POOR REWARDS FOR RICH FINDINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1901, 17 July 1890, Page 35

POOR REWARDS FOR RICH FINDINGS.

Not long since, when a poor old man disoovered in the depths of some dustbin rubbish and office litter no fewer than six cheques— four of them not crossed—representing a value of about £700, and restored them to the occupier of the office, he was rewarded by a few shillings for his honesty.

An honest porter had a somewhat similar experience of the generosity of some merchants. In a railway carriage he found a parcel containing £47 in gold and silver. As men in his station of life usually receive such colossal incomes, his cupidity was not tempted, so he handed the parcel to the station master.

It was at once despatched to the owners, who, it seems, were merchants evidently on a princely scale, for they remunerated the honest porter with the magnificent sum of Is. The height of meanness has been thought to consist in giving a blind man a bad shilling and taking the full change for it out of his hat. Nor will such humorous definitions be thought far-fetched, when we consider the instances of niggardliness which continually crop" up in our midst. Recently a boy found an old pocket of a dress. It contained exactly £100 in sovereigns. What a stroke of luck I But he was a good boy, hunted out the owner, and got nothing but " thank you " from the old lady to w^m h? jsstwed. the Pttft^ te op,

hdwevef, his honesty was recognised, for he received by post a present of a book with tbe grateful donor's name on the fly-leaf. The latest development of meanness _is said to be a man who turns envelopes inside out and uses them a second time. A resident of the town at present graced by the writer fancies he has found that man through chancing to pick up a bag which contained nearly £20 in gold. There is a pathetic ring in his narrative of the incident.

He says : " Not knowing to whom the bag might belong, I put it in my coat pocket, and walked slowly on, thinking I might receive a suitable" reward if it were advertised. I had only gone a distance of 100 yds when a man very much like a farmer stopped me and asked me if I had found a small bag.

" I answered him • Yes ' ; and being convinced that the bag was his, J gave it to him. lam sorry to state that he was walking away without even thanking me, when I asked him if he could not give something for finding the bag for him. He rewarded me with the handsome sum of 3d.

" I have been out of employment for some time, through no fault of my own, and had great trouble to make both ends meet. Imagine, then, my feelings when I reached my lodgings that night, with wet clothes and feet, and threepence in my pocket, the grand reward of my honesty 1 I blush to think of the kind and noble generosity that gave threepence for a bag of gold." That unlucky finder must have felt inclined to follow the example of the smart lad who, on receiving the very same amount for returning a lost pocketbook, handed the coin back with a sigh, and said, I can't change it " — a double-distilled little instance of wellemployed sarcasm. An account of what a reporter called gallflavoured meanness reaches up from Southport. A fire broke out in a house on the promanade one night. It was observed by a raggatherer, who rushed into the house, threw the bed and burning articles out of the window, and extinguished the flames. On being asked for some reward, the owner of the house tendered him twopence.

How the mercury of meanness descends as we go on. Such characters should be careful lest they plunge. It is satisfactory to learn that his economical principles were carried out by another eccentric. A little girl picked up in the street a valuable gold watch. About half an hour afterwards the owner came along making inquiries. The watch -was given up and the finder rewarded by " tuppence for sweeties." There is a saying amongst us that some mean folks would skin a flint if they spoiled a sixpenny knife in doing it. It is not so long since a railway guard discovered a purse on the floor of a compartment while travelling between Bristol and London. It contained over £30, but there was nothing to afford any clue to the owner. The guard took possession of it, made inquiries as to the previous occupants of the compartment, and presently it turned out to be the property of a well-known resident in a small town on the line. This individual received back his property with every manifestation of delight, and proceeded to reward the guard with a present of three-halfpence. We have arrived at a pretty low scale of rewards, but Paris can furnish us with an illustration of still greater meanness. A certain count lost a pocketbook containing 40,000fr notes. He gave notice to the police, telling them if the pocketbook, which was inscribed with his name and address, should turn up, to forward it on to him at Rheims, for which place he started that evening. As he was about to take his railway ticket, a poor working man came up to him, and inquired if he had lost anything. The count replied in the affirmative. " I am happy to restore it to you," said the workman. " Pray open it and count the money." The count expressed his gratitude, took his ticket and started for Kheims, where he entertained his mother-in-law with the story of the lost and found treasure. "What reward did you give the poor man?" she inquired. "None; I never thought of that," replied

it is but fair to say that this thoughtlessness was soon remedied by the good lady's advice, and the finder made happy by a handsome present in francs. Butdespitethe foregoing examples of meanness, the apotheosis of thoughtless selfishness was surely reached by the chief actor in the following, whose conduct breaks all previous records. A gentleman, leaving a certain railway station, was seen by a lad to drop his gold watch. The boy picked it up, hurried after the gentleman and accosted him as he was about to enter an omnibus. Without speaking to the lad, he took the watch, gave him a push, and entered the omnibus.

So runs the report — let us hope it cannot be true.

It is hard to be obliged by one's conscience to do right, and meet with only a curt rebuff.