Evening star., 1896-12-26

the thing has cost me nearly $1,000 since.
How? Well. I've moved that piano all over
The United States fifty times from Maine
70 California. and from Michigan to Texas,
ana tnat cost sne over 81 900. Then I've
had II In storage pretty nearly as often.
ana that cost me lot OF money-Tye got
tne exact hgures at home. In hard times
before l learned how to make money, I've
soaked IL Tor its full value dozens of times
and have had to pay the interest for sey,
erai Years at a clip.
But the big item of expense I'm connec-
t,on with that piano is that I've raised
three crops OF children on II. Been r,arried
three times, and each OF my wives lad six
children, mcst OF 'em girls. Well I've
given every last one OF those young ones
piano lessons. and that's the piano they
banged In learning how to play. Cost,
something close TO 5000. I'm not taking
IL away now because l need IT, FOR I'm
dead certain that none OF my girls would
play on IT with golf sticks, but | want 10
have IL around the house and look at it
tor the history of that piano is pra .ttcaily
the history OF my life. You've got Il for
the last time, for I'm going to turn AZ loose
10 Craze and finish its old age in comfort
on the second floor of my holse. Got 10
put II In my own den for the girls Wouldn't
nave 1t In any other part OF the house
A Bust OF Clytie
People bring a lot of things here to be
kept In storage because they deem them too
unlucky to be kept around the house.
Ihere's an exceedingly fine marble bust of
Ciytie here that has an odd history. Ii was
made by famous sculptor, now dead. The
sculptor's eldest son was extremely dissi
pated, and In the course of time his ex-
cesses affected his mind. He suffered from
profound melancholia, and one OF his hal
iuclnatlons was that the eyes of this bust
Of Clytie, which rested on a pedestal in the
he In,
FAMILY lived, were constantly regarding
MIN reproachfully. The fancy grew upon
MN until ne began TO rave over IT, and one
uay he got hammer and was upon the
point OF destroying the beautiful work OF
art when his sister took IL out of his reach
ana the family brought il here for safe.
keeping. They did not care to take IL away
after the young mans death, on account
or Its gloomy association with his insanity
and SO here II remains
There Is an exceedingly beautiful and
ornate gold-h.lted Damascus scimiter in
the dead room that has been there for
many years II was brought here by a
gentleman who had been United States
minister to Turkey. He told me that ne
mad never had q days luck since he be-
came possessed of the scimiter which had
hau pretty sanguinary history before IL
passed into his hands and that death and
misfortune had been rife i'm his family ever
since the blade had been given to him. He
put 1t In our charge, with the remark that
monplace exorcism of a storage warehouse
might have deprived il of its curse, but 1
have never seen him since"
Pursuing this line of inquiry as to for
gotten valuables, The Star man discovered
In talk he had with the superintendent
OF local safe deposit company that money
securities, jewels and other extremely cost
ly articles are commonly permitted to re-
pose in the safe deposit boxes for years
without ever being touched.
lhere are a lot of boxes here" he said
that have not been unlocked for many
years, some of them containing thousands
or dollars in cash. Some of these boxes
that have not been opened since | came
here contain bonds, the coupons of which,
long since matured have not been clipped.
The curious part of ii is that every quarter
we get checks from the people holding the
keys to these boxes, to cover the cost of
their rental, but they never come near the
building or otherwise evince the slightest
disposition to have an occasional glimpse
of the money and other valuables they have
put away here"