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Show I Prosaic Storage Varehouse Yields a Wealth of RoLiance and Mystery I i " tihj nuge storage warehouse i i 'ei-.i-H pie of many household gois to which come their worshippers with stories trange. comic and sentimental. "There's the case of the mysterious vasi I for Instance.'' remarked the warehouse man ager, who then went on with the story. "One day a maid came Into the oflce car- rrlng an elaborate bundle and asked If we i could store a very valuable ase. We of- j fered to put It Into every place we have here, but none of them satisfied her. Fl-I Fl-I nally her mistress came, and we showed "-'er ati the places where we could put It Every I suggestion seemed to agonize her, and we po'ltely encouraged her to try some other j warehouse or to keep the vase at home jl But be Insisted that it roulel not be allowed B at hone-that it would have to be out of tho house before the wedding.' "She did not look like a blushing bride, ij Her words enly added to the. mstery. which became more and more unsolvable. The j vase was a scaled urn. and we eoold not, of course, ask why. She decided to leave It With us for a few days, provided we kept It In our office sate and swore all kinds of ! vews to watch It She came back several I times, and each time, the discussion was I repeated "One day she came in breathless and announced an-nounced that the decision would have to be I made at once as she was leaving on hr honeymoon. 'How valuable Is lt' we s ked Vh. It could never be replaced.' she declared dramatically. 'It Is of no value to any one but me ' Then he leaned over and whls- pered confidentially. 'It holds the ashes of j rr.y dead husband, and I'm to be married again to-morrow, and, of course, he wouldn't H v.ont to have this around the house."" H What the Visitor Seei. 1 Of course, it isn't often that a warehouse Is used as a mausoleum, but the varletv of things which are stored there wou.d stagger I the Imagination even of a department store eevator operator. From complete palatial H rooms taken from sixteenth ;entury Kng- liih castles to thimbles, from valuable paintings by masters to picture postcards. -vcry conceivable article, priceless or worth-less. worth-less. Is here. The term "fireproof storage wareho ise' has about It a steely, stony feeling, something remote and soulless and perhaps a little prisonlike. But when one gev?s ihrough It on a tour ot Inspeetl n with an amiable and reminiscent manager It seems more like a combination of a Fifth avenue shopping afternoon and a visit to the old attic at honu . Ttre are acre on acres of rooms big rooms and little rooms, strong rooms, cold rooms and Jjst rooms full of things I that mean money and things th it mean more to somebody. As the manager says. 'There are enough stories here In this building to keep all the novelists In the country busy working on an eight hour day for a hundred years." A trip through a storage warehouse Is jl indeed a fascinating experience. lghts and stories mingle somewhat breathlessly, but j! one Is left with the feeling that storage is a I business tilled with human Interest. Why do people store square piano for j yt-.irs and pay more in rent than the Instru ments can ever be worth'' Why do so many fail to recognize their own belongings? Why are they tomotlmes so utterly careless themselves them-selves about valuables? And why arc they 1 so fussy when other hands tom-h them' Why will they cherish unhappy memories i even at the price of difficult sacrifice? Man 4 such "w hys" are answered In tho storage i warehouse, J In one room are found a pair of very large , A Bride's Startling Revelation, the Story of the Woman of the Mirrors, Freakish Notions of Some Patrons and Forgetfulness of Others Mingle in Reminiscences of Manager Who Sees Sentiment Linked to Worthless Articles as Well as Priceless Treasures pier mirrors such as decorated the parlors or billrooms of "the big house on the hill," In the good old days Who had once been mirrored In these glasses? Why are trey stored and does their owner ever hope to use them again' "Yes, It Is ,a story." says the manager. "About twice a year a little old woman comes here and goes to this room and the E ttendant leaves her here alone. T'ntll about a year ago she used to come here every month. She Is a person of refinement and. obviously has been well to do She Is In rtraltened circumstances now and I Jon't think she can really afford to pay the storage stor-age fees. But. of course, we can't ask question" ques-tion" I don't know what she- does, but her address Is that of an ordinary boarding house She sometimes stays in this room a long time- We never disturb her. Only once d'd she ever let f.ill any remark. It was when tho attendant did some little thing for her She said T come here to look Into these mirrors because they give me back my other days ' "Everywhere there are pieces of furniture and other things which apparently mleht well have gone to the auction rooms, second hand dealers and oblivion. Why do people want to store 'hese things here, anyway0 Aren't the charges more than the things aro wort h ? "That's Just II And yet. what you see here is nothing compared to th? things we persuade our patrons to give up. We have to flsht to protect people from themselves. Of course, we Dut suggestions as delicately as possible, but our diplomacy Is often strained to the utmost to keep people from storing things wnlch are absoluJ.cly worthless worth-less and which on'y cost money to keep. This space here is valuable, and we treat It as a commodltv of value, not only to ourselves our-selves but to those who rent It. We do not wish to have it occupied by goods of no value. "Look at all these old square pianos. You have probably been wondering where we got that man?-. The way people insist on keeping them here Is one of the things which have nlw'ays pu'cd me. "Wo have a square piano here which be-ler.gs be-ler.gs .o a noted American actress It has been here for a number of years, and I don t understand why she doesn't keep It In one of her homes or dispose of it. Her husband, v. ho is also her manager, has come her with her a number of time? and has urged her to do something with II. at least to have a useful table made of It. or something like that. She absolutely refuses, and I guess UH st8y here until Broadway Is dark. She says she will never part with It because she first learned how to play on It. Queer Things Turn Up. "Of course moat people when they are going go-ing to put their things In storage have a real house cleaning probi-bly tho first real or.e they ever had And some queer things hhve turned up. Lost wills, hidden treasure, things which have been missing for years And when our men begin to pack all the fussinc-ys In people begins to come out. Why did you put that there'' Why didn't you pack this this way?' And hundreds of such questions Of course, our men are experts; ex-perts; they have been packing valuables for years and they are constantly keeping our patrons from causing damage to their own property Considering the varieties of human nature they have to serve I am often iniiineel to look for the haloj under our men s hats " "You are called upon to do some pretty queer tricks occasionally, aren't you?" "Yes, there's no limit to the things people can invent for others to do And there's no limit lo the things they can hypnotize themselves them-selves Into believing are necessary io their existence Here's a good example," says the manager, pointing to a tall hall clock which was ticking away, wasting its moments mo-ments on the timeless room, as It were "This clock has to be kept going. The owner Insists that It must be wound regularlv, otherwise It will deteriorate The man who sold her the clock told her so and she has a great deal of respect for him, because . was reall an astronomer, and had mi-cioscopes mi-cioscopes and telescopes, and had discovered stars and could tell fortunes. Anyway, he tcld her tho clock must bo kept going and every eight days the keeper of the time assigned as-signed to the rite goes in and solemnly winds it. At the other extreme are the people who aro almost criminally careless about their valuables. I don t mean only those who go away for tho summer and leave their silverware silver-ware behind tho bathtub. For instance. last fall one cf our old customers came In anel asked for his silverware, which was rather valuable and Included some fine presentation pieces I happened to know personally that he had not sent us his silverware that sum- mar and had been surprised When ho was told this he became highly indignant Ho Insisted that we had his silver and hadn't he himself 'told the maid to bring it here' the day before he left? "We searched high and low and showed him all kinds of records and there was no indication that his silcr had ever come to us. After prolonged questioning he recalled that a few minutes before grabbing his valines he had told the maid to 'take the ettvai to the siorage place on umpt street and umph avenue ' The rr.a.'d looked up the piece In tho telephone book that sounded most like the noises her master made nnd took the stuff there. We traced out the story anel questioned the maid. The silver was finally found in a storage place a few blocks away Many Who Forget. "It is surprising how many people don't recigr.lze their own possessions. Sometimes women more often it is a man will come to look at the goods or to ask to have it sent out. They will go through it anil Insist that w are trying to give them something which does not belong to them. 'Wh, of course this Isn't ours.' they Will say. 'Why. we vcbldn't have such a thing Think of the poo,- people who will be looking for this If we take it," and o on. B3 the aid of our books, records signed by themselves and our man at the time of removing the goods for stcrage, we can finally convince them that the disputed article really Is theirs. "Sneaking of recognizing things reminds me of an Incident. A few years ago an old negro came Into our employ. I happened to b6 In one of the rooms when he entered for the first time. As he came through the door he stopped startled, staring at the wall opposite He came closer, gazing Intently. Suddenly h6 pointed to an old portrilt of Wash'ngton all excited and said In an awed voice as if hes were seeing ghosts. Tha's ma Fealc, boss. Tha's ma PealcV He repeatee". It over and over again, stepping toward it and away from It looking at it closer and walking tack for another view, his surprise ehanglng to gladness. 'What do you mean, ,hat's your Teale?" I asked. He told me tiie story. "Many yea re ago he kept a curiosity shop In New Orleans and It was at the time when fine old Southern homes were being broken up and old possessions were finding their way to dealers. The fine Peale portrait of Washington came to this neuro ami he sold It for $300 because he was 'very' fond of It.' We haven t this portrait herein) more. It was sold for $12,000. "It Is funny, too, how some people will come In often Just to look at their things. Most visits, are of course, for the purpose of taking out some particular thing. But many Just come to sea, I suppose it is like the woman and the mirrors. It does seem as If the old term 'houHehold gods' means something. It almeist looks as If they como on an ordinary road. "Here, by the way, is one of our garage or rather automobile storage rooms. There are here some of the finest cars In existence Imported models, special bodies, elaborate hand wrought work. They looked as If they would be desecrated to be run cn an ordinary road." The visitor Is taken Into a small room and side the mercury Is knocking a hole in the IS$S top of the thermometer and one looks sur- Ktffi prised. But when the door of one of th i fur storage rooms Is opened the fur coat In k felt to have a reason. Thece big ro d storage rooms arc kept at a temperature of 34 ele- flEifl1 grees. It could be brought down to zer KrW ir necessary, But It has been found that the higher temperature Is ideal for fur stor wf,' age ccndltJons. Here, hanging neatly and unwrapped. Is an assortment of furs which i I would do credit to any Fifth avenue fur shop hE? in Bret, fl at Is where most of the things Hl come from The direct play of the cold Ha clean air on the garments which hang loosely Is much better for them than any packing away Gorgeous coats, muffs, neck- Puv pieces vie with each other In magnificence. nKay "This coat Is worth $50 000." says the Maii manager and the coat looks It "Everything BjJfcl that comes In here is first (rested for moth K eggs But thj moths themselves are not so KJtJ Important. They die as soon as they come Ifliij in Some of the other cold storage rooms have tt& splendid displays of animal heads trophies of the)r owners' hunting prowess. And there IHI are beautiful and costly tapestries of won-derful won-derful material. Doffing tho Arctic apparel the visitor sud-denly sud-denly finds himself in the great hall of an Ifi English castle. The walls are all of mar- M velous carved wood In fine panels and wain- !HB scoting The room is empty and the manage! HH anticipates .1 remark. There arc three rooms here like these, and they have nothing In IPr9w them except the walls. Tlie carved work was VJ taken from an English castle ana brought tpH here some years ago by well known dealers. BS Every few months or so very wealthy cus-tomers cus-tomers of these dealers arc brought in here to look over these rooms. Worth a King's Ransom. Then come visits Into numerous silver-ware silver-ware rooms and vaults for other valuables hundreds of rooms, thousands of valuables BH everything coacclvahle In confusion. What are all the things In this room worth?" on? asks. Tho manager smiles, "Let us say a king's ransom, ' he replies, "whatever that may be at the present rate of exchange." "JM But aren't you afraid of something hap-pcnlng?' hap-pcnlng?' "Well ire have never had a fire or a hur-r'ary. hur-r'ary. Perhaps an air raid might have some effect, but (he possibility Is remote. Tho walls are four feet thick." One comes to a door and the manager opens It with a little flourish. This must be a "show" room. It Is. All over the spa-clous spa-clous walls are hung fine paintings nnd e t.-iiings hung with an artist's eye all un- -H covered, ;: is reaiu a beautiful art gallery, "This Is an original B J ." says the man-ager man-ager mentioning the name of a French mas-ter mas-ter He points to a large striking canvas showing a satyr and nymphs a real mas- terplece In Its cornposltlon and the treatment of the flesh tints. He points out others, glv- Ins well known names. One goes out won- dorlng why this prosaic storage warehouse Is not on the list of art galleries to bo "taken In" by visitors to the city. |