Daily camera., 1899-08-15
LOST IN THE STORES.
Babies Are Among the Articles
Cnelessly Left
The 0reGt Department stores Have q
"AoFGae" where Absent-Minded
Customers Find Their
BeI0ngin1s.


and blue frock?" anxiously inquired
a young woman of the clerk in charge
of the linen counter in great depart
ment store.
why, no! Are you sure you brought
her in here?"
Indeed | am! / left her sitting be-
fore those nety-eight-cent damasks
to look at those dollar-forty shirt
waists marked down from a dollar-fif-
ty, and now can't find her anywhere
| I'm worried to death!''
| Don't be alarmed" remarked the
clerk, consolingly. She'll turn up all
right. l expect she's up in the dead
room by this time"
The what?"
The dead room-the morgus, you
know
The morgue? Oh. my Irene! Oh.
my darling.'
''Sh-h-h, madam" softly command
cd floor walker, for commotion
seemed imminent. Your child is safe
enough, I'll venture. The .morgue' is
| simply the cant name of our lost and
found department. Come with me, and
wa will see if the little girl is there"
The young woman followed to long
room, the door of which was labeled:
| Lost and Found" and there. sure
enough, seated upon monument of
packages, boxes, baskets, umbrellas,
| canes and other articles, sat a tiny
eolden-haired girl in blue frock, con-
| tcntedly kicking her small feet against
| n pasteboard bonnet box.
That's the second kid and contin-
gent sensation I've had to-day" con-
| i3.d the keeper of the morgue TO me
AS the recovered child. Justify scream
| ing in the feryent embrace of her tear
| full parent, was carried away. NO, it's
| nothing unusual. Its almost "a daily
| occurrence. In the excitement of bar
gain rushes persons very frequently
lose sight of their children for few
| moments. and the natural tendency of
the children is to stray away and take
in the strange sights of the store on
their own hook. OF course they might
wander out of the establishment, and
to prevent this the fioor walkers in
variably send to me every child they
find unaccompanied by guardian.
II don't know il there is any portable
article. animate or inanimate, which
does not find its way to the morgue.'
continued the keeper, reilectively. No
class of people loses things so readily
rs shoppers do. You see. they become
SO interested in looking at bargains
that they lay down whatever they may
happen to have in their hands and
perambulate between counters with
hardly thought as TO their actions.
suddenly they discover their loss,
and mild panic scizes them. They go
flying about from one counter to the
other, prosecuting their inquiries with
out stopping TO think whether they
have visited those same counters before
OF not. Therefore the morguc has be-
come u valuable and indis~ensable de-
partmcnt in very large store.
''Some OF the things which drift into
this place would amuse you. Last week
a Great Dane dog was brought up by
our neryiest floor walker, and an ugly
customer he was, indced-thc dog, not
he floor walker. We triccd him up
by shor, chain and tried TO make
him lie down, pending the arrival ct
his owner. But he wouldn't. Instead
he took stand. braced himself aud
lie, on; n howl which froze the souls of
some half dozen salcswomen within
carshot. Then he broke his chain and
started in to clean out the morgue.
What did do? Oh. ] adjourned. and
everybody went on still hunt for the
owner OF the dog. We eventually found
her, and she came up and lambasted us
for abusing her precious darling, with
never word about the rough way he
had handled the morgue's accumula-
tons.
Dogs of all sorts and conditions are
constantly brought TO the morgue, and
now and then pet cat. which has
escaped from basket. I've even had n
cage of canaries left on my hands 10
feed for week before the careless
owner, who had left the cage down in
the crockery department during spe
cial sale, appeared to claim her prop
erty.
Watches, purses, babies. parasols,
bundles and even diamond rings are
pN's Oh my STOCK Ill traue mere. u
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.
"Yes, fully two-thirds of the things
are claimed, and nothing worth COM
ing after remains in our possession
Nntthnr In
which are not worth hunting up. We
keep lost articles u month from date of
turning in, and then, II il is found that
they were originally sold in our store,
we put them in stock. Frequently lost
articles of serious value are advertised
at the end of month.
Enquirer.