The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-29
FINDS IN A PAWNSHOP.
PLEDGES, I'LL SORTS, AND VdL-
UES.
One Man Pawned His Wooden Leg
Strange stories Unearthed and Not a
Few Tragedies.

Strange Stories Unearthed and Not a
Few Tragedies.
An interested observer walking down
Fhat might appropriately be called the
Lombard street of st. Louis, turned his
attention moment from the passing
throng to the large window before
which he found himself standing ana
let his gaze idly wander over the dis
play behind the fine plate glass. AL
most instantly it became riveted upon
an object that seemed out of place even
In such a heterogeneous collection, for
the incongruous object was nothing
more nor less than a wooden leg, ana
over the door of the business house to
which the window belonged swung
three golden balls.
Neither Moses nor Abraham came
forward behind the nickel-plated coun-
ter cases, but instead a handsome, we'll
groomed young American smiled well
come and answered all questions put to
him.
YES" said he, at does seem queer
that a fellow would pull his own leg
FOR little money but that Is what the
chap who owned this found it necessa-
ry to do"
In the showcase one of the most mo-
table objects was splendid diamond
and pearl sunburst, which looked so
much like the real thing that it at
tracted immediate attention.
THAT pretty bit of iewelry has an
interesting story" remarked the young
Won GnointV man
and a young lady of his own set came
in here and asked what they could get
on this pin, and in order to get as much
as possible they took us into their con-
fdence The young man Is a soldier In
the army of the Philippines, and had
come to st. Louis on furlough. The
girl was his sweetheart, but he did not
spend all his time here with her, for he
got into no end of trouble, which, OF
course would not have happened If he
had been more attentive to her,
Among his other troubles was the fact
that he had lost all his money gam
bling, and had not enough to take him
back to his regiment and the end OF his
furlough was approaching. The young
lady came to his rescue to save him
from disgrace, and sacrificed this beau
tifui pin, which cost six hundred dol
lars, and it is to be hoped that the fell
low is duly grateful, but you never can
tell
"Those look like engagement rings
real solitaires, some of them"
"And that is just what they are, and
some funny things we know about
some of them. Often the men bring the
rings but more often the young ladies',
and when they come 1t is usually very
Ehyly. Sometimes the same man will
pawn his engagement ring several
times before he is finally married.
am sure I have no idea why young
lady should pawn her engagement ring
but she may need money to buy some
thing for the wedding, or possibly she
may come at the young mans request.
Some of these rings are valued as low
as ten dollars and some of them are
five hundred dollars Here Is a case of
wedding rings in all stages of wear and
tear. I suppose 1t is pretty hard for
woman to part with her wedding ring
but you would be surprised to know
how often it Is done"
LET me show you something pref
ty," continued the young man, and he
took from velvet-lined case an exqui-
site bit of workmanship-a necklace of
void which had been hammered by
hand, the many links having all been
cut from one piece. 1t was an oriental
piece of handiwork, probably Indian,
and was evidently a couple of hundred
years old. Attached to 1t was a mosaic
locket 1--WE sometimes pick up an
tiques like this, but not often. Speak
ing about the queer experiences ofthe
trade, we certainly do have a good
many. We kept some elegant family
Jewels for a man fifteen years, he pay
ing interest on them all the time. In
his will he ordered that the jewels
should remain here for the same length
of time longer, although the estate was
well able to redeem them, and must be
hampered with the interest The OBJ
ject, I suppose, is to prevent some
member of the family's obtaining them
until after a certain age has been at
tained
Here is something pretty" and the
clerk took from the safe beautiful
cameo bracelet made of fine large ca
meos most beautifully cut and framed
in Tuscan gold. AN English woman
visiting this country found it necessa-
Iy " IdlSe SOIIle IlIOIlty, anu Ills Will
be carefully kept for her until she re-
turns to England and can redeem it,"
Sometimes we get things of whose
value we are not aware. For instance,
young man brought violin which he
had inherited with many other things
from some former generation of the
family He had no use for it, and
thought we might be able to dispose of
1t for him. 1t was simply an old violin
to us, but one of the musicians of the
city heard about it and came to look at
it. and found it to be a real Stradiva-
RUS, which he eagerly bought for the
ridiculously low price we asked for it."
There entered upon the scene a burly
negro, quite at variance with the old
violin and pretty jewels, for he carried
in his arms two more or less dilapida-
ted hats, a pair of tan-colored shoes
and a pistol.
"To-day he is going to work for the
week, and will have no need for tam
colored shoes or pistols but when Sum
day comes he may need both, and may
be able to redeem them Saturday. In
the meantime he needs the money until
next pay day Monday is generally
pay day among the laboring people,
and that is the day they come to re-
deem articles pawned during the week
urecedinr Before the week is out it
may be necessary to pawn them again