The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-12-12
How q Baltimore Servant Missed
Lighting q Fire With $500.

of the city, who has been in the habit
of placing her income, little by little as
she received it, behind large picture
in the drawing-room of the house in
which she lives, was yesterday greatly
excited over the supposed loss Of all
her savings. The lady was living with
her two nieces, who do the homework
and superintend the work of the kitch-
en-. Two or three days ago they began
cleaning the house from top to bottom.
After they had finished the upper
stories, and had put down the carpets,
they began the dining-room. They
started with the pictures. These they
first took down, busted, oiled, and then
returned to their places on the wall.
They had finished all but the large one,
behind which was the money, and were
just about to begin operations on this
one, when the door-bell rang. This, of
course, interrupted for a while the
work. The ringing of the bell was
caused by the visit Of gentleman who
wished to see the aunt of the two young
ladies, the lady of the house.
When she returned from her inter-
view with the gentleman she found
that the young ladies-her nieces-had
taken the picture down, cleaned it and
returned it to its place. At the time it
did not occur to her that the picture
was the one which she had selected as
her bank. 1t was not until yesterday
that she thought of looking behind the
picture to see if her money was still
where she had placed it. She had been
in the habit of looking there every day
in order to satisfy herself of its safety.
When she went to look for it on this
day she found, to her great astonish-
ment and grief, that it was gone.
The first thought was that the serv-
ant had stolen it, but she knew she
could vouch for her servants honesty,
and it seemed almost an possibility
that she should have taken it. The
whole house was then ransacked, but
with no result-the money was still
missing. Not finding it, the lady be-
came completely overcome with anx-
iety.
1t took the combined efforts of the
young ladies fully an hour to calm the
poor lady's nerves. After thinking the
matter over again, the ladies finally
agreed that the only possible way the
money could have been lost, provided
it was not stolen, was that it had fallen
from the picture to the floor while the
picture was being cleaned, and swept
out with the dust and dirt that had ac-
cumulated in the room.
Then began an overhauling of the
dirt pile and the garbage boxes, but
with the same result. Finally they
agreed that the servant should be taken
into confidence.
She (the servant) after having been
told of the money, recollected that she
had taken from the dining-room the
day they were cleaning bundle of old
papers, and these she was using to
kindle the fire. They then looked
through all the old papers she had,
but without finding the money. The
servant then remembered she had just
before they came into the kitchen put
some paper in the range to start a fire,
and that she was only waiting for
them to leave the room before apply
ing the match to the paper. 1t occurred
to her that the money might possibly
be in these papers. Without saving o
word she rushed to the fireplace and be-
gan taking out the wood that she had
placed therein.
The ladies, who had seen her when
she first moved toward the stove, were
now standing over and watching her
with eager interest. Finally, after ev-
erything had been removed, the serv-
ant thrust her arm in the stove and, to
the immense delight of those who were
watching her, drew therefrom $500
the missing money.-Balsinaore Gazette.