Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-04-17
A FIND OF
GREE7VBACkS

found Sdtcnol winch ndQ Deon placeu
between two powders so that it was
securely hidden from anything except
chance discovery. One might have
stood within three feet of it and been
none the wiser. The satchel was lock-
ed, but | used stone to break it Open
and the first glance jumped my heart
into my throat. The satchel was full
of crisp, new greenbacks in packages
of $1,000 each. Even after I took one
Of the packages in my hand and care
fully inspected the bills I was not
quite sure whether / was awake or
dreaming. There were packages Of
ones, twos, fives and tens, and every
bill was fresh from the treasury at
Washington. I counted twenty seven.
A week previous to the find | had
read an account in the papers of the
robbery of an army paymaster at Mad
ison. and l at once realized that this
money was a portion of the spoils
Nevertheless was determined to keep
the money. We are all honest until
for a few hundred dollars, while 9TH
ers demand thousands. Replacing the
money in the satchel, / started for
home. l didn't propose to share the
secret of the find with any one even if
shared the contents later on. / there
fore made my way to the barn and put
the satchel in a safe place. / was fully
half an hour making up my mind
where to deposit it. There were sew
eral tons of hay in the NOW, and
finally climbed up and dug a hole in
one corner and deposited my treasure.
On the third morning Of my posses
sion, while we were eating breakfast,
my uncle, with whom l was tempo
rarily staying, mentioned the fact that
tramp had come late in the evening
after / had gone to bed and had been
given shelter in the barn. He had, to
my uncle's great surprise, got up and
cleared out without asking for any
thing to eat. 1t struck me all of sud-
den that tie tramp had found and car
ried off my prize, and, getting away
from the table as soon as could,
hurried to the barn to make an in
vestigation. Everything in the hay
NOW was as I had left it, but when
dug down in the corner it was to find
my worst fears realized. The satchel
and money were gone.
The further adventures Of the satchel
covered a space of months. The tramp
took the highway for Jasper, in a
southwest direction, and by getting a
lift with a teamster he made about
twenty-five miles that first day. While
he was dressed like a tramp, the team
ster was satisfied that he was not one.
Perhaps the questions he asked fright
ened the man into doing what he did.
After leaving the teamster he entered
country schoolhouse and hid the mon
ey in the garrett 1t was a one story
structure. with low garrett reached
by a scuttle in the ceiling. about three
weeks after the money had been placed
in the garnet the chimney of the school
house was struck by lightning and
tumbled to the ground A farmer who
was also bricklayer was employed to
rebuild the chimney. In so doing he
found the satchel, and not one dollar
of the money was missing.
The farmer no sooner realized the
value of his find than he determined to
keep every dollar Of it for himself. He
knew very well, though, that it was
robbery Of some sort, and he moved
carefully. He decided not to let his
wife know of the find. and the money
was removed after dark to the granary
in his barn. He had lot Of oats in
one of the bins, and he hid the satchel
under them. He had in his employ a
hired man named Oscar Davis. Davis
must have had his curiosity aroused
and played the spy on the farmer in
one of his excursions to the granary.
On the eighth night of the farmers
possession of the treasure Davis left
his bed at midnight, went to the barn
and pried the lock off the granary door.
and be soon had his hands on the
satchel. l cannot say whether he was
an honest man or not. If so. he no
doubt argued as the farmer and l had
done He picked up the satchel and
walked off. In the morning when the
farmer discovered his loss and follow
ed him he kept the trail through the
town of Jasper and for five miles be-
yond. Then Davis seemed to have
dropped suddenly out of sight.
After getting safe away the hired
man felt that he would be followed,
and he found hiding place for the
satchel where it had been hidden twice
before-in a barn. 1t was an old, tum-
BILE down affair." however, in which
even tramp would not have sought
shelter. Having put away the money,
he applied for work on the farm and
secured it. There he remained for two
months. when the satchel was found
to be missing, taken by whom no one
could say. Two weeks later. however.
as | was riding into Salem with my
uncle. we came upon tramp sitting
by the roadside with that very satchel
beside him, and as l leaped out of the
wagon to collar him he fed and left
the money behind.
What followed? Why, I told you