HAS NOT FOUND THE MONEY.
James Reeve Is Still Seeking Treasure
Buried by His Wife.
The hiding place of Mrs. Emmaline Reeve's treasure still baffles the widowed husband, James Reeve. Yesterday at his brick cottage, 715 East Fourth street, he thought and thought again, over and over, trying to recall some hints his wife might have dropped in past years that would aid him now in recovering the $3,000 or thereabouts that she had been gradually putting away in gold and silver for fifteen years.
Four days of looking had tired Mr. Reeve, and yesterday he tried to think it out. The story having come out, the neighborhood took interest, and to the husband's surprise the common opinion was that the money had not been hidden in the garden or chicken yard, but somewhere in the brick dwelling. She was a woman, the neighbors reasoned, and her home was truly her fortress and there, where she could watch the spot that covered her treasure, Mrs. Reeve must have placed it. Mr. Reeve became converted to this opinion. A man whose duties take him far from things he loves might hide valuables in garden earth, but not a woman. This conclusion put Mr. Reeve more at ease,as well as Mrs. Reeve's sister, Mrs. Smythe, who had come on from Toronto. The thought of curious visitors scanning the premises seemed to have vanished and Mr. Reeve feels that the four walls of his home safely protect his all.
At midnight last night Mrs. Smythe, with the body of her sister, began the long trip back to Toronto. Finding that her sister had elected to live her life in surroundings that were scant of luxuries and of friends made Mrs. Smythe's stay in Kansas City unexpectedly sad. The men of their own family are rich wholesale merchants in Toronto, a cousin, J. Angus Shaw, is manager of the New York World, and other cousin, Charles Rykert, has for some years been a member of the Dominion Parliament. Mrs. Reeve's disappointments in the early loss of all her children, and then of their savings in the bank, Mrs. Smythe thinks, caused her to conceal from her family that she had become eccentric about money.
And the husband, eager to please his unhappy wife, let her have her way and no one of the friends in Canada knew much of their lives. Mr. Reeve, who is a stationary engineer with the gas company,will continue to live in his cottage. He had induced his wife to consent to move from that old home there in Little Italy and had purchased a lot at Sixteenth and Brighton avenue on which he expected to build her a new home after Easter.
Mrs. Reeve was ill with pneumonia and grip only eight days. Two days before her death she was told it would occur, but she could not believe it. She laughed as she promised her husband and sister Saturday that she would on Sunday tell them where her money was hidden, if they still thought she was going to die. She died before Sunday came.
