The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-08
THINGS FATHERS LOSE
COMETS BEACHcOMnrRs WILL
 SOON START THE SEASON.
Iwenty Rings In One Fisd-The Hunt sometimes Leads to Pockets, as In western Mining-A Hunt for Wedding Ring and It's
 Lucky Outcome.

valuable rings. jewelry and money are true, and these industrious individuals are impatiently awaiting the close or the bathing season.
 The beachcomber has been an insti- tuition at the island as far back as the memory of the oldest inhabitant runs. and plentiful are the stories of treas ure recovered through the banning or sands at the expiration of a busy sea son. Every square yard of the peach will soon be submitted to a minute and careful scrutiny.
 The methods of the comber are sim pie and his apparatus simpler still He merely starts at one part of the bath Ing beach and sits all the sand down to a depth of two feet or more in a thorough manner. And there are lots of rich pockets, too. These pockets are to be found around piles and posts sunk in the sand and along the jetties. To such spots all the lost articles seem to gravitate.
 In one of these pockets near big spile located in the centre of the beach a comber in one sieveful of sand found exactly twenty rings of all kinds ranging from the cheap affairs. such as are to be bought for dollar, up to more pretentious decorations worth s2e or more.
 And the, strange and varied articles that the sieve brings to light. False teeth of all kinds. bridges with one tooth attached, others with two or more teeth, in fact everything in this line turned out by the dentist; watches. pins. badges. medals, brooches, coins and rings.
 The bathing house people say that hundreds, and even thousands. of re- ports of valuable articles lost arc made every summer. In the case of rings bathers wear them in the water. think ing to take better care of them If they are on their persons. A great many married women are superstitious also. They imagine that 1t is bad luck to re- move their wedding rings. In most instances the ring fits snugly enough on the finger before they commence bathing. But after the bather has been in the water a short time the flesh shrinks, the ring slips over the finger. and then the owner. weeping bitterly, comes to the office to report the loss. But as a rule nothing can be done ex- cept to wait for the results of the beachcomber.
 There are exceptional cases, howev CT. One woman came to the head life saver the other day and reported the loss of her wedding ring. She was al- most in mysteries. Her husband, she | said. was very sick. and she knew if he found out that her ring had been | | him. Her distress was so great that | early the next morning the head life guard called his assistants together, | and with shovels and sieves they start ed to work sitting the sand around a post near which the woman thought | the ring had been lost. They were | about to give up in disgust when sud- denly one of the workers came upon the lost wedding ring. The happy wo- | man said that she had prayed all night | to St. Anthony that the ring might be restored to her, and she was sure that he had answered her prayer She then hurried away to tell the glad news to her husband. and the life CTS say that her joy was so great that she utterly forgot to pay the reward she had promised.
 One of the greatest finds last season was a $500 diamond ring. weighing 3 1-2 carats The owner felt it slip
 from his finger as he was wading out of the water He reported his loss to the chief life-guard. The latter at once went to the spot and after repeat ed diving finally recovered the ring. The owner gladly paid $100 to the find CT. But such instances of immediate recovery are rare.
 One wonders why money is so often found in the water. Most of it is lost by bathers. yet not a little is dropped by the crowds of spectators who line the waters edge watching the bath CTS. Any article that they may have in their hands is likely to be dropped as they scramble to get away from an unexpected wave. This Is the way in which the watches are lost also, most ly chatelaines, which are brushed from the dresses of their wearers as they scramble to avoid the water. But coins are the most plentiful of all. great many bathers will have a little stock of money tied in one corner of a hand kerchief. This they will either fasten around their wrist or tie at the belt of their bathing suit.
 One woman went in bathing the oth- CT day with about s30 tied in a knot in
 her handkerchief. The sum was in bills mostly of the denomination of one dollar In her swim an exception ally big wave knocked her down and the knot became unfastened.
 Up to the surface came the wet bills and the woman set up an outcry that alarmed the whole beach. Bathsrs helped her to recover the bills.
 The biggest loss reported this year was of valuable diamond ring. The bather. as usual. thought there was no possibility of this coming off his finger The real value of the jewel Is not the fact that the loser has offered a reward of $200 for It's recovery It was lost when the owner was just a trifie beyond his depth,
 | Large rewards are offered and paid for the recovery of jewelry, and yet sometimes the largest sums are paid for articles which have no intrinsic value whatever. One of the articles found In the sand by beach attend ant was an ordinary looking fireman $ badge. Intrinsically the badge was not worth $2. It was dated back fin the sos and showed that It's owner formerly ran with a fire company in the early days. A life-guard wrote all over the United States to the towns in the various States bearing the name inscribed on the badge, and finally To- | cated the owner.
 | The latter, as soon as notified. made it his business to come at once to Coney Island from his home in one of the far Western States as fast as the swiftest train could bring him He was simply overjoyed when the plain emblem was handed over to him
 Do you know" said he. I'm worth a good deal of money that I have scraped together in my lifetime and some of 1t has come pretty hard. too; but. believe me or not. I'd rather all most see 1t all lost than to lose this old badge. This just seems to keep the good old days as fresh fin my memory as if they were only yester- day, and had given 1t up for gone. I always kept 1t pinned on the inside of my coat, and I suppose I dropped 1t in the sand when took a trip to Conev Island last summer. I had no idea that had lost 1t. but thought some thief T ,A-1A