£60,000 WORTH OF RUBBISH.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7964, 7 September 1887, Page 4

£60,000 WORTH OF RUBBISH.

Ahothbb " strange true story " appears ia Vanity Fair. Told briefly, it is to the effeot that Mr. and Mrs. C., a rich elderly couple residing in Fottingham, recently shuffled off this mortal coil. Mrs. C. it was •well-known, had possessed a fine collection of diamonds, but hunt as they would for these stones, the heirs-at-law couldn't find a trace of them. While the hunt was going on, young Mrs. 0. came across a dirty old box, which, on being opened, was found .to contain a choice collection of old stays, rags, and soiled curl papers. The young lady, greatly disgusted, ordered the box and its contents to be burned, and personally superintended the removal of the rubbish to the yard, where a bonfire was made of it. While raking the greasy papers together with her parasol, the lady noticed one of them Blowly uncurl with the heat, and to her horror discovered it was a £50 note 1 An examination of the ashes revealed that all the curl papers were bank notes. Eight hundred pounds were saved, but paper to the value of thirty-six thousand pounds was destroyed. Still there was no trace of the diamonds. At • length an j old ■ woman in the neighboring workhouse was discovered who had formerly lived with the late Mr. and Mrs. 0:; and, on enquiring of her aa to the stones, -she immediately said, "Oh, certainly, .Mrs. C. had some beautiful diamonds ; bat much good they •were to her, for she sewed them all up in her old stays I" Over £60,000 worth of precious Btones were burnt with the " curl papers."