Salary paid in dollars and scents
Aug. 6, 1900: Los Angeles County Treasurer Mark G. Jones took his revenge on County Coroner Lauren T. Holland by paying part of Holland’s salary with money that the coroner had given him a month earlier.
Holland found $2.75 in the pocket of a corpse that had been discovered “in the foothills north of the city,” The Times said.
“A skeleton clad in tattered rags was all there was to bury, but in a trousers pocket was disclosed a small purse containing a number of silver coins,” the newspaper reported. Following the law, Holland turned the unclaimed money over to the treasurer.
“Needless to say the purse was foul with putrefaction and a horrible grievance to any sort of nose,” the paper said. “Every effort was made to clean the purse, and deodorize the money, but all in vain.”
When Holland arrived at the treasurer’s office to draw his $250 monthly pay, Jones counted it out for him, ending with the dead man’s coins.
Holland, “sputtering like an overheated frying pan,” threw the coins on the floor and left with less pay than usual.
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