The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1903-08-19
Old John Harding s
M Oney

= T--TTTT u ~ III
zeal his money. lie WIS an old Dncn-
] living pn q farm with bis DFQt9-
r Henry m4d hts sister uarpnis aHa
w. known thai he Ind hne8 hCara
Inc for forty yenrs re ditsi in5tlsbcd
without giving nm alstrpr aud wssstoltt
leaving any message as to where Ae
had hidden lis WEALTH.
was interested In the cas- as Q as
amt relative. while scores became In
ferested through curiosity We had to
hire men and arm the with guns 20
Keep tha searchers on the far1n. and
there were many among them WHO
would have kept eyery dollar OF tac
frcasure had they stumbled upon It
where 10 search after the house had
been fruitIessly gone " was the
question, and II was a puzzllng one.
put yourself In old Mr.. Hardtngs
place and tell mo where o would
hide that money. Not In the house. for
fear OF robbers first and a search later
on. not I'm the barn, bec1use tile build.
ing was liable to be struck by lightning
and burned. He wanted TO keep it
away from Ills relatives, and yet he
vouldn,t want It lost for good and all.
nor would he wish It to fall n the
hands of strangers. That Is simply hui
man nature. 1t is a paradox, but II -
human nntur as well. You wouldn't
throw 1t down the well, because the
well would be searched. There would
be the same objection to sheds ana
stacks as to the barn
Both Hannah and Henry felt sure
the old man had buried the money. 1
felt Just as certain to II contrary. He
had brought 1t home In installments,
and he would not run the risk OF open
ing and closing a cache seven or eight
different times. Much OF the lost mon
ey was drawn out of bank two weeks
previous to his death.
Whenever he went to town, he wore
a pair of boots. on all other days he
wore a pair Of old shoes. which were
soft and easy on his FEET. BE did not
change back to his boots as soon as he
reached home, but only after he has
returned from walking about the farm
hence It might be inferred b he had
to pass over bad ground
The woman brought me his boots
Just us he had pulled them on for the
last time. There was dried mud on
them. It eould not be mud from the
highway, because when he went to
town last the roads were dusty. Tho
sole of the right boot was considerably
worn, and in a crevtce / found a little
sand. Again, on TINT same boot stick
ing to the mud, were several blades of
grass. She brought me h suit OF
clothes he had worn that day and for
three or four days subsequently. and
found cookies and burs on the trousers
and bits of rotten wood in one of the
coat pockets.
To the west OF the house and half n
mile away was the forest. To reach
1t he had to pass through the orchard
Between the orchard and the forest
was a creek. On the east side OF 1t.
where, 1 judged, he would naturally
cross, was a bed Of sand. On the other
side was u muddy spot, but with n log
to walk on. The forest covered eighty
acres of ground, and but little of 1t had
ever been cleared Of underbrush.
In going from the house through the
rchard and across the creek and back
L got plenty of cookies and burs on my
clothes, and had l made a misstep mt
the log / should have fallen into the
mud and water. Granted that the old
man had hidden his money in the
woods, what particular spot should
look for? The brother had not hap
pened to see him go beyond the or
chard, but on one occasion, when he
had need OF n certain tool and went TO
the shed to find IT, it vas missing. Two
hours later 1t had been restored. II
was a mallet that he IT.
Going on the theory that the old man
had used the mallet, 1 went to the shed
and looked at all the tools. MOST OF
them were rusty with the dampness.
There was rust on n certain auger ond
on a certain chiseI. but it was fresh
rust. The point OF the auger also re.
tnined some bits OF the last wood 1t
had been bored into. These bits was
assured by several persons bad q
beechy taste. Therefore / reasoned
that the & had been bored into n
beech tree. / had no doubt that he had
used maIlet, chisel and nuGer to make
u hiding place for his money.
The first move was to go through the
forest II search OF what might be call
cd eligible beech trees. 1 marked on
twenty within ten minutes walk OF the
creek and thsn began a close inspec.
ton of each one. l did not look Mt tops
or trunks, hut on the ground. There
were plenty OF brush and limbs and
dend les yes, but at the end of two days
steady search 1 found chips and splin-
terA IN paving around and then knew
that the quest was ended.
Never did n man hide his money in
a safer place or with more sktllful
hands. The tree was n double one for
the Grst four feet from the ground.
Where the two came together was o
ecayed spot. 1t wasn't larger than q
mans ast when Harding discovered It,
and unguses had taken root and were
thriving. Everything locke so per-
fectIy natural that l was n good hour
getting at the keyhOle of the treasure
box. Had / not found sure evidences
of his work In a few chips and splin-
ters the tree would have been put down
on the list of failures. He did not In
tend to leave those evidences behind