Press enter after choosing selection

The Stories

The Stories image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
October
Year
1896
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

LCOPYHKirt'J.', looy. Continuect f?oni lage week. ■vrnen we u. „iü oiiy wo n elevated and went up town to Fortyeighth street, and then walked over to her father's house. It was a big one on one of tho cross streots. When wo got there sho told me to wait a minute, and lookin' around to see that nolody was comin' she slipped off tho skirt and the cape she had made and rolled 'cm up in a bundie. 'It don't matter about my nat and shoes,' says she, 'but they wouldn't know me in suoh duds.' Then, handin' me the bundie, sho said: 'For twentyfive cents you can get that bag mended just as good as new, so you can take it and it will save ns a dollar and a half.' 'No, you don't,' says I, for I'd had enough of her stinginess. 'I don't touch that bag agin', and I made up my mind that minute to charge the old man five dollars' worth. When the front door was opened the servant gal looked as if sho eouldn't believe her eyes, but my young woman was as cool as you pipase, and she had me showed into a room off the hall, and then she went upstairs. "I sat a-waitin' a long time, wliieh gave me a good chance to look around at things. The room was real h andsome, and I took a poep at tho window fastcnin's and the lay of the doors, thinkin' the knowledge might come in handy ome time. Kight in front of mo on a table was a little yellow mouse, and it struck me as I looked at it that that must be gold. I listened if anybody was comin', and then I picked it up to see what it really was. I thought I heard the door bell ring just then and shut it up in my hand quick, but nobody went to the door; and then I looked at the little mouso, and if it wasn't pure gold it was tho best imitation ever I see, so 1 slipped it quietly into my pocket to look at it again when I had time. "Pretty soon old Groppeltacker come in, shut the door and sot down. 'So you brought my daughter back,' says h. I 'Yes,' says I. 'And you expect to be paid for it?" says he. 'Yes,' says I, 'I do.' 'How much do you ask for your services?' says he. Now this was u sort of staggerer, for I hadn't made up my mind how much I was goin' to ask, but there wasn't time for no more thinkin' about it, and so says I, plum: 'A hundred dollars, and there was some expenses besides.' 'Well, well,' says he, 'that seems like a good deal, just for bringing a little gal from school. It oouldn't have took you moro'n a couplo of hours.' 'I don't charge for time,' says I, 'it's for the risks and the science of the thing. There's mighty few men in this town could have brought your daughter home as neat as I did.' 'Well, well,' says he, rubbin' his hands, 'I xpect Til have to pay for tho whol term of the school, whether she."s there or not, and tho business will come heavy on me. Don't you think sixty dollars ♦ would pay you?' Now I know when you deal with this sort of a man there's always a good deal of difference split: tin', and so, says I: 'No, it won't. I ' might take ninety dollars, but that's i the very lowest peg.' 'The very lowest?' says he, gettin' up and wülkin' about a little, and then I thought I heard the door-bell ring again, and I waa dreadful afraid somebody would ! come and oall off the old man before i ho finished the bargain. 'Woll,' says I, 'we'll cali it eighty-five and expenses, and there 111 stop.' "GroDueltacker, now he sot down agin and looked hard at me. 'I didn't ask you to bring my daughtor back,' says he, spoakin' gruff, an,l very different from the way ho spoko before, 'and whafs more, I didn't want her back, and what's more yet, I'm not goin' to pay you a red cent.' 'Now, look a here,' says I, mighty sharp, 'none o' that, old man; fork over that money, or 111 lay yoit put stiil as a poker and help myself. í'm not & iejlpw tP be fooled with and tbere'a nobody in this hcmse can stop roe.' Old Groppeltacker, he didn't turn a h&ir, but just sot there, and says he: 'Before you blow any more, suppose you take my little gold mouse out of your pocket and hand it to mu.' I must say I was took baok at this, but I spoke back, as bold as brasa, and said I never seed bis gold mouse. 'O, ho,' says he, 'what you didn't see was th plectric button under tho table cover whieh yujjg ft l?ell when the mouse was pickod up. ïhat's wït I cali my mouse trap.' "At this I jist biled,over. 'Now,' says I, 'jist you hand out every cent you'vo got, and your watoh, tooj not anothor word.' And I jumpcd up and olapped my hand on my pisto 1 ín my hip pocket, and just that minuto thero was a click and tho nippevt was on me, and thore waa a big policeman with his hand on my shouldcr, I couldn't speak I was so bilin' and so durofounded both at once. Old Groppeltacker he just lt,inod back and ho laughed. 'You came in,' he said to the cop. 'jest tho second I rang, and as solt as a, and the first thing that I want you to do g to take that gold mouse out of his pock( t, tiiid I'U be on hand whenever you let me know l'ta wanted.' The cop he took the gold mouseputof my pocket, and says he: 'I know this fellow, and if I'm not mistook thoy'll be moro charges than yourn made agin him.' Thero wasn't no chanco to show fight, so I didn't do ! it, but 1 says to oíd Uroppeltackor: 'There's my expenses; you've gut to puy ' them any way.' 'All right,' says he, i 'jist you send in your bilí, marked i reet by my daughter, and I'll settle it,' ! and ho laughed again, and the cop he I took mo oif. Well, ladies and gents, I that littlo piece of business, together with some other old scores, took me to Sing Sing for three years, and it ain't six months since I got out, so you can see for yourselves what hard times a fellow in my lino of business sometimes has."' Well," said Aunt Martha, "I don't approve of the Groppoltacker sort of people, but if there were more of that kind I beliove there would be fewor of your kind. That story shows you in such a bad light that I boliove it's truc." "Every word of it," said the man. "I wish it wasn't." And now I spoke. "Since you claimed to be a truth-telling being," I said to the stout burglar, "suppose you teil me why you never attempted before to break into my house. Every considerable dwelling in this neighborhood has been entered, and I have no doubt you aro the men who committed all the burglaries." "lío, sir," said he, "not men., I am the man who did 'em all, but these two friends of mine was never with me before In a bit of business like this. Tain't in their line. I have had pais With me, but they was professionals. These ain't cracksmen; they don't know nothin' about it, but this one is handy at tools and that's the reason I brung him along, but you soe he kieked and waa jfoin' to give me away, and this young gentleman - " "Never mind about that young genman,"! said; "I have a certain curiosity to know why my house was not entered when the others were." "Well," saidhe, "I don't mind tellin' yer how that was. It was on account of your baby. We don't like to crack a house where there's a pretty small baby that's liable to wake up and howl any minute, and rouse up the rest of the family. There's no workin' in a house with comfort when there's such a young one about. I'll teil you what it is, all your burglar alarms and your dojjs ain't worth nuthin' alongside of a baby for guardin' a house. If a cracksman ain't careful the alarms will go off, and if he don't know how to managa dogs the dogs will bark. But, by Oeorge, sir, there ain't no providin' agin a baby. He'll howl any time, and nobody can teil when, so I waited till your baby wan a little more settled in its ways and slept soundly, and then we come along, and hore wo are." This statement very much surprised me, and did not elate me. Without aying so to any one, I had flattcrod myself that the burglars had heard of my precautions and of my excellent stock of firearms, and perhaps had got a notion that I would bo an intrepid man to doal with, and it was omewhat hurniliating to flnd that it was our baby the burglars were afraid f and not myself. My wlfe wat amazed. "Can it be possible," ihe said, "that these people know so much about our baby, and that George William has been protecting this house?" "It makes my flesh creep," said Aunt Martha. "Do you know every thing about all of us?" "Wish I did, ma'am," said tho stout burglar; "wish I'd known about that Leastly liquor." "Well, we've had enough of this," said I, rising, "and, my dear, you and Aunt Martha must bo ready to go to bed, and David and I will keep guard over these fellows until morning." At this instant the youngest burglar gpoke. nis face wore a very anxious expression. "May I ask, sir," he said, "what you intend to do with me in the morning?" "I have already said," I answered, "that I shall then hand over all of you to the efficers of justice of thia country." "But, sir," said the young man, "you will surely except me. I am not at all ooncerned in this matter, and it would be of the greatest possible injury to me to be mixed up in it, or to be mentioned in publio reports as an associate of a criminal. I'm not acquainted with the gentleman at the other end of the bench, but I have every roason to believe from what he said to me that he intended to notify you if this James Bario w prooeeded to any open aot, For mysolf, I beg you will allow me to state who and what I am, and to teil you by what a strange concatenation of circumgtances I happen to flnd myself in my present position- one whioh I assuro you causes me the greatest embarrassment and anxioty." "We've had enough story-telling for ono night," said I, "and you had better reserve your statement for the magistrate." Here Aunt Martha put in her voice. "That's not fair," she said, "two of them have been allowed to speak, and this one has just as much rig-ht to be heard as the others. What do you B&y, Cornelia?" iped that mywife would put hersell on my sido, and would say that we had bad enough of this sort of thing, but fetaale curiosity is an unknown quantity, and she unhesitatingly replied that she would like to hear the young man'3 Btory. I sat down in despair. It was useless to endeavor to withstand this yearning for personal Information - one ;;,-. curses, I may sy, of our pregent (ihilization. The young man gavo no time for change of opinión, but immediately began. nis voice was rich and rather low, and his manner exceediagly pleasing and gentle. "I wish to state in the first placo," said he, "that I am a reporter for the press. In the exercise of my vooation I havo frequently found myself in peouliar and unpleasant positions, but i-.tion j ng, as this. i lourse 01 my . e i lmve. found tfcat jn literatura' I ana journaiism, as wen as in art, orre I can make a true picture only of what ono has seon. Imagination is all very well, often grand and beautiful, but imaginativo authors sbow us their inner selves and not our outer world; there is to-day a demand for the real, and it is a demand which will be satisfied with notbing but tho truth. I hare determined, as far as in me Hs, to endeavor to supply this demand. and I hare devoted myself to the stndy of Realisn. "With this end in view, I have made lt f. rale never to describo any thing I ha 3 not personally seen and examined. If wo would thoroughly understand and appreuiate our fellow beinga we must know what they do and how they do lt, otherwise we can not give them credit for their virtues, aor judga thom properly for their faults. If I could prevent orime I would annihllate it, and when it ceased to exist the necessity for describing it would alsocoase. But itdoes exist. It is a powerful element In the Ufe of the human race. Being known and acknowledged everywhere, Itshould be understood, therefore it should bedescribed. The grand reality of which we are a part can never be troly cmprehended until we oomprehend all it3 parta. But I wiil not philosophizo. I have devoted myself to Kealism, and iu o.der to be a conscientious student I study it in all its branches. I am frequently called npon to write accounts of burglars and burglaries, and ii order to thoroughly nnderstand these people and their method of action I determined, as soon as the opportunity should offer itself, to accompany a bur)?larious expeditlom. My tole object was tho acquisition of knowledge of tha subject- knowledge which to mi) would be valuable and, I may say, essential. I engaged this man, James Barlow, to take me with him the flrst time he should have on hand an affair of this kind, and thus H is that you flnd me here to-night in this company. As I carne here for the purpose of earnest and thurough inyestigation I will frankly admit that I would not have interfered with his processes, but, at the same time, I would have made it my business to see that no material injuries should result to any members of this family." ContV'Mtd in nest Ytek&' Itsue.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register