Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1902 — THE HOUSE WITH THE EYES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE HOUSE WITH THE EYES

HN the year 1895 Dr. John Wlndom, big, 28 and a bachelor, lived In apartments overlooking Jackson Park from the south. Dr. Wlndom was troubled. He thought some one was looking at him. Thought It? He knew it The doctor had turned hls largest room Into a library. It had one great window opening onto the park. It was at night after he lighted his library lamp that the curlops sensation that he was being stared at came over the physician. When he went Into the next toom the feeling passed off. He was a faervy fellow, the doctor, after a week of the thing ho began to get “creepy." Every night somebody’s eyes were going through and through him. It was either that or else he was losing hlB mental balance, and that Dr. Wlndom wouldn’t admit for a minute. He examined tho walls of the library, and thumped them hard. They were ■olid. There was no transom over the door leading into the hall, and there was a key in the lock that fitted perfectly. He went to the window. It was thirty feet from the ground. The nearest house In the line of sight was at Fifty seventh street, a mile and a half away. No Peeping Tom could be In a tree, for the trees had been cut down to make room for the fair buildings, and those planted since the exposition’s structures hud been razed were little more than saplings. Wlndom began taking nerve tonics. Then ho pulled himself together and quit. One night he looked from his library window far off into the blackness that hung over the north end of the park. He snw a faint light in one of the houses In far off Fifty-seventh

street For some reason he Instantly connected the feeling that he was being watched with that light Dr. Windom left his apartments and struck across the park to Fifty-seventh street. On the north side of the street facing the pleasure ground was a block of brick residences. It was nearly midnight. The houses were as black as Calcutta's Hole. Windom paecd up and down for an hour. No light appeared. He started homeward, made a hundred yards, •topped and looked bach- Recent eiperiences had unstrung him. He saw •omethlug now that staggered him. From one of the houses light was streaming through two circular windows set in the same horizontal plane just under the roof. The appearance wa» thut of two great eyes staring redly out Into the blackness of the night. A heavy curtain began to descend over one window. It had the seeming of a big eyelid slowly closing. To the phyclan’s highly wrought imagination It seemed as though some monster of the night was giving him n leering wink. The light died from both windows. Windom mastered his nerves and went borne and to bed. In the morning he stood in front of the house once more. The windows were there and Windom noticed their unusual size, and that each was composed of little round panes set In metal sashes as are cathedral w indows. After that he went to the place often.,AU he could And out from the near-by tradesmen was that nn old man and his daughter lived in the house and kept no servants. “They have been there but a short time," said the grocer. The time being Axed, Windom discovered that It was but a few days prior to the night that he Arst felt that he was being stared at. One-half hour after midnight, Nov. 0, 1896, Dr. John Windom was returning from a visit to the bedside of a patient on Bverett avenue. An Irresistible Impulse made him walk toward the “house with the eyes.” “The eyes are shut,*' he muttered, as he stopped directly In front of the house. At this Instant the front door opened and a girl rushed out. Site almost ran into Windom. The flickering street lamp showed him a face. It was a beautiful face, but pale and tear-wet. Its owner might have seen nineteen years. At the sight of Windom the girl sprung back, frightened. Then, ns she saw his face, she cried: “Oh, It's you,” and, seizing his hand, she said: “Come.” Hlie led him swiftly up the stairs Into the hallway and thence up three flights of stairs into a great room. It was feebly lighted. Windom was dimly conscious that some huge object occupied s large part of the apartment Then everything else was sunk In the physl dsn, for on a lounge lay an old man gasping for breath, but with a convulsive Joy In bis face. “1 think my father Is dying,” wills-

pered the girl. "He had a stroke only a few minutes ago. I carried him to the couch.” A look told Wlndom that It was a case of paralysis. He took a flask of brandy and was about to apply It to tho old man’s lips. The stricken man looked at him with glittering eyes. “No brandy, ’’ he said; "one sight was stimulant enough. This night I have seen the men on Mars. Show him, Mary, lest he scoff—show hlml” An enthusiasm like that which lighted the countenance of the sufferer came Into the girl’s face. She turned a great chair about, sprang Into It lightly, and bending forward looked intently into a small tube. Wlndom turned from hls patient. The huge object by which the girl sat took form. It was a telescope with an objective thrice greater than the largest he had ever seen. “Show him, Mary." The girl sprang from the chair with a great wonder in her face. “Quick," she said. Half believing the whole thing a •dream, Wlndom took the chair and bent over the eyepiece of the telescope. Ills senses were staggered by what he saw. He was looking ui>on a world. A soft light suffused everything. He saw seas and mountains, even buildings, and then—men; yes, living men, minute as the life that is picked out of the water drop by the microscope, but still men. Wlndom felt benumbed. He turned to tho sufferer. "You have solved the problems of the universe,” he said. “Aye, so I have. I, Caleb Strong, crank, as the scientists call me. They made, forty-inch lenses that cost a million, and can’t see beyond the ends of their noses with them—the fools. I built that,” and his eyes looked at the telescope. “I made the multiple lense that science has scoffed at for ages Each lense does Its w r ork separately, but the results come Into one. There is no limit I can pick up a pin on the nethermost star.” There was a triumph In the man’s tone and face as he continued. “These small lenses had to be so joined that the light w T ould not Interrefleet. ‘lmpossible,’ said the wiseacres. I did It Two years ago Louis Gathmann just missed the secret. It is mine and there is the perfected work. “I know you, doctor. I owe you an explanation. I came here with my daughter Mary and built my telescope. The fools hereoltouts thought the objective was a window. I dared not look at a star at first for fear of disappointment For a mile and a half to the south the ground was open. I focused on tho light In your library. Small though the flame was, It answered my purpose, and by It I proved my theory of how to prevent Inter-reflection. Did I see you? Why, practically you were In this room with me. At times I made Mary look, though she shrank from It for the steady gaze hurt my old eyes. As she counted the reflections I adJustedwthe lenses, but at times her attention wandered from the light She has lived alone with me and shared my toll and privation, and she made a friend of you In your far-away library. When I knew I was right I changed the window lens to the roof. This night I have seen the men on Mars, and tomorrow, nay, to-day, the world " At that Instant the earth trembled and the building swayed. There was a crashing of glass and a rending of Iron. A section of the roof was crushed In and carried lenses and telescope to ruin. The shock gave the stricken man momentary strength. He raised himself from hls pillow. “Gone!” he said. Wlndom caught him as he fell backward. The secret had gone with Its owner. The Chicago evening papers of that day, Nov. 5, 1895, gave a scant halfcolumn account of the slight earthquake shock that early that morning had visited the southern section of the city. “The only property damage,” they said, "was the breaking of a hole In the roof of a Fifty-seventh street residence by the fall of a partition wall that rose above the building’s eaves." • • • Three years later a man and a woman were bending over a cradle in which was sleeping a baby boy. “Mary,” said the man, "ns a physician I am a firm believer In heredity. Who knows but that one day our boy may show to the world the men on Mars?’’—Chicago Record Herald.

SHE ALMOST RAN INTO WINDOW.