The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-08-27
PITTSBURG MISER.

bauch, and called him crazy.
Peter begged for a living. Also
he sold shoestrings and herbs. He
wore funny, ill-ftting clothes. His
house was a shack on the shelf of
cliff, worth as much as a pile of
driftwood.
Peter lived there all alone-ex-
cept for his half-starved mongrel
dog. Only his neighbors and his
customers knew him. And they
pitied him while they laughed at
him.
But when Peter Liebauchs fool
ish actions grew menacing, when he
came to curse the children and
threaten them, the police thought
it would be only charitable toward
the old man, as we'll as more safe
for the neighborhood, to remove
him to an institution.
But when they dragged the old
man, kicking and cursing and fight
ing like a madman, down those stairs
which but few he had ever used,
they found
Gold,
Gold in piles and stacks. Gold
hidden between the walls, gold
heaped in old trunks and boxes.
Gold everywhere. And much sill
yer coin.
The little shack, stripped of it's
treasure, was worth perhaps So.
AS the shack stood when the po-
lice entered it, it was worth $50
900. Bank books hidden away in
crevices in the wall showed deposits
of as much more.
Peter Liebauch, who dressed like
a tramp, was worth at a conservative
valuation 100000.
Two big express wagons groaned
and creaked as they bore away the
saffron treasure in Sc big bags, to
a deposit vault. 1t took the clerks
two days to count the money.
The finding of old Peters hoard
is all Pittsburg's sensation.
Now that the discovery has been
made, old inhabitants are recalling
old stories about Peter.
His father, Antoine, before him,
was a miser, they say. Peter and
his brother Andrew followed his
steps.
There was romance once in the
brothers lives. There were twin
sisters, the daughters of a wealthy
man in Millvale, whom the two
brothers fell in love with. But
though they came to court, they did
not dress or act as ordinary suitors.
Their arguments were chiefly mys-
terious ones of money And the
girls, being good, healthy, normal
American girls, who did not value
money for its own sake, laughed the
strange suitors to scorn.
This closed the door to the Lie
bauchs' hearts. 1t was never again
opened to the world. They retired
to their little hut on the hillside
forever.
1t was built like a fortress, in a
way. No one could get in except by
the long stairs which led to the
level ground below. One of the
brothers and the half-starved dog,
remained on guard all the time,
while the other went out to beg. to
gather herbs and mint and sell it
around the city.
They had great, old-fashioned |
shot gun, rusty and loaded with |
nails and slugs. 1t would doubtless |
have exploded if discharged, but it |
was a great comfort to the two |
brothers.
One night two years ago when |
Peter came home, it was to find |
his brother Andrew stretched out |
on the floor, two gaping wounds in !
his side. He was dead whether by |
suicide, or from the attack of some |
unknown intruder, was never salts
factorily explained.
Peter then went his way alone. |
He received no visitors. Even the |
priest from nearby st. Mary's could |
never get farther than the door.
When Scrgt. Falkner and two |
policemen made their search of the |
shack, it was like the realization |
of wild dream.
y table, so thickly covered with !
dust that its drawers were hidden, |
was bulging with coin, There were |
dollars, quarters, dimes, nickles and |
pennies,
In closets and pantries was money
Old clothes, Just rags of cloth-werc !
groaning with treasure, every pock-
ct, the Innings even, filled.
AloHS pantry shelves was money .
packed in cigar boxes, in pitch
crs and jars, and saucers, and to-
bacco boxes, tomato cans, wash |
boilers, salt sacks, tubs--everythlng