The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-10-27
HOW PEOPLE HIDE MONEY.
PLACES IN WHICH WEALTH IS
SOMETIMES CONCEALED.

oealed," said gentleman visiting at
Park street in Lewiston the other day,
'and l Just as lief tell you what know
about it as not.
"Fifty years ago folks, especially the
elderly people, took the utmost pains to
hide money. Old stockings, brick ovens,
old wagon-tops, china teapots, the tops
of bedsteads, hair-cloth furniture used
always to come in for big share of in
vestigation after the dear departed had
turned up his toes and had been laid
away. From that moment, as you we'll
know, the hunt began, and folks rum
maged the house and pulled open the
feather-beds in search of the silver
sinners, the beautiful yellow-b boys, OF the
crisp bank-notes that it was supposed the
lamented deceased had left behind I
suppose that this instinct of concealing
wealth and of searching for it was bred out
of a wellfounded suspicion of the safety
of the old-time savings banks, and they
were rascally things, as l well know
OF course the hiding instinct was trans
mitted from father to son, and in my way
ofreasoning the civil war had more TO
do with stopping this foolish plan of
boarding money than any other one
thing. 1t opened up more old stocking
legs and old colonial gold than hundred
years of peace would have DONE and vet
don't doubt, from my own experience,
that there are countless stores of gold in
buried places in Massachusetts and Maine
to-day,
81 could count up any quantity of
families who believe that secret hoard,
left by mysterious deceased ancestor,
exists somewhere for them. l believe
that Captain Kidd's treasure is awaiting
the coming of somebody keen enough
to discover it, don't youl" And here the
gentleman in the arm chair winked mys-
teriously, laughed at his own conceit,
and continued
ga funny scheme, in which I once
came pretty near being interested, was a
stock company formed in Pennsylvania,
where was then living. 1t was designed
to make specially of hunting up con-
cealed treasures. l did some work for
them, and a partner and were pretty
successful there and in New York State. y
''How do you go to work."
''Well, it is hard to say. You have to
be guided by circumstances. Strange
mental freaks exist in some families. You
perhaps know people who are built the
wrong way. used to know a Lewiston
family of misers, extremely narrow and
stingy, and yet would take no care of
the hay in the field or the cattle in the
stall We had to sort of learn human
nature. Get first at the habits of the
man whose wealth you are seeking to
find. It's the best clew you have.
81 once was sent to take care of Gu
rious case in Massachusetts. 1t was
twenty years ago. A wealthy man was
stricken with paralysis. He was about
to deposit about $29, 900 in money and
bonds when he was stricken down. The
heirs were wild. He couldn't recall a
thing. All that was known was that he
was found sitting on the front hall stairs,
bereft of mind and speech. We couldn't
make anything out of him. He had no
money. We made hunt at random over
the house, through the barns aud stables.
We about made up our mind that he had
been robbed. We stopped the furniture
breaking and cushion pricking business
make arrests OF to search for some syste.
matte clew. For my part, as / remember,
| was confident he had been robbed.
most probably after the stroke of paraly-
sis, and was not sure that some attack
from robber had not precipitated the
paralysis. We sought the doctors and
examined the mans person. A long
black and blue mark was on his hip
another was on his forehead. A silver
of blue-painted wood was on his cloth
ing. We started out to hunt We
tried the pump, and the clothes-reel, and
everything else. Finally down in the
barn cellar among boxes and barrels |
came across an old dump-cart top.
Here's the article said /. We turned
the thing out into the light and there
In pile of manure we found the packet
of money and bonds where the paraly-
tic had fallen and where the packet had
slipped from his pocket
my partner and divided So, 900 be-
tween us that evening.
"a sailor will almost always hide his
money about him. Irish women ALWAYS
sew bills into their petticoats. once
went into New Hamp hire to hunt foI
the money of retired sea captain who
died very suddenly He had been q
queer sort of man, very taciturn and al
ways taking trips out of town after hi,
money. He wasn't miserly man, and
l concluded that he hadn't buried it
He slept in no one particular place. and
so l was pretty sure that there was nc
place in the house where he felt better
contented than another So / said
Bring his clothes. We went owe
them. The binding of one of them wa
wide, and his wife said, as l tore il off
He always sewed his clothes up himself
He was handy &c a woman With n noa1Io
Queer. She added, why, he Away
wanted TO wear that suit to the last
Poor dearP and she dropped a tear. II
the meantime had pulled out an oilet
silk packet, holding six bonds for 81, OO(
each, and we found eighteen more il
the same suit His trips to town meant
something, you see.
''Of course there are men who bury
money. Such men always have its hid
ing-place marked off, and, ten TO one