Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-05
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
A Disturbing Experience With 8
Restless and Nervous Blind Man.

| From the New York Sun.
Il have told YOU said the retired bur-
glar, 'of one little experience with q blind
man-this is another. l had gone into a not
very big but comfortable-looking farm
house and looked around below without
finding anything. and got upstairs. hadn' t
more'n struck the upper floor before l real
lied that there wasn't many people in the
! house: funny about that. but when there's
:, a lot of people it fills it up with kind of
| electricity that you can feel. and when
| there isn't it feels dull and dead.
| We'll. got into front room side
| of this house and found nobody there. and
| l might remark nothing besides; in the
| back room that side. big room, with
| a big bed, l found small boy, fast asleep.
| l didn't dare put the bulls-eye on him. but |
could see well enough by a dim light that
was burning on a table in a little alcove
| in one side of this room to guess that he
! was. maybe, nine ten years old and of
| course l could see that he was sleeping IN
his mothers bed: mother away somewhere.
| and he sleeping there because he'd feel cas-
| Ter and safer there while she was gone.
Nothing in that room, and | went out
and across the hall into room on the other
side opposite the room the boy was in. The
| first step l took into that room made the
| floor creak, just the least little bit in the
! world, but l halted, right where l stood:
and the next instant / heard a bed in this
room snap a little and l knew the1A was
| somebody sitting up in it and listening. sIt
i was still for half minute and then L
! heard whoever it was in the bed, and it
i was mans voice. saying:
willie"
"Of course there wasn't any answer to
| this, because Willie was fast asleep; I'd
| just seen him in bed minute before my
| self: but the man that was sitting up in bed
| and listening called again:
willie!
When he got no answer this time he
Ie@c ~, 80 TOD ha a
! and when he made the bed creak in getting
out of it 1 stepped back step and around
the door jamb and Rugged the wall in the
| hall, and in a minute the man came through
the doorway. He was as blind as a bat. L
| couldn't see that in that light in his eyes
but could see it in his manner and way of
| moving, in the way he carried his head and
his hands: but he made straight for Will
lies room, just as well as though he could
see perfectly; the blind man was going to
look after Willie.
And he got in there all right and found
the boy all right don't know how he told
it. I couldn't see from where l was, but
| maybe he touched the boys head. stood
and listened to his breathing, but anyhow
he satisfied himself that the boy was all
highland then he started back for his own
room. l suppose 1 might have got out when
he was in the youngsters room, but 1t
would have been a sort of clumsy thing to
do, he'd have been almost certain to hear
me- and, though l could have got away
all right, didn't like to go in that bungling
way, and thought Ia let MIN come out and
get back into his own room and go to sleep
before / started; but he gave me a great
shake-up before he did that
1.-The door to his own room was almost
directly opposite the door of the room
where the boy was. A little toward the
front of the house from his own door was
| the head of the stairs leading to the floor
below. When he came out of the boys
room he didn't make straight across to his
own door, but he took a diagonal course
toward the head Of the stairs and thought
he'd lost his way, but the distance was
short and he was there before 1 could real
ize it.