Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-01-09
Car "Alamosa," Chicago to New York, Nov. 24, 1890. Women's Rettcule
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''Some of these things have been in our custody for years," he continued, ''as we never have any annual sale as the express and railroad companies do, but we keep the things until called for. Our conductors and porters are required to turn in all the property they find dur ing trip.
 ''They give the name of the car, the date of the trip, the points of starting and destination and the name of the article they have found Then the articles are sent to me and examined, ticketed, inventoried and numbered. When 2 patron writes and says he left an article on one of our cars we write back and ask him to give the exact date, the route, the place at which he embarked and the station at which he left.
 "We also desire full description of the missing articles and any additional data or details he may be able to give. We exact this to prevent fraud and to | protect the real owners, as there are oc- casions when fraud is attempted.
 ''One man got up hurriedly at day break one morning and dressed rapidly | SO as to leave the train at Q small sta tion before breakfast. He was drummer and the night before he had had birth | day jubilee all to himself. In his dazed state next morning, and in his haste to be ready to leave the car at his station, he left his watch and money under his pillow.
 "We had g green porter on that car, who, when he made up the drummer's berth, announced in loud voice that some gemman had gone an 1ef is ticker an wad.' Two or three men still in their berths looked out through the curtains and saw the porter examin- ing the watch, chain and wallet
 "At the next station the conductor re- ceived telegram from the drummer stating his loss, and requesting the con- ductor to leave the things with the sta tion-master at the next meal station. This was done, the conductor taking a receipt from the station-master.
 "The day after we received 8 letter from @ man who said that he had left his gold watch, gold link, chain and large, fiat Russian wallet in berth No. 6 on such and such day. and that he had left the train at seven o'clock in the morning at a certain station. We'll, we looked the matter up, interrogated the porter and conductor, and received the station-master's receipt.
 "Then we wrote the man who sent the letter. and asked him for more de- tails. We also telegraphed the station agent, who replied that he knew the drummer, and, after examining some papers in the wallet to make sure he Was the rightful owner, he had handed the property over to the owner and taken his receipt, which would be forwarded by next mail.
 "We never heard any more of the other chap who put in a claim. He was doubtless passenger who, hearing the porter announce that somebody had left watch and pocketbook, and looked through his curtains, caught glimpse of the valuables and decided to try to get fraudulent possession of them.
 Another conductor found 8 baby in the ladies' toilet-room fast asleep in the wash-basin, its head protected from the marble rim by half dozen towels. The conductor who found 1t was a single man and didn't know very much about babieA He was a nervous man, and did not dare to say Q word to the porter or the train conductor or the passengers, because he feared the worst He was satisfied that the baby had been put on board at a certain sta. tion by person who had stepped of