The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-07-20
WOES OF BIG STORES.
LOST BABY AND FRANTIC MOTHER A
COMMON OCCURRENCE.

ers. and Even Cats and Birds That
Have Gone Astray, Have to BE Cared
For I'm the t<Sfnrgue..
'HaVe yon seen anything of beau
tiful little girl with fluffy golden hair
and blue frock?' anxiously Inquired
q young woman Of the clerk in charge
Of the linen counter in a great depart
meut store.
'rWhy, moi Are.yuu sure you brought
her In hereF'
Indeed AIMS tHft-her sitting be
fore those 98 cent damasks 10 hook at
those $143 shirt waists MARRIED down
from $15A and now can't find her
anywhere. I'm worried to deathr'
Don't be alarmed" remarked the
clerk. cunsnlmg1y. She'll turn up all
right. I expect she,s up in the dead
room by this time"
"The wfatT'
"The dead rnm--the' mrrg11e, you
know"
"rhe mmEnee Oh,~my Irene' Oh.
my darimg-
| "Sh-h-h, nfmiamk' suftly Command
ed foCr walker, for q CONJUNCTION
seemed imminent ~Your child Is safe
enough, I'll venture. The -mnrgne' Is
simply the cant name of our lost and
found department. Come with me,
and we oil see If the little girl is
there"
The young woua4 fodnuweyf tD-a hong
room, the door Of which was labeled
Lost and Found" and there, sure
enough, seated upon a monument Of
packages, boxes, baskets, umbrellas,
canes and other articles, sat a tiny
golden hatred gfri In blne frock. con-
tentedly kicking her small feet against
a pastebcard bonnet box.
THAT'S the second kid and cuntfn-
gent sensation I've bad today" con-
fded the keeper Of the morgue To me
as the recovered child. Justify Erem-
ing In the fervent embrace of her teap
full parent, was carried away. mo, it's
nothing unusual It's almost dadly
occurrence. In the excitement Of bar
gain runbes persons very frequently
lose sigh4 Of their children for few
moments. and the natural tendency Of
the chikren b to stray away and take
in the strange sights Of the store on
their own book. OF course they might
wander cut Of the establishment and
to prevent this the floor walkers in
varlably send to me every child they
find unaccompnn3ed by guardian.
II don't know IL there Is any porta-
BILE article, animate or inammste.
which does not find It's way to the
morgue." continued the Keeper reflect
lively. mo class Of people loses things
SO readily as shoppers do. Xou see.
they become 20 interested In looking
at bargains THAI they lay down what
ever they may happen to have In their
hands and perambuiate between
counters with hardly thought as to
their actions.
"suddenly they discover their loss,
and q mild panic seizes them. They
go flying about from one counter to
the other, prosecuting their inquiries
without stopping to think whether
they have visited those same counters
before OF not Therefore the morgue
has become q valuable and indfspensa-
bic department in every large store.
"Some Of the things which drift into
this place would amuse you. Last
week great Dane dog was brought
I'D by our nerviest 6oor walker, and an
ugly customer he was, indeed-the
dog. not the door walker. We triced
him up by short chain and tried to
make him lie down pending the ar
rival Of his. owner. Bot he wouldn't.
Instead he took stand, bfaced him.
self and let out a howl which froze
the souls Of some half dozen sales
women within earshot. Then he broke
his chain and started in to clean out
the morgue.
'sWhat did I do? Oh, adjourned.
and everybody went ON still hunt for
the owner of the dog. We eventually
found her. and she came UP and lam
basted us for abusing her precious
darling, with never word about the
rough way he had handled the
morgue's accumulations.
dogs of all sorts and conditions are
constantly brought to the morgue and
now and then pet cat, which has es-
capped from a basket. I've even had a
cage Of canaries left on my hands to
feed for a week before the careless
owner, who had left the cage down In
the crockery department during spe-
cial sale, appeared 10 claim her prop
erty
watches, purses, babies, parasols.
bundles and even diamond rings are
parts of my stock tn trade here. I'd
have horses, too, verify believe, were
our customers permitted to bring them
into the store I'd like to set up in
business with the things brought to
the morgue. I'd get rich, sure
Eyes, fully two-thirts of the things
are claimed, and nothing worth com
ing after remains in our possession
long. Neither do many other things
which are not worth hunting UP. We
keep lost articles month from date
Of turning in, and then, if it is found
that they were originally sold in our
store, we put them in stock. Ere
quently lost articles of serious value
are advertised at the end Of month"
! Cincinnati Enquirer.
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