Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-10-06
HIDDEN WEALTH.
The Curious Places where Money has
been Found When Hidden or Lost
Strange Freaks.

Strange Freaks.
81 have been sent for very often in
my time," said an elderly detective.
ito search for money concealed by
eccentric people. There was more
of this hiding awaySof cash forty
years ago than there is now, owing
probably to the doubtful character
of some of the old savings banks.
"Some fifteen years ago went up
to farm house in Orange County,
at the request of the heirs, to look
for money. The deceased had had
no striking characteristics for my
purpose, and, after trying several
lines of search for three days, 1 grew
doubtful. His riding saddle had been
ripped open, his bootheels knocked
off for diamonds, his shoes split up
and his upholstery pulled to pieces
Bricks had been taken out, the hearth
torn up, and the wainscotings pulled
down. Even the backboards of pic
ture frames had been taken out, and
the boy had dug around the roots of
every tree in the orchard, but still no
money had been found. The reward
was too large to be lost, but 1 was
nearly at my wits end. Finally the
thought came like a flash: Where
was the old gentleman in the habit
of sitting?' l asked. oh, he almost
always sat by that window said the
brother; but we've pulled everything
to pieces around there sit down
just as he did, The man sat down
In v,l:ch direction was he most apt
to look?' Nowhere in particular;
out Of the window generally Toward
the barn?' NO, this way I fol-
lowed the look; it was in the line Of
an old. used up pump. Which way
did he walk when he went out to the
feldi' Over to the pump, and then
made bee line for the pondr
These answers had a certain signifi-
canoe. Men like 10 have the place of
concealment in sight, and it is well
known that they will often walk over
money they have buried to see that
the sod is usdisturbed. / had the
pump taken mp and excavations made
no money. The pump was re-
placed. l entered the room once
more and stood by the window. Sud
denly l saw a faint but peculiar
looking mark on the sill; it was a
surveyors point. / 'lined' it up to
the pump, measured out to the exact
center of the line, and the digging
began. A two-inch steam pipe was
struck at depth of four feet. The
end was plugged; / took fome $500
bill that night"
A GOOD PIECE OF DETECTIVE ANALYSIS
II had a curious case two years ago.
A wealthy man had been attacked
with partial paralysis, and his speech
and the greater part of his memory
had left him. He wrote out the ques-
ton, where did put my money!
The amount was large, $4,000 in
bonds, which he had been about to
take to safe deposit building. The
heirs were wild. l stopped all the
tearing up and cushion pricking
business, for the man was not CON
cesler,' though it was supposed by
the doctors that he had felt the attack
coming on and had put the money in
some out of-the-way place. Just how
or in what spot in his library he had
fallen, could not be made out. After
a days reflection my partner and !
had to conclude that he had been
robbed. Two courses were open to
us; we could make sudden arrests
without any real evidence, always a
hateful course for good detective to
take, or we must find the exact spot
where the man fell, and line up from
that. The doctors helped us here:
You had better examine the gentle
mans body they said. We did 80,
and found a long horizontal mark on
the hip. and blue marks on the knee
and elbow. He had fallen sidewise
over an object not over sixteen inches
high, and having narrow, rounded
edge of metal, for an iron mark was
found on the clothing. Every piece
of furniture in the house was in
spected, but to no purpose. The heirs
apparent were in despair. We took
all night to think the matter over.
Then my partner said: How about
the cellari That's where the house
hold metal is.' They all laughed.
He hasn't been there in year. they
said. We went down. My partner
glanced quickly around, and then
gave me look that I can almost feel
running through my nerves to this
day. He had discovered some COM
mon household articles which had not
been used since the family had been
searching the fireplaces. He was, in
fact, looking over lot OF coal hods.
There is our metallic edge he said.
He turned the hods over carefully,
and from out a mass of waste paper
there rolled at last the $4,000 worth
of bonds. The paralytic had fallen
over the hod, and the money had
dropped into it among his waste
papers. Before the general search
was made, all rubbish had been
taken to the cellar. Our friends had
sought too deeply for what they
supposed to be concealed money,
and had grossly neglected the science
of the obvious. Some detectives do
precisely the same thing. My part
ner and l divided 5000 between us
that night" York Sun.
A contemporary says; THE we'd
ding bellies, how they ring" The re-
mark leaves us in a quandary, for