The Burglar Who Robbed Death

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A promising young physician has an inherent weakness for drink. He is devoted to his wife and child. At one fell swoop, diphtheria takes from him both wife and child. He loses his nerve yields himself up completely to liquor, loses his practice, his friends and his self-respect. He finally arrives at the bottom of the ladder where weakened and penniless, he falls in with a gang of yeggs and is persuaded to undertake a burglary. He spots the Harrison home, observes that Mrs. Harrison has been left alone this particular night and enters by the upper balcony, first cutting the 'phone wires. He comes face to face with the mother endeavoring to save her child from dying in a violent fit of sickness which has attacked it. She can't get the doctor on the "dead" 'phone, and dares not leave the child to summon help. The burglar throws aside the rich haul of jewels he has just pocketed, trusts his fate in the hands of the woman, and works over the child with all his old professional skill. He robs death of the child. A night watchman discovers the severed 'phone wires, becomes suspicious and commences an investigation. The way in which the grateful mother shields the burglar as the latter labors over her little one, and the effect which the good woman's faith has on the unfortunate man, form the intensely sympathetic conclusion of the story.