Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1899 — WHERE TO LOSE TREASURE. [ARTICLE]

WHERE TO LOSE TREASURE.

Best and Safest Place £ecms to Be in a Paris Cab. If a man must lose his purse somewhere, perhaps the best place is in a Paris cab. Major Arthur Griffiths, writing in Cassell’s Magazine, tells some wonderful stories of money recovered after being thus left. He says that the cabmen of Faris are honest enough—possibly in spire of themselves, for they are a rough lot—and are carefully looked after by the police. As a result, some curious instances of self-denial on the part of these poorly paid servants of the public have been recorded. One night a rich Russian, who had gone away from his club a large winner, left the whole amount, ten thousand francs, In a cab. He was so certain that he had lost it irreparably that he returned to St. Petersburg without even inquiring whether it had been given up. Some time later he was again in Paris, and a friend urged him at least to satisfy himself as to whether the missing money had been taken to the lost property office. He went and asked, although the limit of time for claiming lost property had almost expired. “Ten thousand francs lost!” said the official. “Yes, it Is here;” and after the proper identification the packet was restored to him. “What a fool that cabman must have been!” was the Russian’s only remark. The comment spoke ill for public morality in Russia. On another occasion a Jeweler in the Palais Royal left a diamond parure worth eighty thousand francs in a cab. The police, when he reported his loss, gave him little hope of recovering the treasure. Not only were diamonds worth sixteen thousand dollars a great temptation to the cabman, but worse still, the loser did uot know the number of the cabman, having picked him up in the street instead of taking him from the rank; and more unfortunate yet, he bad quarreled with the driver, for which reason he had abruptly left the cab. The case seemed hopeless, yet the cabman brought back the diamonds of his own accord. The quaintest part of the story Is to come. When told at the prefecture to ask the jeweler for the substantial reward to which he was clearly entitled, he rei»lied: “No, not 1; he was too rude. I hope I may never see him or speak to him again.” All cabmen are not so honest as this, yet a great deal of treasure finds its way to the prefecture, whither everything found in streets and highways, In omnibuses, theaters, cabs and railway stations. Is forwarded. In one case an emigrant, who had made his fortune In Canada, and carried it in his pocket in the shape of fifty notes of ten thousand francs each, dropped his purse as he climbed on to the outside of an omnibus. The conductor picked It up and restored it with its one hundred thousand dollars intact To be sure, he was rewarded with two thousand five hundred dollars, but the temptation he overcame was great