Mustard-Tins, Bicycle Handle-Bars, Bibles,
Nests of Mice, Chimneys, Etc.,
Have Concealed Treasure.
Old stockings are proverbially the savings-banks of the poor--and no
interest on deposits. To-day, when all towns have their banks, the family
hoard is usually more safely placed than in a domestic cranny.
Queer hiding-places are, however, still uncovered. There are savers who
will not trust the banks. An English exchange, having collected facts in a
number of cases where money has been found in very strange places,
presents the following interesting incidents in this way:
A few months ago a dealer in old furniture secured for thirty shillings,
at an auction held in a village near Carnarvon, North Wales, an oak
dresser, part of the property of an old lady who had just died. On his
arrival home he proceeded to overhaul his purchase, when to his surprise
he discovered, on the top shelf, a mustard-tin filled to the brim with
sovereigns and half-sovereigns.
An old bicycle was not long since knocked down to a gentleman for a mere
song. In due course it was sent to a cycle repairer in Hampstead to be put
in working order. During this process nine half-sovereigns were found
concealed in the handle-bars.
In October of 1899 a gentleman residing at East Dulwich purchased at a
local auction-room for a few shillings a parcel of second-hand books,
among which was an old Bible. On the following Sunday his wife, on opening
this, found several of the leaves pasted together. These she took the
trouble to separate, when six five-pound Bank of England notes dropped
out. On the back of one of these notes the former owner of the Bible had
written his will, which ran as follows: "I have had to work very hard for
this, and having none as natural heirs, I leave thee, dear reader,
whosoever shall own this holy book, my lawful heir."
On the appraisers of the estate of an old miser, who died a year or so
back at Newburgh, searching his house, they came upon an old cupboard
seemingly filled with rubbish. This they overhauled, to find in a corner a
family of young mice comfortably ensconced in a nest constructed of
bank-notes to the value of four hundred pounds.
A mouse was the cause of a still greater find. As an old Paris hawker,
named Mme. Jacques, was endeavoring to dislodge one of these little
animals that had taken refuge in her chimney, she knocked aside some
bricks and laid bare a cavity containing a number of bank-notes, amounting
in value to forty thousand francs, which had belonged to a former tenant
of the house, who had died seven years previously.
'Tis an ill-wind that blows no one any good. Some time ago an old
Birmingham woman, who had the misfortune to lose her leg, purchased a pair
of crutches at a second-hand dealer's. Not long after one of the crutches
snapped beneath her weight, disclosing a hollow in the wood, within which
were secreted twenty pounds in notes and a diamond scarf-pin.
Among a quantity of household effects, forming one lot, that a gentleman
purchased some years since at a sale in Kent, was a stuffed parrot. This
being of no value was given over to his children, who, after the manner of
their kind, proceeded in due course to inspect its anatomy. Curiosity in
this case met its reward, for within the bird reposed fifteen sovereigns
and two spade guineas of George III--no bad return for the few shillings
invested originally in the purchase of the entire lot.