Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1906-05-17
A Burglar S Story
rOriginal.l

onct beat the state for another per-
SON"
How did " do it?"
"Got u tip that an old miser livin' at
10 p street had a fine lot O swag in
bis chimbley. Them miser buffers is
jist the kind l likes to handle, secin'
their money don't do 'em nor nobody
else no good, ms better in circulation.
l goes to 70 n finds 1t Il trap. l only
had to shake the back door to open
up, n went into the kitchen. There
wasn't nothin' there but an old cook
stove, q clair n Il few cookin' pans
hangin' on the wall. If it huGn't been
a miser's place, I'd "a went away. l
drops my boots, n With my lantern in
my left hand N my gun in my right
them misers III die for their money
mounted he stairs, what didn't have
no carpet on to 'em. l got halfway I'D,
when l heered the softcst lcetlc voice
say:
"'Mamma.'
"1' didn't eve heal a child call to
It's mother in the middle Of the night,
did y? Waal, it's jist like a voice com
in outcn the blessed regions the min
lister used to talk about when | was a
boy.
81 want Il drink O water the little
thing said. l heered the mother git up.
l s'pected them kind O people didn't
have no water upstairs n that she'd
come right down. But she didn't. She
went to the winder, l 'spect, n must
"a got some water, for the next l
heered was a child drinkin' With the
noise they makes-sort O gulpin' it
t DOWN. the mother said:
"'There, go to sleep, sweetheart.
And instead O. sayin' it like one O us
she said it like a lady. 1 knowed she
was Il lady, got u down.
"There wasn't much to this, but it
happened in the middle O. the night,
and, you know, at that time things is
impressin', specially a revolver muz-
zle at a feller's ear, and l couldn't git
the little un's soft voice outen my
mind. nor the mothers, neither. Any
way. somep'n ratified me, for 1 stepped
back, then up, not KNOWN which way
to go, and the stairs creaked.
"'Mamma,' said the little voice. did
you hear that noise?'
"'No, darlin'. Go to sleep; there was
no noise
els it Il burglar|
"'No, of course not
"'NVhat is q burglar?'
ga mar who takes things from other
people. Now go to Sleep
But the child insisted on it's mother
+ goin' to see what the noise was about
so she got up and stood a moment al
the head o the stairs. The little ur
must "a ra;t!el me terrible. cause il
putin m, lantern un''rr my coat | lei
out a Try O. light. The woman saw
1T. In the coolest way in the world sh,
said:
"'You are welcome to anything 70,
can find here. Heaven knows if there
were anything in the house that l coulj
. pawn for Il breakfast for my little ONT
1 would pawn it,
"Madam.' / said, bringin' out thu
light, do YOU and your child live here
IS alone?'
eyes
Of "'No old man?'
"'No.'
II believed her and, biddin' her goo(
night, went outen the house the sam
way come in. The next day I learn
+ ed from the Teller as put me on to tn,
q miser business that in layin' down til,
5 number he intended to make it 10, bu
. his bloomin' figures was so bad that
< TUX his 1 for a Z.
2 Il couldn't git the soft voice Of the
5 child outen my ears somehow, nor the
& pale, sufferin' face Of it's mother as she
stood there at the head O. the stairs
. lighted by my lantern. I'd had a Biz
3 streak O luck lately, and it was abou'
g time I got run in ag'in. 1t wasn't Ions
before the cop had me cornered, and
g knew it was q matter of a few days
before they'd git me. Course whe1
they got me it meant at least another
5 ten years time. What 'ud l do Will
the plumber I had on hand? There wa:
q two ways come up to me how to use it
One was to lessen my time by givin' 1
Y up to the owners, the other to hand i
over to the woman with the child.
Z "Waal, I made up my mind to give i
< to her. l turned it all into cash.
Z knowed if I left it with her without {
* deceivin' story as to her comm by /
< honestly she'd try and find the owner
s I went to her house the night before
< was TUX, lifted the kitchen h'arth an
s put the swag under. In the mornin'
< posted a letter to her tellin' her tina
s onct a miser lived in that house an
< had left a heap O. stuff under tn,
Is Kitchen h'arth. He was dead long agt
x ind hadn't got no relations.
s II hadn't more'n got the letter postet
< before a cop put his hand on my shoul
6 der"
x The narrator paused to relight hi
s pipe. that had one out.
"They offered to knock five year
NJ off'n my time" he resumed, IF I'd tel
where to find the stuff, but 1t wouldn'
= done me no good anyway. Twent,
10 years WAS Same os ffteeO RI mo IA