The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-15
WAYS OF HIDING MONEY.
By Seeking security-Often Lose Their
 Hoards.


 There is at all times a good deal of hoarding, especially in parts of the country where savings banks are scarce. Among the inhabitants of such remote districts a favorite method of conceallng cash is to put it in tin box and bury it, either in the cellar or in the ground near the house. Anoth- CT plan commonly adapted is to put money in the garret under the caves. Where the rafters meet the beams there is a convenient place left, like a shelf, and nobody would be like ly to look there for valuables. Wo- men are apt to choose mattresses for hiding places. They rip seam few inches tuck in the "wad' and sew it up again When old women die, and their beds of feathers or straw are emptied and cleaned money is often found in them.
 These persons are not misers. The treasury experts say that women mis- CTS are rare; there is not one female rniser to half dozen men who prac- tice that vice. They know too, be- cause they come into frequent contact with the miser in business. When 1niser dies, much of his money is like ly to be found in a more or less dilapi- dated condition, having been hidden away in strange places,- and it is sent to the treasury for redemption. As rule, the miser buries his cash deep in the ground, using as 9 receptacle a tin box or a large baking powder can. Not a few miserS, on the other hand, prefer to conceal their wealth in odd corners about the house, scattering 1t about in different spots so that in some instances it has been considered worth while to tear the dwelling to pieces in order to discover the secreted coins and notes.
 It is commonly supposed that misers love gold beyond all other forms Of money; but treasury officials declare that they prefer paper usually. They like notes of big denominations. The average misers hoard that reaches the treasury consists mainly of notes, with some gold, and perhaps little silver The paper money has the advantage of small bulk, so that it may be easily concealed. The nniser's vice is somewhat of a puzzle from the point of view of the every day individual but it seems to be merely morbid development of the ormal savig instinct. The sav- ing of money is accomplished by many self-denials. To anybody it is a satis- ' faction to watch the increase of a stock of capital thus gained. The bigger the pile the greater the qualification, and so in individuals the pleasure eventually comes to surpass all other delights, and no sacrifice of comfort is too great to be made for it's sake.
 Io ,c foil 111ra rivp agement to the practice of hoarding. Most people in rural districts distrust banks. T prefer my old stocking" says the farmers wife. Some day, per- haps, robbers come along and toast the toes of the farmer and his good woman before the fire until they consent to give up the stocking and its contents; but, happily, such occurrences are not frequent. Only the other day an old man named s. H. Reynolds, residing not far from Cleveland, Ohio, raised great row because of the supposed loss of s3,500 which he had packed in aStin box and hidden in the wall of the eel lar He dug a hole in the wall and built it up again, telling nobody but his son of the concealed hoard. During his sons absence on a journey he took a notion to inspect the cash, and To! it was gone The son was suspected of stealing it, but presently returned and showed that he had transferred 1t pri- yately to another place in the cellar.
 The hoard secreted by the old man consisted of $1O00 in gold and $2,500 in one thousand dollar and five hundred dollar notes. The notes had routed to pieces, owing to the dampness Of the cellar, and so had to be sent to the treasury for redemption. It was big job to put the bits together and identi- fly the cash satisfactorily, but it was finally accomplished, and the farmer was repaid in full. MT. Reynolds boasts that he has not been in the hands of barber. for twenty-five years; his wife cuts his hair, and he trims his own whiskers. He has never smoked, chewed, drank or danc- ed, regarding these amusements too ex- pensiye The method he adopted for saving his money is scarcely surpris- ing when it is considered that, accord ing to his own statement, he had pre- viously lost large sums by the failure of three banks on different ocasions- once S1 200 and again $1,250 and the third time g, 900.
 Paper money is not very suitable for hoarding, by reason of it's extremely perishable quality. If exposed to dampness it quickly rots, and in few years may be so completely destroyed as to be unrecognizabe even by the skilled women in the redemption bu- reau at Washington, who accomplish miracles every day in the idetifica- tion of damaged cash. Accordingly, the cellar is among the worst of hiding places, and the ground is equally bad Some individuals prefer to conceal their boards under the front doorstep while an old stump in disused field strikes others as more secure spot for concealment. The records of the treasury tell of one old woman who employed for a bank a space beneath