Evening star., 1900-12-22
SECRET DRAWERS.
How One of Them Was Opened Only
After Using the X-Ray.

uo" ohe oI p" AS opeHeu oHly
After Using the X-Ray.
From the New Orleans Tmes-Democrat.
"What do you think Of this for curiosity
in the line Of doctors bills?" asked a
Royal street dealer in antiques yesterday,
producing slip of paper from his pocket
| book. 1t bore the heading Of a prominent
New Orleans surgeon and read as follows:
To - DR..
To professional services rendered to one ma
hogany cabinet (oiagnosis). .......... $40
Reed pint ]. SMITH, Collector.
Here is the cabinet he refers to- con-
| tinuer the dealer, pointing out a highly or
nate piece Of furniture in the rococo style.
You will observe, If you look closely, that
the slab which forms the bottom of the up
per compartments is inordinately thick; in
fact, 1t is fully three inches through. The
front side, as you see, is covered with in
tricate relief carving, and that disguises
its heavinesS to some extent; but there is
absolutely no apparent reason why such
massive piece of wood should be employed
| merely as partition between two sections,
and I came to the conclusion Immediately
that 1t contained a secret drawer. The lady
from whom l bought 1t assured me positive
ly that she had no knowledge Of anything
of the kind, but felt certain was correct
and set to work to locate the controlling
mechanism. That was about six months
ago. and l soon saw I had no easy Job on
my hands. l knew that what 1 wanted
| must be hidden somewhere in the bas-reliefs
| on the front panel, but the carving is so
complicated that it was like looking for a
needle in a haystack. Time and again
searched for pinhoes, slides, springs and all
the other contrivances usually employed in
such work, and at last 1 gave it up in de-
spair.
"A week or so ago, however it suddenly
occurred to me that the lock might be To-
Gated by the X-ray. There was certainly
some metal about 1t that would betray its
T me
| sulting the gentleman whose bill you have
4, just seem He was greatly interested. and
last Sunday he brought down his apparatus
and made the experiment. He fastened
Photographic plate directly under the panel.
laid the electric bulb on the bottom of the
compartment above and gave it a twenty
minute exposure. The picture that came
out was very curious. OF course, the rays
| went through the mahogany like glass, and
all we could see Of the panel was a faint
shadow; but about two and one-half inches
from the left-hand side there were lot Of
small black marks, like a character in
Chinese writing. They were made, as it
turned out, by the wards of the lock, and
as they showed me exactly where to look
minutes. See here The dealer stepped
over to the cabinet and, laying hold of a
small ornamental projection, unscrewed it
| like nut on bolt, revealing minute hole
in the wood. He thrust in an ordinary pin,
there was a sharp click, and out sprang a
narrow drawer, the front cleverly masked
by the carving.
This discovery increases the value of the
cabinet at least $25," he remarked, $50 I
consider the doctors bill money well in
vested"
Apropos of secret drawers, gunsmith of
the old quarter tells a story that is we'll
worth repeating. "a number of years ago."
he says. II was called in to open a private
compartment in one Of the side walls Of an
immense oak bookcase in a house near st.
John bayou. 1t had been bought at sale
in Savannah. and the owner knew that the
drawer was released by pushing wire into
q small hole in the woodwork, but for some
reason the mechanism stuck and couldn't
be made to operate. l worked at the thing
for a whole day, but made no progress
The wire would go in for a certain distance
and there it seemed to encounter some OBJ
stacle. The panel was perfectly plain. and
there were evidently no auxiliary springs or
slides, so I came to the conclusion that the
lock was broken. and that the drawer could
Jnly be removed by taking out the whole
side of the case The gentleman was un-
willing for me to do that, and the matter
was accordingly dropped.
'Some time later on hired an old Bel
gian who came to the shop looking for
work, and one day CHANGED to mention the
bookcase and my failure to get out the
drawer. He listened attentively, asked
number of questions about the construction
Of the case and finally surprised me by de-
claring that he could solve the problem
He was so earnest about 1t that wrote the
gentleman note, and he Immediately in
vited US to come to the house. The mo-
ment the old Belgian saw the bookcase he
horseshoe magnet out OF his pocket and
pressed one Of the legs on spot about
half an inch above the little hole In the
panel. At the same time he pushed in q