Chapter 217D

7/17/2009

Ch 217D Yeggs stole my safe

something old, something new

Inspector Sherlock was called in to crack this Virgil caper of the safe that I came to own later on. Ray on the left owned the mill. Next to him was John Mattson mill worker. He and owner Fred Saltsman were always glad to talk after I got off the bus for the half mile walk home. F & F cough drops or the licorice flavored Sen Sen John would offer me and to sooth his unfiltered Pall Mall hacking cough.

John taught me to fill the burlap feed bags. If you weren't quick enough pushing the cutoff plate back in the chute, the feed would go all over the floor. The trick was tying the twine into a slip knot on top of the bag. It was a dusty place with the smell of oats and molasses in the air.  He rented and lived in the old Olmsted house in the Philo picture. Dad delivered feed from the mill for a while after the war.

As told in Chapter 149 , Fred Saltsman sold me the (1897-1891) Mosler safe after the mill closed. I found the rare gold coins in one of the wood inlaid drawers. Removing the metal panel on the right I could change the combination on the brass cylinders. Gustav Mosler an Austrian immigrant started the company after the Civil War in Cincinati, OH. His son Henri did the gold leaf hand painting.