The Stocking-Foot Burglar of Fourth Street
A bold burglar stalks a home on Fourth Street, invading the upstairs in his stocking feet while the family is inside.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The house of Will H. Parry, at 413 Fourth Street, was entered by a burglar at 4 o'clock yesterday morning. The thief made his entrance by cutting away the screen from a bay window and forcing the sash. After ransacking several rooms, he peered into the hall, blew out the hall light, and proceeded upstairs. He walked into the room of a domestic servant, and when she coolly walked across the hall and tried the door, Mrs. Parry, who was inside, came to the door, and he turned and fled downstairs. Prints under the window show that he was in his stocking feet. Police Captain Jones says he believes the burglar is the same one who has entered a large number of houses in a similar manner recently.
“Prints under the window by which he entered show that he was in his stocking feet.”
Domestic burglary remains a core civic anxiety, though this account serves as a reminder of the vulnerability of homes in the 1890s, where 'stocking-foot' intruders were a recurring local terror.
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