People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1894 — The Retired Burglar. [ARTICLE]

The Retired Burglar.

“Once, in a country town,” said the retired burglar, “I broke into a small but very comfortable appearing house that I didn’t expect very rich returns from, but which I thought would pay for the labor. I skirmished around a little in the cellar, find’ng the usual assortment of jams and preserves and things, and on the parlor floor I found about the ordinary run of knick-knacks. The things in general were of rather less value than I had expected to find them, and there was not much of anything worth taking. So I went on upstairs and into the front chamber. “I’d scarcely begun on the bureau, and hadn’t got the top drawer open, when I heard from the bed a sound very much like a laugh. I thought I might be mistaken, for I really didn’t see anything to laugh at, and I should have thought that if there’d been anybody awake in the bed they’d have been more likely to be alarmed than to think it was funny to see me there. But the next minute I did hear a noise from the bed; no laughing now, just a man’s voice, deep and solid, and no quavering, saying: “Well!”

“It -was a good, big voice, but there wasn’t any shootin' in it, not just yet, anyway, and I turned my light on him. He was sitting up in bed. a pretty goodsized, square-shouldered sort of a man, and the minute I saw him I knew that I had heard somebody trying to keep from laughing and that this was the man. “Wait a minute,” he said, and there was something in his way of saying it that made me feel that it was all right to wait. He got out of bed and walked over to the bureau where I was and took a match out of an iron match box that was nailed against the window frame near by and lighted a lamp that stood on the bureau. Then he went across the room to a closet near the door I had come in by, which I suppose I would have looked into myself in the course of time if I hadn’t been disturbed. He opened the closet door and reached in and brought out a jimmy, which he stood up against the wall. I wanted to stop him right there, but didn’t exactly like to interrupt, and he reached in again, and this time he brought out a dark lantern. He stood that by the jimmy and was reaching in again when I stopped him. “Don’t,” I said, and he respected my feelings and stopped and looked at me. I guess we both smiled a little bit then and then I just went away.”—New York Sun.

We have seen a number of watch chains ornamented with a pretty charm in the shape of a watch case opener, which obviates the use of a knife or fingernail to open the watch. They are sent free on request by the Keystone Watch Case Company, of Philadelphia, Pa. Your jeweler here may have one for you; if not, send to Phiadelphia. The Keystone Watch Case Company is the largest concern of its kind in the world. Its capacity is 2500 watch cases per day. It manufactures every description of case, but its great specialty is that most popular of all watch cases, the Jas. Boss gold filled. These are equal in beauty and wear to solid gold—while they cost only about onehalf as much. Boss and other Keystone cases are the only cases that have the famous non-pull-out bow or ring, which saves the watch from theft and accident. The Keystone Company does not retail, but our local jewelers handle the cases anci swear by the thief-proof qualities of the ring. M. D. C. Tinkham, advertising agent for H. E. Bucklen & Co., was in town this week.