Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-12-04

The Safe Deposit Business.
From the New York Times
In q vault of the largest safe deposit company
In the country, situated in lower Broadway, is a
great safe that is entirely Oiled with articles left
in the vaults and private business apartments
Of the company by depositors who consider
themselves the most careful people alive, and
who pay largely for the very security they
do not avail themselves OF. The contents of
this safe are watches, diamonds. coupons bonds,
and large amount of personal property. all Of
which has been picked up in the vaults and
rooms ofthe company after depositors have left.
"Most of the property that We find in this
way" said the president Of the company to a
Times reporter, lis returned immediately, and
this safe contains only articles whose owners
we are unable to find after most thorough
search. If all the property that is left about
here by depositors were unclaimed. we should
have to extend our vaults to store it. and a Pc
culiar phase of the business is that when a man
loses thing here. or leaves it out of his safe,
he will never believe that it was lost here. He
is SO certain that his caution would never desert
him, in a safe deposit vault of all places. that
we have great difficulty in making him believe
that we have got his missing property on some
occasions. have seen so many articles lost in
this way. or misplaced among other property,
that never believe thing is lost until it is
found again. Only short time ago. young
lady who rents a safe in our vaults sent mes
senger to say that she had lost number of
bonds of the denomination of Fl coo each. and
she wished to know if it could be possible that
she had left them in the little room where she
had cut off the coupons on her last visit. They
had not been found in the room, but | sent word
to her not to worry, that she would probably
find them in the safe among her other papers.
She came down the next day and said that she
a orb hn for
the bonds, and knew they were not there; she
must have lost them in the street, or they had
been stolen from the house. / advised her to
look again. and sure enough she found the miss
ing bonds among some others of different de-
nomination. About year ago the president of
wel-known insurance company, who mas a
safe here, came in to put away some property,
and when he went away he lett $4,000 worth
of negotiable bonds on the top of the step ladder
he used to climb up to the drawer. We at once
sent for him. and could hardly make him be-
lievc that he had left his property about SO care
lessly.
ga rather peculiar incident of the same ma
ture occurred with broker. He left number
ofvaluable papers on table in one of the little
rooms, where he had taken q drawer from his
safe to sort the contents. On his way out he
stopped a moment with the treasurer and one of
our attendants came after him and told him that
he had lett part of his property out of his safe
The broker laughed him to scorn. DO you
think I'm copper-plated IDIOT he said. 4
haven't got so many yaluables that I'm going to
leave any of them around. Those papers belong
to somebody else There has not been any,
body else in that room since you left it., replied
the man, and it was searched before you went
into it. If you'll come back here you'll find the
papers just as you left them on the table The
broker wanted to bet that he had put every
scrap of paper in the safe that he took out of it,
and he finally went and looked into the drawer
just to show us that he had His face fell and
he was about as chOp-tallen a man as ever saw
However, he took the drawer back into the
room to get the papers he had left and put them
in it. Five minutes afterward he passed me on
the way out, and said: Well you've got one on
me this time, but if you ever find anything more
OF mine in any of these rooms you can keep it.
He had hardly left the building when the same
attendant ran from the vault and said: Where's
Mr.. g.? He's left a lot of bonds in the same
room.' l sent over to the brokers' office for
him to come and put his property away, but he
was so sure was trying to play some kind Of a
joke on him that he wouldn't respond. So
took care of the bonds and gave them to him
the next morning, and what a foolish looking
man he was when he went away from here
He said he was going to get q commission
appointed to find out if he was sane. However,
all the trouble with him was that he was too
careful. / never knew careless person to
leave anything around here; it is invariably a
very careful and methodical man. and it is easy
enough to understand the reason. careless
man picks up everything at once and throws it
into his box. and gives hurried glance around
TO TO, see II ne has dropped anything. method-
cal man knows just where he is going to put
each envelope and package, and in just what
order they 90 into his box. Then, if by any
chance he misses the routine and puts the wrong
article in first he never thinks Of the parcel or
package he has skipped and goes away with
the consciousness that everything is all right
and that he is making a fortune by being careful
"A few weeks ago a well-known business man
that some bonds had been taken from
his box IN one Of our vaults. We told him that
that was impossible, and lie said he could not
for them in any other way. He remem-
bered distinctly putting them in the safe, but. in
spite OF his certainty, he had taken the precau-
ton CT investigating his office desk and safe and
all his premises before making any complaint
AS the result, he said he was certain that some
body had in some way managed to obtain ac-
cess to his drawer in our vault. / asked himtO
look through the drawer once more but he said
he had examined it thoroughly a dozen times,
and shaken out every paper in it, and gone
through every envelope. He became very
indignant when / offered to wager that the
bonds were in his safe, and began to talk so
loud as to attract attention. and to make
threats of a suit against us. l told him to
look through the box again. and, if he did not
find the securities, then it would be my privi-
lege. according to the rules of the company to
have the box searched in my presence. After
great deal OF persuasion he consented to take
the drawer into one of the rooms and search it
again. When he came out he was changed
man. He very humbly put the drawer back in
its place and started for the door without say
ing word. | called him back, and he con-
fessed that he had found the bonds in an en-
yelopc where he had slipped them by mistake
Occurrences of this nature happen every day,
and, as said before. l never believe anything
is lost when man comes and tells me that he
can't find some of the property he has left in
his safe.
1--WE have difficulty sometimes in finding
owners of very valuable property that has been
LETT lying around here. Some years ago q man
left $50, 600 worth Of railroad bonds in one of
the rooms. and as it was not called for in a few
days we advertised it. No one responded for
several weeks, and we tried to find out through
the railroad who owned the bonds. We failed.
as they could not be traced from the original
buyer, and six months afterward the owner APP
piled for them. He had seen the advertisement
in the papers, and wondered who was fool
enough to leave his property around that way
but was SO certain that his bonds although
they answered the description perfectly, were
safe in his stronghold where he had left them
that he never even took the trouble to examine
the box to see. We are continually finding cOu- |
pons that have been cut from bondsin the rooms |
Only short time ago fished 81 900 worth out
OF the cuspadore that had been thrown away in
an envelope. The owner atterward told me
that he addressed the envelope wrongly and so
had to use another He thought he put the
coupons in this envelope, and so he threw the
other aWay and mt the amntv ono in his