Bonds as Wall-Paper

Detective McAuley tells a rather strange story, which he has kept locked up in his bosom for [several] years. He couldn’t hold it any longer than yesterday, and, feeling elated over the grand [coup] d’etat of The Tribune in the Tilton [statement], unraveled his little yearn in this wise: He was informed that a boy had slipped into a store on State street, near Eighteenth, and, while the [proprietors’] backs were turned, made an [indiscriminate] grab in a cash-box in a safe, the door of which was left open. The haul [consisted] of a large roll of United States [5-20] bonds, registered, and issued but a short time before, and a small sum in postal currency. Mack learned that the boy lived in an old house with a widowed mother at [Haas’] Park, and went out there in search of him. On entering the shanty he was astonished at the peculiarity of the paper on the wall, and was more struck beholding that it was the identical pie of 5-20s that he was in quest of, all nicely matched and pasted tightly to the wall. Here was a job, and Mack pulled off his coat; and prepared for the work of stripping off the paper. It took him early all day, but he recovered every bond, while the old lady looked on in mingled fear and wonder, and ejaculated, “What are they good for? Sure, and me boy brought thim here a long time ago, and I thought they was only buts iv old paper. But if ye’re an officer I suppose it’s all right.”

Mack moistened pulled, and slowly worked away until he stripped the wall of every bond. The whitewash came off freely with them, but they were all there, and Mack took them to the owners and received their earnest thanks for his arduous task in their behalf. The lad who stole them was not at all aware of their value. He was captured and punished for the theft.