Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-04-22
A SHREWD WIDOW.
Her Income OF go n Month From Tu
Sets of Cheap Furniture.

Her Income OF go n Month From Tive
Sets of Cheap Furniture.
"Tbe curious and adroit ways In which
some persons manage to mako money in
this city on q capital small In substance
but large in assurance woro brought to
my mind the other night when / went to
take dinner with a friendJ' said a man
about town the other day. "My friend, by
the way, is q very prosperous and highly
paid executive officer of one of the big
commercial concerns in this city. Ho oc-
cupies for the winter season set Of apart
ments in fashionable apartment house
on the west side. As he had announced
bis intention of remaining in tho city I'M
til June /, of course / did not imagine any
connection between his household arrange
ments and big moving van which l saw
standing in front of the door of the apart
ment house as approached. Men carry
| ing furniture jostled me as entered, and
/ said TO myself Here's some one moving
out But when l stepped out of the ele-
vator at my friends landing l met more
men coming out of his apartments carry
ing moro furniture, under the supervision
of an auctioneer, who stood at the landing
shouting instructions.
"Just within the door found my friend
and his wife and servants and children in
company with man who 1 afterward
found was city marshal.
SAT sight of me my friend burst into
laughter. Come in,' ho cried. we can
receive you in novel manner The city
marshal had Just about finished his work,
4 f,.C IL 1. a.
ments. His parlor was untouched, but
every bed but one and every bureau and
chair had disappeared from his bedrooms
and dining room and kitchen, and the car
pets were gone from bedrooms and hall.
Il guess won't stay to dinner, l remark
ed when 1 saw the bare condition of the
dining room. 'Oh, yes, you will, said his
wife Il will borrow kitchen table and
some chairs from u neighbor, and we will
get along. Thank heaven, we still have
the kitchen utensils and the dinner left,
but don't know that we should have had
these If my husband had not got home be-
fore the men got through taking out the
furniture.
"We had dinner and passed the evening
very pleasantly in the parlor, and finally
left the family of five persons to go to sleep
as best they could upon tho one bed and
parlor sofa that were left. While we ate
dinner they told Inc how they came to be
in such fix.
sit seems that when they were house
hunting last fall they saw this flat, and
liking its location dickered for its posses.
sion. A young widow was occupying it,
but her business projects were not pros
pcring, and she was about to give up pos
session. She owned the furniture that had
just been moved out She agreed to take
a lease of the place up to June l and to
sublet it to my friend with furniture for
an advance of S25 month for the use
of her furniture My friend hired it on
these terms. AS my friend preferred to
have his own parlor furniture and somo
other things, he discarded that much of
the widows goods. Then brilliant idea
struck her. The fiat across the hall was
just being vacated She saw the leaving
tenant, bought for trifle some of his fur
niture and moved in that which my friend
had discarded and advertised that fiat to
rent furnished. In three days she got
tenant and made bargain with him by
which she reaped another income Of S25
month for the use of her furniture in that
fiat.
Everything went along all right until
the day went there to dine, when the
city marshal had suddenly appeared. 1t
seems that the widow had borrowed money
on her furniture and still owed something
less than S100. She had fallen behind in
her payments, and the marshal had come
to foreclose the chattel mortgage. The
widow settled the debt the next day and
had the furniture moved back. twas dur
ing the moving of the furniture, my friend
tells me, that he first noted the paucity
and cheapness, and he declares that the
widow could have replaced it with modern
fiat furniture for about the amount of the
debt, and yet ON this small investment and
the little extra she had spent for the bal
ance of the furniture in the other fiat the
astute widow was drawing an income of
S50 n month New York SIM