WHERE MISERS' HOARDS ARE HIDDEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 85, 30 September 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHERE MISERS' HOARDS ARE HIDDEN.

WEALTH DISCOVERED IX CURIOUS PLACES. The recent case of an old woman at Rending (England) who slept against her front, door to prevent its being opened at night, never had a lire even in the coldest weaher, .accepted food from her pitying neighbors, saying she had not a penny to bless besrself with, whilst all the time she had gold and jewellery galore in jam-jars, tea-pots, cigar-boxes, biseuit-tins, and odd corners of her dirty rooms, is not by any means a unique one. It has often had its counterpart both in fiction and in fact.

A short time ago, for instance, a woman was found dead at hor home in Bath. She was seventv-fivj years of age, had long lived alone, and hy,d evidently died of starvation, for her body was in a emaciated condition, yet her bank-book showed that she had £lO5 to her credit.

A Parisian beggar was lately arrested on the Boulevards, his happy huntinggrounds, because he persistently insulted people who refused to give him alms, asserting that they were content to walk about in silks and furs and broadcloth, to live on the fat of the land, whilst he was in rags and starving. As a matter of fact, he was a strong, healthy young man, and actually in his pockets 'the police found no less a sum than the equivalent of £240 in banknotes. "They are my savings," the man exclaimed, "which I have scraped together against the bad days of old age." Pittsburg lately made the discovery of its first miser, an octogenarian beggar named Peter Leblanch, who was arrested' on the ground of insanity. As soon as they had succeeded in pinioning the old l.man the officers searched his filthy dwelling, and were astonished to find the walls and furniture overflowing with money. Even the wall-paper was lined inside with bank-notes. The boiler contained thousands of old dollar bills, the grate was filled with silver dollars and copper coins, whilst scores of jars and bottles were crammed with the pennies he had collected from compassionate passers-by in the streets. The treasure was counted and sorted; it amounted to ;C20,0000. And at various banks in the citv it was further found that the miser had deposited another £SOOO for which he had no further room in the house.

A certain philanthropic society came in for a windfall lately from a very unexpected quarter. An old man dropped dead at Rowton House, Vauxhall, some little time,.since, and those who searched him were surprised to find that he was in possession of half a sovereign and twenty-two shillings in silver. His ragged clothes—ho appcahcd like a tramp of the lowest order—and his unclennlincss combined to present him as a fit object for charity, and when he appealed to the officials or other residents in the house for a copper towards a meal he was seldom met with a refusal.

lie was never known to spend over three-halfpence on a meal and never made more than two meals a (lav, although fellow-lodgers often gave him food. The sequel amazed even the police, who returned to search his locker after removing his body to the mortuary. Tn thel ocker they discovered bank-books disclosing the undoubted fact that the old man had £2700 in the Birkbcck Bank and over .C4O in the penny savings bank.

Vn a remote village in Ireland an old woman was knocked down and killed instantly on the roadside. When the police inspected the wretched dwelling' in which the old crone lived they found it almost, packed to (lie door with branches for the winter fuel, and behind these they found.two large buckets and a tin trunk full of all kinds of cun •cut coin. Searching farther, they found a big wooden box and about a dozen earthenware jars, all filled with coin, and when the money was collected and put into the scales the total weight exceeded a hundredweight.