CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
A BUNCH OF KEYS.
THE LAND OF THE INCAS.
A CAST OF THE NET.
AN EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT.
GORDON.
NARCOTISM.
LIFE IN A MILITARY PRISON.
DESOLATE.
| No. 729. | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1877. | Price 1½d. |
A BUNCH OF KEYS.
I am a professional man, and reside in the WestEnd of London. One morning some few monthsback, my assistant on coming to attend to hisduties produced a bunch of keys, which he informedme he had just picked up at the corner ofa street leading from Oxford Street.
'Hadn't they best be handed over to thepolice?' suggested my assistant. I wish to goodnessI had at once closed with his suggestion; butI didn't, much to my own cost, as will be presentlyseen.
'Well, I don't know,' was my answer. 'I ratherthink it will be a wiser plan to advertise them, ifthe owner is really to have a chance of recoveringthem; for to my mind, articles found in that wayand handed over to the police are rarely heard ofagain.'
An advertisement for the Times was duly drawnup and sent off for insertion. It merely statedwhere the keys had been picked up, and wherethe owner of the bunch could have it returned tohim on giving a proper description. The nextmorning the advertisement appeared; and thoughI half expected that some applications might bemade later on in the same day, it passed overquite quietly. But the following morning I had aforetaste of the trouble that awaited me so soon asthe postman had deposited my letters in the boxand given his accustomed knock. A glance at mytable shewed me that my correspondence was veryconsiderably beyond its average that morning. Thevery first letter I opened was in reference to theadvertisement; and before I had gone through thecollection I found there were over twenty applicationsfor the bunch of keys in my possession.Some of the writers took the trouble to describethe keys they had lost; but none of them were inthe least like those that had been picked up bymy assistant. Some did not take the trouble togive any description at all, or to state if they hadbeen in the part of the town where the keys werefound; and a few boldly claimed them on thestrength of having dropped a bunch miles fromthe spot indicated in the advertisement!
By the time I had got through my letters andmy breakfast, my servant came to tell me thatmy waiting-room was already full of people—'mostlyladies,