The Holly chieftain., 1899-11-03

for In the 'horL uc."
"Have you seen anything of beau
tiful little girl with fluffy golden hair
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. l left her sitting be
fore those 9S cent damasks to look at
those 81 43 shirt waists marked down
from $50, and now | can't find her
anywhere. I'm worried TO deathw
Don't be alarmed" remarked the
right expect she's up in the dead
room by this time"
1.-THE whatt'
THE dead room-the nlorgue, you
know"
"The morgue? Oh. my Irene. oh,
my darlingw
'Sh-h-h, madam" softly command
ed floor walker, for commotion
seemed imminent "Your child is safe
simply the cant name of our lost and
found department Come with me,
and we will see II the little girl is
there"
The young woman followed to n 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 tiny
golden haired girl in a blue frock. con
tentedly kicking her small feet against
pasteboard bonnet box.
That's the second kid and contin,
gent sensation I've had today" con
fded the keeper OF the morgue to me
as the recovered child. Justify scream
ing In the fcryent embrace OF her tear.
ful parent, was carried away. mo. it's
nothing unusual It's almost daily
occurrence. In the excitement OF bar
snin rushes persons very frequently
lose sight of their children for n 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 floor walkers in
vnriably send to me every child they
find unaccompanied by guardian.
II don't know II there is any porta.
BILE article. animate or inanimate.
which does not find its way to the
morgue." continued the keeper reflect.
lively. No class Of people loses things
so readily as shoppers do. You see.
they become so interested in looking
at bargains that they lay down what.
ever they may happen TO have in their
hands and perambulate between
counters with hardly thought as to
their actions
Suddenly they discover their loss.
aud 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 or not. Therefore the moigie
has become valuable and indispcnsa-
Bile department In every 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 nerviest floor walker. and an
ugly customer he was. lndeed-the
dog. not the foor walker We triced
him up by short chain and tried to
make him lie down pending the ar
rival of his owner. But he wouldn't
Instead lie took Il stand braced him.
self and let out howl which froze
the souls of some half dozen sales
women within earshot. Then lie broke
his chain and started In to clean out
the morgue.
"What 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 cs
capped from n basket. I've even had
cage of canaries left on my hands to
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
parts of my stock in trade here I'd
have horses. too. | verify believe. We're
our customers permitted to bring them
into the store. I'd like to set up In
In
the morgue. I'd get rich. sure.
"Yes, fully twothirds OF the things
are claimed, and nothing worth com