The Washington times., 1903-06-28
OUEER THINGS OFFERED FOR STORAGE ~
~ IN THE WAREHOUSES OF WASHINGTON
llIF Washington family has any
thing or buys anything they

II q washington famlly pas any
thing or buys anything they
cannot use at the time they in
variabIy store It." said T. r. Newbold.
secretary and treasurer of the Mer-
chants Transfer and Storage Company,
to Times man the other day. "Natur-
ally. household furniture constitutes the
bulk of the personal property in our
keeping. but people would be surprised
IL they only knew the varied and an
usual category OF things we have to store
awav.
ave have been in business some little
while. but one of the oldest articles
we ever had in our care was stored a
few days ago. 1t was cork leg. why
the owner should have left It with us
I cannot understand. Perhaps he th'nlzs
IT will improve with age.
Matches and Ice Cream Flavors.
"It is a pity that the ingenuity some
people expend upon getting around the
storage man is not applied to some
other pursuit know they would
realize a handsome sum from IT. For
example. a big box came to our house
some years ago marked handle with
care We do not hold ourselves re-
sponsible for the contents Of any box
left with us, but only for the box itself.
Hence. no inventory is given us, and we
know nothing of the contents save what
the owner chooses to tell us. Well. the
box l am speaking of remained in our
rooms about a year and not a cent OF
storage had been paid upon II. We a.
nuily opened it. and. to our surpriZe
found it filled with matches. Not
great while ago we opened q box and
found that IL contained bottles of ice
cream lavors. We weren't taking any
chances Of killing off the population by
selling II at auction. II we did care
to take the risk I believe we could
have sold IL readily, for the people who
attend warehouse sales are filled with
investment microbes and are willing 20
buy almost anything.
"Our art room is one OF the largest in
the city. II is on the ground floor and
is cut off from the rest of the building.
as all our rooms are. by heavy doors
sheathed in metal. We have now in our
care in this room pianos, organs. statu-
ary. rare antiques. elks' antlers. curios,
and treasures of the kind. We take
pride in saying that we are willing %
store infammable materials. This is
not SAID for advertisement purposes.
We are stating a fact. Our storage
rooms are carefully watched. and should
one entire lot be burned out 1t would
not injure the property of any other
customer in the least. Each is keut as
separate as II it were in a building by
itself.
Clocks and Old Letters.
"I expect we have as many clocks in
storage as anything else. II all of them
now in our care were set going in the
the office we would have TO talk on our
fingers or leave the building Very Of
ten when we have TO sell bureaus and
old presses to pay for the storage dues
upon them we come across bundles or
TO read a few OF them and the stories are
often romantic to degree. Still. I take
personal care that no stranger gets hold
OF them. AS a rule. the owners thank
us for destroying these letters, but oc
casionally i am treated to a lecture on
the evils of 'wanton destruction 1 re-
member one storage man telling me OF
an experience Of his which had a COM
ical as we'll as a serious side. II ap-
pears that some woman had stored
chest with him and then neglected TO
pay the storage dues upon 1t. The chest
contained a bundle OF letters which she
needed to make good divorce suit. He
disposed OF the chest and destroyed the
letters. She threatened him with all
the terrors OF the law, but nothing came
OF it. That. however. was an exception
al occurrence. We do large business
and will store anything from a pin to
an elephant
Stored His Tombstone.
Not long ago 1 was talking with a
young man who wanted TO store his
tombstone" said Mr.. Atchison OF the
George W. Knox Storage Company
" How is st. said. that you bought
a thing like this before you needed it?'
~~0~So.oOoD~o.~1o0oS~
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