I called this house Innocence at Home but my daughter Clara has abolished that name and replaced it with Stormfield.Ⓐtextual note This is well,Ⓐtextual note and is satisfactory to me;Ⓐtextual note for the whole strain of furnishing innocence enough to justify the other name was falling upon me,Ⓐtextual note and was already beginning to tax me beyond my strength. The house stands high and lonely and exposed to all the winds that blow; consequently Stormfield is a rational name for it; besides,Ⓐtextual note the loggia and theⒶtextual note apartment over it,Ⓐtextual note which is Clara’s,Ⓐtextual note was not to have been built until next year or the year after,Ⓐtextual note for economic reasons; butⒶtextual note when we found we could add it at onceⒶtextual note without expense,Ⓐtextual note we added it. It cost us nothing because I got all ofⒶtextual note the necessary money for itⒶtextual note out of a small manuscript which had lain in my pigeon-holesⒶtextual note forty-one years,Ⓐtextual note and which I sold to Harper’s Magazine Ⓐtextual note. The article was entitled “CaptainⒶtextual note Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.”Ⓐtextual note Ⓔexplanatory note So I think that on the whole Stormfield is a more logical and more justifiable name than the other one.

Lately Stormfield has distinguished itself by getting broken into by burglars. It seems strange to me that a New York architect should have overlooked so glaring a necessity as a burglar alarmⒶtextual note for so isolated a house as this is,Ⓐtextual note when I reflectⒶtextual note that New York is only an hour and a half away;Ⓐtextual note that it contains four millions of people,Ⓐtextual note and that the most of them are burglars. It would not have occurred to me to employ a dog,Ⓐtextual note because a dog barks; he barks at anything and everything that comes along,Ⓐtextual note and therefore is a nuisance; of course heⒶtextual note would bark at aⒶtextual note burglar, andⒶtextual note I would rather have the burglar.

The house was entered at half past twelve,Ⓐtextual note midnight,Ⓐtextual note eighteen days ago. There were two burglars and they entered by the cellar door and came up to the dining roomⒶtextual note on the ground floor. Nobody sleeps on that floor, all the household sleep on the second floor. The burglars made a good deal of noiseⒺexplanatory note,Ⓐtextual note but disturbed the sleep of no one but Miss Lyon my secretary. She went down stairsⒶtextual note and discovered the burglars and shouted for the butlerⒺexplanatory note;Ⓐtextual note the burglarsⒶtextual note disappeared at once through the dining roomⒶtextual note door,Ⓐtextual note which they had opened for their convenience. They had already carried away some silver to the entrance gate,Ⓐtextual note and had come back for the rest.

Here we have the whole reason for a burglar alarm:Ⓐtextual note the whole function of a burglar alarm is to alarm burglars. It does it.Ⓐtextual note The moment the burglarⒶtextual note hears it begin to buzz he drops everything and flies. There was never yet a burglar who would remain after the alarm began its office,Ⓐtextual note and there was never a burglar who would enter a house which he knew possessed an alarm. We are having an alarm put in now. A little late, but worth while.Ⓐtextual note

Miss Lyon telephoned Mr. Lounsbury,Ⓐtextual note our nearest neighborⒺexplanatory note; heⒶtextual note telephonedⒶtextual note Deputy-Sheriff Banks,Ⓐtextual note who lives six miles away,Ⓐtextual note and by a trifle after one o’clock both were here and ready for business. They set out upon the trail of the burglars,Ⓐtextual note accompanied by Mr. WarkⒺexplanatory note and the butler—Ⓐtextual notea trail easy to follow by help of a lantern,Ⓐtextual note because the dust was deep in the road and the burglars kept to the road instead of breaking for the woods. Following a trail by lantern light is slow work; it led the searchers a plodding and wearyⒶtextual note [begin page 268] six miles,Ⓐtextual note to a railway station. Presently a train came along and the searchers and the burglars boarded it simultaneously, the burglars from the one side,Ⓐtextual note the searchers from the other. It was an accommodation train that carries almost exclusively people with whose faces the conductor is familiar. The Sheriff asked the conductor if he had any strangers aboard. He said he had only two,Ⓐtextual note and pointed them out. The pair sat together,Ⓐtextual note with a small hand-bag between them—Ⓐtextual notea hand-bag with our silver in it,Ⓐtextual note as it happened. When a highwayman accosts you in the way of business he says,Ⓐtextual note “holdⒶtextual note up your hands!”Ⓐtextual note but when Sheriff Banks accosted this couple he changed that,Ⓐtextual note and said “holdⒶtextual note up your feet!”Ⓐtextual note for he wanted to see if their unimmortal soles corresponded to the footprintsⒶtextual note he had been following. His remark was quite enough for the burglars,Ⓐtextual note and they made a spring for freedom. A scuffle followed,Ⓐtextual note in which one burglar fought his way to the rear of the car and jumped from the moving train unhurt by the pistol-shotsⒶtextual note which Mr. Wark sent after him;Ⓐtextual note meantime theⒶtextual note Sheriff had the other burglar down on the floor,Ⓐtextual note and he secured him at cost of getting a bullet in his thighⒶtextual note and another one in the rest of his leg. An hour later the escaped burglar was captured. Both are in jail now,Ⓐtextual note awaiting trial.

All the silver they had taken was in that hand-bag,Ⓐtextual note and therefore we got it back. They had taken double as much plated ware; but they were old and experiencedⒶtextual note New York cracksmen,Ⓐtextual note and as soon as dawn enabled them to examine it they recognizedⒶtextual note its character and hid it in the grass by the roadside,Ⓐtextual note where it was found ten days later. I suppose one ought to feel sorry for these men,Ⓐtextual note for they must spend about fifteen years in a penitentiary for their adventure yet they got nothing at all for the trouble they took.

But I will reserve my compassion,Ⓐtextual note because certain aspects of this case have changed my mind about burglary, and have brought me to consider it a very high crime,Ⓐtextual note even when the burglarⒶtextual note inflictsⒶtextual note bodily harm upon no one when committing it. In the course of thirty-five years of experience as a householder I have been visited in the night several times by burglars. They took whatever was handy and went away without disturbing us,Ⓐtextual note andⒶtextual note we were unawareⒶtextual note that anything had happened—Ⓐtextual notein all but one instance—Ⓐtextual noteuntil the next morning;Ⓐtextual note and so the impression left behind them was not discomforting. No oneⒶtextual note in the houseⒶtextual note was in the least degree disturbed by the incident.Ⓐtextual note I think,Ⓐtextual note now,Ⓐtextual note the saving thing was that they made no alarming noise. The present case was different. The heedless creatures woke up Miss Lyon,Ⓐtextual note and she woke up the whole household except me. That was eighteen days ago,Ⓐtextual note and I am the only member of the household that has had any valuable sleep since. Clara fled to New York, finding she could get no sleep here; Miss Lyon’s nights are mainly sleepless; four days ago the butler gave up trying to sleep,Ⓐtextual note and took his departure; the cook and theⒶtextual note maids handed in their resignations the next dayⒺexplanatory note; yesterday one of the maids who has been with us four years,Ⓐtextual note and was expecting to remain with us forty,Ⓐtextual note resigned her position and told me that since the burglary she never gets more than three hours of sleep at one stretch, and whetherⒶtextual note the stretch be short or long she wakes out of it with a shriek and sits up in bed delivering cold perspiration from every pore—Ⓐtextual noteand always because of one and the same dream,Ⓐtextual note repeated and repeated over and over again night after night,Ⓐtextual note in which dream the burglars are always shooting her to death and she feels the bullets go through her. Since the burglary I have conversed with many persons [begin page 269] who have had personal experience of burglaries,Ⓐtextual note and I find that when the burglar makes a noise and frightens the women-folkⒶtextual note of the household it takes those women years to get over the effects of it. For many months their sleep,Ⓐtextual note when they get any,Ⓐtextual note is filled with horrors,Ⓐtextual note and their lives are made miserable. As I have already said,Ⓐtextual note this new light makes burglary, to me, a particularly high crime—Ⓐtextual notea much higher crime than it would be if the burglar had killed theⒶtextual note sufferer; for death is much better than a life filled with terror.

And so,Ⓐtextual note if I were privileged to alter the law,Ⓐtextual note I would makeⒶtextual note the penaltyⒶtextual note light for noiseless burglary,Ⓐtextual note and remorselesslyⒶtextual note hang the burglar who disturbed the peace of the family.

A couple of days after the burglary I put a notice on the front door. By the letters which are arriving now,Ⓐtextual note I find that it has traveled through the European newspapers,Ⓐtextual note and as it had already traveledⒶtextual note through the American ones I think that most of the burglars of this world have read it and will see the wisdom of allowing themselves to be guided by it.

NOTICE.

To the next Burglar. Ⓔexplanatory note