AUTIFUL NOTICE."]

"While Colonel Hoskins was fond of all styles of criminals, burglars
were his particular pets. According to him, a burglar was more deserving
of kindness than any other man. 'How would you like it,' he used to say,
'if you had to earn your living by breaking into houses in the middle of
the night, instead of sleeping peacefully in your bed? Do you think you
would be full of good thoughts after you had been bitten by the
watch-dog and fired at by the man of the house, and earned nothing by
your labour except a bad cold and the prospect of hydrophobia? There is
nothing more brutal than the way in which society treats the burglar,
and so long as society refuses to put him in the way of earning an
easier and less dangerous living, he cannot be blamed if he continues to
practise his midnight profession.'

"I must say this for Colonel Hoskins. He did not confine himself to
talk, like many other philanthropists, but he was already trying to
carry out his principles. He really meant what he said about burglars,
and there isn't the least doubt that he had more sympathy for them than
he had for the honest men of his acquaintance. When people asked him
what he would do if he woke up in the night and found a burglar in his
house, and whether or not he would shoot at him, he said that he would
as soon think of shooting at his own wife, and that he would undertake
to reform that burglar then and there by kindness alone. Once somebody
said to Hoskins that he ought really to let the burglars know his
feelings towards them, and Hoskins said that he would do it without
delay.

"That same day he drew up a beautiful 'Notice to Burglars,' and had it
printed in big letters and framed and hung up in the dining-room of his
house. It read in this way: 'Burglars are respectfully informed that the
silver-ware is all plated, and that the proprietor of this house never
keeps ready money on hand. Cake and wine will be found in the
dining-room closet, and burglars are cordially invited to rest and
refresh themselves. Please wipe your feet on the mat, and close the
window when leaving the house.'

"Colonel Hoskins took a good deal of pride in that notice. He showed it
to everyone who called at the house, and said that if other people would
follow his example, and treat burglars like Christians and gentlemen,
there would soon be an end of burglary, for the burglars would be so
touched by the kindness of their treatment that they