The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-08-11
WOES OF BIG STORES.
LOST BABY AND FRANTIC MOTHER A
COMMON OCCURRENCE.

Have you seen anything OF a beau,
tiful little girl with fluffy golden hair
and q blue frock" anxiously inquired
a young woman of the clerk In charge
Of the linen counter in a great depart
ment store.
"Why no! Are you sure you brought
her in here"
Indeed | am! l left her sitting be-
fore those % cent damnsks to look at
those SLAB shirt waists marked down
from $1.5O, and now l can't find her
anywhere. I'm worried to DEATH"
"Don't be alarmed remarked the
clerk, consollngly. She'll urn up all
right. expect she's up in the dead
room by this time"
"The whatY F."
"The dead room-the morgue, you
know" na...
"The morgue? Oh. my Irene! Oh,
my darling"
"Sh-h-h, madam" softly command
ed a floor walker, for a 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 we will see II the little girl IL
there"
The young woman followed to a long
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 q tiny
golden haired girl In a blue frock. con-
tentedly kicking her small feet against
q pasteboard bonnet box.
'"That's the second kid and contin.
gent sensation I've had today" con-
fidcd the keeper Of the morgue to me
as the recovered child, Justify scream
ing In the fervent embrace of her tear.
full parent, was carried away. "No, it's
nothing unusual. It's almost a daily
occurrence. In the excitement Of bar.
gain 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 W hook. or course they might
wander out Of the establishment. and
to prevent this the floor walkers in
variably send to me every child they
find unaccompanied by a guardian.
IL don't know IL there Is any porta-
BILE article. animate or inanimatc.
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. You see,
they become so interested in looking
ut bargains that they lay down what
ever they may happen to have in their
hands and pelumbulate between
counters with hardly a thought as to
their actions.
suddenly they discover their loss.
and a mild panic seizes them. They
go flying about from n counter to
the other, prosecuting their inquiries
without stopping to think whether
they have visited those anne counters
before or not. Therefore the morgue
has become a valuable and indispensa-
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, indeed-the
dog, not the floor walker. We triced
him up by q short chain and tried to
make him lie down pending the ar
rival Of his owner. But he wouldn't.
Instead he took q stand, braced 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.
"What did l do? Oh, l adjourned,
and everybody went on a 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 lever n 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 a pet cat, which has es.
capped from a basket. I've even had a
cage Of canarles left on my hands to
feed for a week before the careless
owner, who had left the cage down in
LAW SAOShCLS ucpuILllclL uurlllS IL Spt-
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, l 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
long. Neither do many other things
which are not worth hunting up. We
keep lost articles a month from date
OF turning in, and then. II 1t is found
that they were originally sold In our
store, we put them In stock. Ere.
Quently lost articles OF serious value
I