The morning call., 1895-02-18
TAKEN FROM THE LoCKET.
GEORGE"
April 80, 1882.

Then the owner of the envelope opened
it and showed to his wondering COM
panion bright coil of girlish hair. Fair
cleaning little circlet, whether it came
from young royalty's head or not, looked
strangely out of place on the commonplace
dummy, although it was being handled
with peculiar care.
"How do | know that is Queen Victoria s
halr?" continued the proprietor of the
treasure, his great hand tenderly pushing
back the springy ringlet and replacing the
envelope in his pocket; ''well, I'll tell
you.
at was some time ago that young
Englishman, George Howe Brown, came
to nay house to room, and later died there.
That envelope was perhaps his most treas
ured asset. / found it after his estate
had been settled up and kept it. ] had got
to know Brown pretty well, and he owed
me considerable when he died, and so
felt sure of the identity of the hair and that
[ am justified in keeping it.
"He was high fier, was Brown, in more
ways than one. / found out he was a
grandson of Sir James Tyler, nephew of
Lord Dunraven-the fellow that races with
Gould and the Prince of Wales-and a
cousin of the Countess of Munster. He
came over in style, bringing big wardrobe
VI OOI6 MP DdTI1dIu VII lie Hdu
married sub rosa, and a whole collection of
jewelTy and valuable knick-knacks. There
were dressing-cases with solid silyer-topped
fittings, everyone with its crest, solid
gold manicure set, diamond pins and rings
galore, and among them was heavy gold
locket containing hair.
81 think the young fellow must have been
shipped out here on account of his wild
habits-maybe it was his mesalliance with
the barmaid-and ne kept it up on this
coast. Drink? Well, he would ask me
into his room and offer me tumblerful
of whisky, and when / laughed at him he
would drain it himself without so much as
winking. He came to live on whisky at
last till it killed him. The barmaid left
him, of course-got running round at Pete
Dorsey's and SO on. | don't know where
she is now.
Brown was a good enough fellow in his
way. He was very methodical for one
thing-kept his room very neat and al
ways put down in his diary every little
thing that affected him. He would enter
every bank-note that he received from
England and he got good many, with its
number, date of receipt, etc. [ remember
seeing his record of his voyage from Eng
land with the newly married bar-maid,
and he would enter in his diary every time
he had a quarrel with her and made it up
which happened apparently several
times every day. By and by, you will un-
derstand how this habit of his forms an
important link in the authorization of my
| Queen Victoria lock of hair.
''Well he died, and when the Coroner
broke into his room all he could find for
the Public Administrator to administer on
was pile of pawn-tickets. They repre-
sented all the young fellows belongings,
and the dates of them show how he had
chung successfully to his dressing-cases,
SOlitareS watch and chain rippS orr
And the last thing to go was a gold
| locket.'
"There was big fuss made by the Eng
fish relatives and friends after it was
too late. Letters were written and calls
made to my house; the young ne'er-do-
well, whom no one cared for when living,
was honored in death with a fine funeral,
and there was a scurrying to find out what
| poor Brown had done with all his valu-
ables
"Chief in request was the locket. There
came letter from England, bearing terrific
heraldric devices, demanding the locket
instanter. The writer insisted that it was
a, family heirloom, and then it came out
that it contained the hair of Queen Victo-
ria, presented by her when girl to high
toned relative of Browns, who in turn had
intrusted it to him. The letter stated that
the locket bore the date April 80, 1882.
well, they found the locket-traced it
to pawnshop, but it contained no hair.
When later found this envelope, and saw
the date on it, l knew 1 had the prize.
The young fellow was English, and that
means proud. He had kept the family
locket to the last, and when forced to
soak it he was too loyal to let the young
queens hair go. So he kept it, and in his
usual methodical way Endorsed the en-
velope containing it in a manner that con-
clusively identified it. Poor Brown! 1t
was probably the last shred of romance
and pure feeling to which he chung when
all was dark shipwreck about him. AS a
drowning mariner clutches spar he pre-
served inviolate the sunny tress of his
country's queen"
The owner of the interesting lock is Mr..
Henry G. Bell of this city, who is at pres
ent member of the orchestra engaged at
the Peoples Theater Oakland.