropped the snuffbox in my pocket 1
held the light on the picture for a
minute and inspected it a little bit
more closely. 1t interested me some
how, though there wasn't anything
very remarkable about it one way or
the other-just the picture of young
ish, self satisfied looking man in a mill
tary uniform.
"When / turned away from the shelf,
1 walked across the parlor to the hall
Of the house and out into the hall to
go up stairs, but just as l put my foot
on the bottom step l heard what
sounded like faint groan. Well, now,
you understand, am not much dis
turbed by strange sounds, because a
man in my business gets, so to speak,
used to the unexpected, but that groan
stopped me.
81 stood there for a minute, with one
foot on the floor of the hall and the
other on the lowest step, and waited.
l didn't hear any more, and then
thought l might have been mistaken,
and I started up, but l had scarcely
raised that foot that was on the floor
before 1 heard the groan again, this
time for sure, and l was glad to put
that foot down by the other instead of
putting it up step, and then l waited
again awhile, and then l started up
once more, this time resolute to go
ahead. That's what l did. Now,
heard the groaning beyond doubt and
growing louder and louder as l went
up stairs and sometimes with sort of
growl mixed in like some great savage
animal, and didn't like it a bit. can
tell you that.
GAS far as that's concerned, IL had
followed my inclinations should have
turned round and skipped the ranch
when the groaning first begun, but l
thought ought to go ahead and find
out what 1t was all about anyway. and
kept on till had got pretty near to
| the top of the stairs, with the groaning
growing louder all the time, with my
interest not decreasing by long shot.
but my desire to investigate the cause
Of it decreasing rapidly.
"When / got within step or two Of
| the top, there was sort of boom that
couldn't understand at all, and just
as stepped up the last step on to the
floor of that up stairs hall there came a
sudden booming burst of sound that
was many times repeated rapidly and
that made the whole house shake as
though there was thunder rolling
through it and smashing around it, and
then, my son, l went away. l don't
shy at things l can understand. but
have very little use for the mysterious.
"Well, I never saw that town again
for three years. The next time l went
there was in the time of a political
campaign. They were having a big
meeting there that night and parade
and that sort Of thing, and l stood in
a good place in the crowd and watch
ed the procession, and when the band
came along who do you think was
playing the bass drum? My man
whose picture I'd seen on the mantel
shelf that night nipped the heirloom
snuffbox and heard the mysterious
moaning and groaning and thunder
attachments.
"I'd dropped spoon or a fork or
something in the dining room in his
house before l struck into the parlor,
and he'd heard it and got up and saw
me, and then he headed me Off with
the drum. He had his eye on me from
somewhere, and when l set my foot
on that lower step he ruffled the big
drum gently. the low groan. 1t was
easy for him, and these groans grew
under his hand as I advanced till he
hit that whack when | was near the
top and then beat 1t with frantic en-
ergy when he saw that that single
thunderburst didn't stop me.
"Was he scared? Well. now you bet
your life he was; and could imagine
him, gay and gallus as he was now.
walking along. beating away on the
old bass drum, with the skyrockets
a-soaring and the roman candles
a-spouting around him, standing that
night In a dark room in his own house
and beating the big drum as he never
beat it before or since, but Ill bet 4
thousand dollars to a cocoanut that
was worse scared than he was. but
that wasn't the worst Of it.
"As long as it was a mystery, why,
could stand it very well. but I've
never, from that day to this. never
met brass band in the street without
feeling sort of sheepish when the man
with the bass drum went by."-New
York Sun.