The San Francisco call., 1908-08-09
JANE CUSHIONS FogE
At MOYHsEEY. ONE OE
FIRST ERAEaE HOUSES
QUILT IN @ALMCRNIA
- - g

walls was placed an interlining of
adobe.
Shades of Jane Bushton! Could you
but know that the adobe you so scorned
was to save your home from utter col
lapse on a certain morning in April
some two years ago!
The front door opened Immediately,
into big living room or hall. The
floor is warped and uneven now. but
in the first days--the days when Jane
Bushton raised and reared her family
of boys and girls--this room was thsi
ballroom OF the house. and many are
the stories that could be told of brill
liant balls and receptions that were
held here. So that after all that floor
must have had day of glory as we'll
as of decay.
On some of the lumber faint outlines
of the letters "B. G. H" may still be
traced. B. e. II. were Bushnell & Han
son, the contractors who had built the,
house In Australia.
Heavy weights must think q second
time and then again a third before
trying to go upstairs in the Allen
house, as 1t is now known. They are
apt to get stuck. The staircases are
exactly two feet wide. We need go no
further than to glance at these stairs
TO know that Jane Bushton must have
been slight girl. And then. too.
credit, her friends must have all been
built on the same plan. For nothing
else could ever make the turn in those
narrow stairs. The heavy furniture in
the rooms above must have been taken
in piecemeal through the windows.
In 1850, two years after Mrs. Bushton
had come to Montere she was asked
to allow a woman to stay with her for
a few weeks Hospitality was the orr
der of those days, and two rooms We're
placed at the disposal of her stranger
guest. Upon this woman three arnen
called constantly. They, too, were
strangers in the land-no one knew
whence they came or whittier they
were bound. At last the custom house
was robbed-of $30.000l The whole
town was under vigilance. Everybody
was watched with suspicious eye, espe
cially strangers. Mrs. Bushton had
never liked the woman then living un-
der her roof, and one night when the
three men were calling In the other
room she secreted herself in small
closet, having previously bored a hole
through the adobe so that she would
miss nothing If there was anything to
see or hear. There was. The men
produced the bags of bullion and, on
condition of sharing Ii with the
woman, were allowed to take up the
second step of the staircase and hide
their stolen booty. Mrs. Bushton re-
ported the matter at once to the au-
thorities. The woman put up bold
fight. She was sitting on the second
step when they arrived and boldly
and loudly protested her ignorance Of
the affair. ssyvill you please move,
madam she was asked.
mo; not a STEP" she answered.
am an honest woman and what Kind or
mep be you to come proving through
an honest woman's rooms! Get out
with yer But those officials must have
been set of Doors, for, not yielding 60
their request the lady was lifted bodily
off her post of defense and the hidden
treasure recovered The three men had
escaped and the woman was allowed to
go her way.
The house itself is now in most
dilapidated condition. The west wall
looks as though a gentle breeze from
the south would blow 1t apart. Never
theless. here live the son, the grand
daughter and the great-grandchildren
OF Jane Allen-or Jane Bushton as she
is better known in this story. Tom Al
len, her son, is now and has been for
many years constable OF Monterey
His mother must have been an ex-
ceedingly attractive young woman In
her day il large oil painting in one OF,
the bedrooms speaks the truth. II Is
the face of serious, dignifed young
woman, her hair parted severely In the
center, large earnest eyes which follow
the visitor as he moves through ner
rooms and haunt him after he leaves
them. She was a widow twice Or her
second husband, Krampnet by name.
history tells but little. Her third and
last husband was James Allen and py
him she had large family, now all
married and scattered throughout Mon
terey county.
The old house contains much OF the
furniture which Jane Bushton placed