Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-10

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| few other accessories. but I insisted the t
| it was "a small matter and that it was all
| right and that would not think of taking
| any money in payment for the loss.
| She wanted to make it $500. and wrote
| out a check for that amount, but actually
| refused to take the money. l know you
| boys doubt that, but it is true as gospel L
| just Swelled up, declared / didn't need the
| money, and looked at the other passengers
| with a superior air, if | was in the ha bit
! of buying 500 watches every day or so.
| Before l left the train the lady gave me
| her card and insisted that / give her mine.
| l did so. and when 1 got home there was a
| check awaiting me for $500. Then it was
! up TO me to confess. | sat down and wrote
| back to her. In the letter 1 merely said:
| The watch cost 81 and the fob 30 cents,
ana have had more than 81. 30 worth of
run out of the incident
/ never received reply to that letter"
| \ 4 r j: e
! On car bound downtown the other
morning a lady sat in the front seat. She
| had with her a market basket and her des-
! tination was evident. At the New York
avenue junction another lady boarded the
| car and took a seat directly behind the
| hrst one. In a moment or So the one who
| had last boarded the car recognized the
one in front and an animated conversation
| Immediately began
"Oh. dear; I'm so glad to see you. 1
don't know how I could have kept it until
[ could get up to your house,
| Then she launched forth into a rapid fire
of gossip, in which divorce seemed to Turk.
the object of her remarks being a mutual
friend. The listener was evidently bored,
| for she made little comment and was pres
entity crowded from the end seat, behind
| her loquacious friend. toward the middle.
c n loft tbap hon. fri Il
! in the noise and confusion not noticing her
/ departure
Directly the car had started east from
| 14th street the tllkative one continued her
chatter, turning her head slightly toward
| the re 1r seat but utterly unconscious that
| the other woman to whom she had been
| talking had gone and that a rather solemn
| looking man had replaced her. She kept
up the chatter for block telling him all
| the details of the mutual friends troubles
and prophesying the probable sequel, when
the man leaned toward her and said:
| L beg your pardon, madam, We're you
addressing me?"
She turned full around then. looked him
| in the face with acknowledging eyes and
then jumped from the almost before it
had come to stop at the crossing. Then
! the man said, loud enough for a dozen per
| sons near him to hear:
| Il think that gossip's cured"
| x x
! Residents in the vicinity of 9th and A
terest recently, when tie house at 51S A
| street, in which Mrs. Fanny L. Berry lived
| as recluse for many years and where she
died recently. was opened. The admins
! traitors of the estate undertook to go over
! the household effects and prepare them for
| the eye of the appraiser. The house is a
| comparatively small one and could have
| been cleared out in a day IL it had been fur
| nished in the ordinary way. but it near
| ly two weeks before the force of four or
| five men employed had finished the work.
Every room, except the in which she
! died, mad been filled with magazines, pa
| pers bars of soap bottles of cologne and
various other things for which the queer
old lady had a collectors mania. AS many
| as a thousand bars of soap were discovered.
I over d thousand bottles of cologne and so
I many old papers and magazines that it
| would have been next thing to impossible
| to count them. The piles of these reached
Edroul The fiour to the ceiling, and one could
| Scarcely enter the room4. Men with big
! ShovelS went to work en- them and pitched
| them out the windows into the front yard.
| where a large crowd of the curious had
| gathered In sorting the refuse, now and
| then pocketbOOks containing small sums OF
| money were found. and this gave rise to the
belief among many that the house would
prove a vertabIe mint, though this was not
| true.
! Many unusual stores are told of Mrs
! Berry whose life is 50 id to have been af-
| fectcd about forty-fiVe years ago by ter
! rEle tragedy. Merchants with whom she
! dealt all say that she Would require them tC
| sign q receipt, when she would dictate
| every time she spent much > cents
! She always admitted callers when she had
| any by the kitchen uOor, and never per-
! mitted them to go farther than the one
room. Nobody could get ahead of her in a
business way, her saving mania extending
| to her money also. Never would She take
check, bat insisted IN the cash from hel
tenants in different part, of the city OF
whom she had ANY.
She attended to all her business herself
and used to hurry about on foot in all kinds
of weather. One sweltering day in mid.
SIMMER sine went into q drug store on E,as
Capitol street. After she had purchased
several large bottles or cologne the drug
gist who had known her for many years re
| marked:
Mrs. Berry, why don't you buy yourself
a horse and bu ;gy with some of YOU
money. You could attend to your business
so much better and would not impair youl
health as you are doing now
Just listen to the doctor just listen tt
the DOCTOR" she repeated over and over
again.
Just listen to the gentleman" or Jus
listen to the lady" &c, were her favorit,
expressions. which she used on all occa
! Sions.
| She left an estate valued at about 800
900, which will probably be divided among
several heirs, distant relatives.
! -U
\