The Penn's Grove record., 1886-07-31
INTHE 81" ROAD JUNK SHOPS.
Curious Articles Left in the Cars by
Passengers---Not Many Claimed,
but all R~eIigiously Preserved.

The queerest looking junk shop in the
country IS located at No. 4 Front street,
New York city. Everything from a
bent hairpin to a plethoric pocketbook
can be seen there. Battered and rusty
tin cans repose alongside dainty wraps
and fancy reticules. A good many of
the tin cam were once ''growlers," but
most of the them are dinner pals with
the capability of doing the GROWERS
work. All of this miscellaneous mass
Of property is in the keeping of the
property clerk of the elevated railroad
company, and all of it was picked up in
the elevated cars. Whenever an honest
train man finds anything he leaves it
with the dispatcher at the end of the
route, with the number of the train, the
hour and the direction in which it was
going. The dispatcher then makes a
minute description of the article and
sends it to the property clerks office.
There it is placed away with a number
ed tag attached to it to wait until an
applicant for its recovery appears.
you have no idea," said the gentle
man in charge of the office, "what a
variety of knicknacks we get here, and
what queer people come to hunt for lost
property. You see over in that corner
those loosely covered packages? Well,
they are bustleS. We now have on
hand 1873 bustles; large bustles and
small, white, blue, red and purple. l
never knew how many designs there
were in this article of female attire UNI
til we got this collection. Next to the
bustles, wrapped up IN thick yellow pa
per, are some other interesting things
fale hair and such. When the ladies
lose these things, they try their best to
get into the thickest of the crowd, and
forget all about their loss. l have been
here three years, and in all that time
only one hustle has been claimed.n
"How about the false hairp"
1.-THE false hair is asked for, but most
of the time a messenger boy or Child is
sent for it. Even if the article is not
valuable we never give it to messengers,
and insist upon the losers calling in per-
son. That is done to avoid cheating.
Nearly every day some attempt to re-
cover lost property by a person who did
not lose it. The loser tells some of his
or her friends about the loss, and, if the
thing is valuable, one Of the listeners
may claim it. Before they get it they
must give an accurate detailed descrip-
ton, with the hour it was lost, the di-
rection of the train and the number of
the train"
'Do you get much money!"
"Well, yes, considering everything.
Several times we have had p~ocketbooks
containing 500 and 5000 and over
brought here by the finders, but of
course you know such cases are rare.
Small change is also found and kept IN
til claimed. We cannot tell very well
whether the claimant is the owner OF a
stray half or quarter, as it isn't often
that a man knows just what the date of
a coin was or that it had any private
marks. In the case of pocketbooks,
however, the matter of accurate descrip-
ton is easy. In a year l suppose we get
in between $500 and $1,000 in money.
The value of all the property amounts
annually to $4,000 or more. Sometimes
some valuable trinkets, pieces of jewelry
and diamonds are recovered. This
speaks very well for the honesty of the
company'S employees. What the value
of all the property lost is, including the
recovered and uncovered, it is impos-
sible to say. In the rush to get on and
off the tram in the commission hours,
when all the stations and cars are
crowded, it is a very easy matter to lose
things. Then, again, people who have
been shopping forget their parcels, and
their hurry to get off, the other passen-
gers do not notice their friends absent
mindedneSs. There are always some
passengers left in the car, and the one
nearest the lost article usually calls the
attention of the gateman to it, because
he knows or thinks the other people are
looking at him, and he becomes honest
through cowardice."
GLOW many different articles have
YOU here noWp"
cit is impossible for me to enumerate
all the different ~curlosities we get, but /
think umbrellas take the lead in num-
Der. Silk umbrellas are claimed; but
Just take a look at that stack of ging-
ham and cotton ~parachutes. We have
enough on hand to keep the rain off half
of Manhattan Island"
care there any peculiarites about the
claimants?"
"They are as varied as the assortment
of plumber. There is n man, and a
w%ell-known one too, who comes here
about twice a week to get back some
thing he has lost. He used to come that
often, but now his visits are less fire.
ouent. The trainmen know him now
and watch out that he does not leave the
a without his bundles. He is not a
crank but is simply fearfully absent
minded. Sometimes he comes for an
umbrella, q cane, q book, a basket OF
fruit, and whatever he happened to be
carrying and could not put in his
pocket.n
'Have you many women claimantS!'
''They are our best customers. They
can lose a thing easier and make more
fuss over it than an ld-fashioned circus
clown. The women too, are in the ma
iority of claimants for things they didn't
lose. If some of these women get their
pockets picked in the cars, they come
down here and insist that we ought to
make good their loss. The most pecu-
liar case though is that of an old lady
who lives in Harlem. She lost a wooden
shawl last October, in one of the early
evening trains, and she has been coming
here regularly once a week ever since,
to look for it. She is all right, | sup
pose, as she reported the loss Immediately
after leaving the train, and the descrip-
ton was sent down here. We have the
description yet, but the shawl has never
put in appearance.
"Here is an instance of how people
will be dishonest and try to steal from
their friends: A diamond in n of the
earrings worn by a lady became loose and
dropped out. 1t was noticed by a gen.
tleman who picked it up and turned il
V e to the ticket agent where he got
off, taking a receipt for it. That dia'
mond remained here for three months
and during that time We had no less
than thirteen claimants for it. Some OF
them described it pretty closely, but all
OF them forgot to say anything about
its being slightly Clipped in the back.
The lady who lost it had told her friends
about il and showed them the mate, but
of curse she never told them about
its being Clipped. Those friends Of her:
thought they could get it, and severa
diamonds precisely similar were brought
here by the claimants to prove that II
was theirs. Every n of these claimant:
was a woman, and all were richly dress
| ed and seemed to belong to the wealthy
oloss Tho ouvnar had IN 90 away from