Untitled

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 443, 19 December 1908, Page 4

An extraordinary thing happened in Paris the other day to ten i,ooof bank notes. They represented the savings of a woman who lived at-Nanterre, near Paris. She hid her money in an old envelope, which was placed in a drawer. In a moment of forgetfulness, the envelope found its way into a dustbin. In the morning the rag-pickers turned out the bin, but tossed aside the tattered envelope without inspection- An hour later two carters happened to pass that way. They picked up the now mud-splashed piece of paper, one remarking to the other good humouredly : “Perhaps there is a fortune inside !” They drew out the notes. “This is some fool’s pleasantry, they said ; so, by way of revenging themselves on the unknown joker, and little dreaming the notes were genuine, they tore them to pieces and threw them aside. Two market women came along shortly afterwards. With the shrewdness ot their class they recognised the scattered pieces of paper, and carefully gathered them up and took them to the Commissary of Police. There they were pieced together and it was found that none were missing. Two hours later the notes so curiously discovered were restored to their careless owner.

The adventures of an overcoat afforded some interest to several who visited the Woodville races. The owner hung it upon a peg in the hotel he stayed at. When he went to get it, it had vanished and in its place hung another, somewhat similar but not so good. Making the best of it, the loser donned the coat left on the peg, the weather being cold, and went out into the town, recounting to his friends the circumstance, and mentioning that his coat had a small patch on it in a certain place, caused through a hole being burned in the material. Presently one of the party noticed a coat with such a patch, and the owner at once laid claim to it. “It may beyour’s,” said the wearer, “it certainly isn’t mine ; why, you have mine on !, Where did you get it?” “Got it off the peg,” said the other. “ But,” said No. 2, “ I came out last and there was no other coat there then.” “Where did you come from?” “Out of the Waipukurau railway carriage, of course, and it was the only coat left in the rack ; mine was taken by someone else.” The exchange of coats was made, and it was concluded that someone had borrowed No, i, intending to return it. Going to Waipukurau and back he took the wrong coat from the carriage on his return, and duly hung it on the peg from which he had borrowed the other. The accidental patch enabled the respective owners to receive their own property in the street.