Evening star., 1896-12-26

Will never be claimed by the owners
This floor said the manager referring
to the immense room at The top of the
storage warehouse of which he has charge
mas been dubbed the dead room by our
employees because it is used entirely for
the storing of stuff that has remained on
the lower floor unclaimed for many years
The amount of furniture and other valuable
articles that eventually find their way to
this dead room is surprising. We usually
Keep things placed in storage here in the
places originally set aside for them for at
least ten years. If they remain unclaimed
at the end of that time, and all our efforts
to ascertain the whereabouts of the own
ers are unavailing, the stuff is then shifted
to this room, to make space for newly
stored articles. Last year an inventory of
the material on hand in this dead room
was taken, and its value was found to
amount to considerable more than 100000.
The rom contains many complete sets
pr magnificent house furnishings. A great
quantity of this household furniture has
been stored with us for as much as twenty
years, and some of it for thirty years 1t
would, of course, be improper for me to
mention any names, but some of the dead
room material, of which the owners have
apparently completely lost track, was
placed here by notable persons of former
ignorance of their descendants, as to the
location of this stuff is almost as surpris-
ing as the lukewarmness of some of them
In the matter of relieving US of it after we
nave been at considerable pains to notify
them that we have it on hand. 1t is hard
TO understand this, for, while In such cases
the accumulated storage charges are pretty
heavy, they are generally not worth men
uon1ng in comparison with the great value
OF the things in storage.
A DIPLOMATS Furniture.
"Ill give you an instance of this More
than two decades ago the minister to this
country Of a leading European country
was suddenly recalled by his government.
He hastily packed up the furniture of the
legation building, which he had himself
purchased in the course of a residence of
several years in Washington and stored
1t here, Informing us that he would send
Tor II as soon as he should be assigned to
a new post We have never heard from
him down to the present day. He is now
leading European diplomat / often see
his name in the newspapers in connection
with some European diplomatic Incident
OF magnitude.
Time and again We have addressed him
al the different courts to which he has
been assigned during the past twenty
years, but We have never had line from
MIN In return. / should estimate the yalue
OF the stun he has stored here to be at
least $1,000, and the aggregate of the stor-
age charges is certainly not more than
sl'VNl The only way to account for his
inolHerence as to the matter is that he is
exceedingly rich, and that a few Thousand
dollars worth of furniture scattered here
and there don't cut much of figure with
him. -
OF the material on store at public auction
unless at the request of the owner of the
property, who, perhaps finding himself
without funds, occasionally asks us to do
nf hn
storge charges from the receipts reuitting
the remainder to him.
The persistency with which people hang
on 10 pianos has always been a mystery to
me- There are literally hundreds of pianos
In this building, and some of them have
oeen here for a quarter of a century
ihese Old pianos must have cost a good
deai OF money when they Were new, but
they are now out of date and worn The
pianos that have been here for such long
periods of time are usually valuable chief
ly on account of their association in the
minds OF the persons placing them here
with some deceased relatives.
There is a grand piano here that was put
in storage twenty-four years ago by
historian who lived nearly all of his life
In washington. 1t was an old instrument
even when he placed ii here, but, although
he had no room for II In his house he
couldn't bear the thought of disposing of
1t, for 1t was the piano upon which his only
daughter had performed almost rp to the
down here. and here it is likely to remain
a good many years after we are all aead.
Piano With q History.
Then. again. people store comparatively
cheap pianos. and, after allowing them to
remain here for years, when the bill for
storage has crawled high into two, and
sometimes even three. figures, they turn
up. pay the storage bill, which for a fact
often amounts to- as much as the value of
the instrument, and make room here for
another piano, for an average of six pia-
nos come in and go out of this building
every day. There was an odd chap in here
the other day. / hadn't seen him before
for three years. when he placed an Old
square piano in storage here.
WELL said he when he came in, I'm
after that piano of mine How much are the
charges? All right. Here's the money
Now III tell you something about that
piano. 1t cost me $500 in IS. was figur-
ing the thing out the other day, and dis
covered that, aside from this original price,