Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 102, June, 1876Various
Science
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 102, June, 1876
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
At the prefecture of police is likewise situated the storehouse of
articles forgotten or left behind in public carriages. According to the
law, every coachman is commanded to inspect carefully his carriage after
the occupant has departed, and to deposit every article left therein,
were it but an odd glove, in the storehouse above mentioned. Each object
is inscribed in a register and bears a particular number, and the number
of the cab in which it was left as well. These articles fill a large
room, whereof the contents are ever changing, and which is always full.
Umbrellas, muffs, opera-glasses, pocket-books (sometimes containing
thousands of francs) are among the most usual deposits. In one year
there were found in the cabs of Paris over twenty thousand objects,
among which were six thousand five hundred umbrellas. Should the article
bear the address of the owner, he is at once apprised by letter of its
whereabouts; otherwise, it is kept till called for, and if never claimed
it becomes the property of the city at the end of three years, and is
sold at auction. A vast row of underground apartments is appropriated to
the unclaimed articles--dim cellar-rooms, lighted with gas. There may be
seen umbrellas by the hundred or the thousand, strapped together in
bundles and stacked up like fagots. Everything is registered, numbered
and catalogued, and if returned to the owner his address and the date
of delivery are carefully noted. The strict surveillance of the police
contributes greatly toward keeping the Parisian cabman honest. Instances
are on record where costly sets of jewels, bags of napoleons and
pocket-books crammed with bank-notes have been faithfully deposited at
the prefecture by their finders. On the other hand, an anecdote is told
of a cab-driver in whose vehicle a gentleman chanced to leave his
pocket-book, containing fifty thousand francs which he had just won at
play. He traced his cabman to the stable, where he was in the act of
feeding his horse, opened the carriage-door, and found his pocket-book
lying untouched upon the floor. On learning what a prize he had missed
the coachman incontinently hung himself.
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