Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1874 — A Miser’s Wealth. [ARTICLE]

A Miser’s Wealth.

A most extraordinary case of miserly thrift has just been unearthed in New York city through the medium of a robbery. For many years an old coin-seller named Luther Bryant might have been seen standing at the iron fence surrounding the old North Dutch Church, at the corner of Fulton and William streets. Few persons imagined that the frugal old man; who took a simple breakfast and dinner at a restaurant on Chatham street, possessed in his rooms at No. 1 Forsythestreet a perfect mine of wealth, and yet, concealed by padlocks, in old bureaus and boxes, and buried beneath the floor, were $75,000 in twenty-dollar gold pieces, coins to the value of $12,000, $20,000 worth of postage stamps, thousands of dollars in mutilated and other currency, valuable clocks, chromos and curiosities. The man’s history teaches one lesson, viz.: that industry, economy and shrewdness will make money even in the simplest of ways. He was born in 1801, in Berkshire County, Mass.; studied medicine, and practiced in Burlington, Vt., and Charleston, S. C. At the outbreak of the war he came to New York and started business as described. The old man lived entirely alone, trusting by day to his bars and bolts, and by night to a revolver and a bowie-knife. But the gathering of years has vanished, and no trace of the missing treasure can be found. Having been arrested on a warrant for purchasing stolen stamps, the rooms were left for five entire days untenanted. During that time the thieves effected their entrance and successfully carried off their booty. It is probably the biggest haul they have ever had, ana, although it is a great loss to the old man, it is but another proof that the money of a miser generally comes to little good. —lnter-Ocean.