It is an ill wind that blows no one any luck, and the truth of this old adage has come into vivid relief in these days of sadness and suffering. On the Ginza (Tokyo's shopping street) lived a Japanese druggist of the name of Murahachi, whose family had been druggists for generations, having their place of business on the very same site that was completely burnt out the conflagration of September 1. Among the heirlooms of the Murahachi family, which had been placed in the vault of the Mitsubishi Bank (which was undamaged by cither the quake or the fire) was a package that had been carefully treasured for generations. It was bequeathed by an ancestor, and contained instructions to the effect that it should be opened only when the family became absolutely penurious.
Quake and fire having reduced the Murahachis to this condition, the head of the house hastened to the Mitsubishi Bank, recovered his precious parcel and nad it opened in the presence of other members of the family. In a wooden box was a paper scroll, splendidly preserved, which instructed the family to dig in a certain spot. The in structions were religiously followed and, to his astonishment and delight, the poverty-stricken head of the Murahachi family unearthed three carthern pots containing gold coins used_ in Old Japan centuries ago. It is estimated that the value of the "find" will total close on half-a-million yen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.