So Much for Tocqueville

Love of wealth, observed Alexis de Tocqueville, is "at the bottom of all that the Americans do." But he was off the mark, to judge by the contents of 400 long-abandoned safe-deposit boxes auctioned off last week in Worcester, Mass. The sale involved a total of 849 items--the leavings of Bay Staters who had died, moved away or had otherwise not touched their treasures for ten to 15 years. Aside from junk jewelry and silverware, the loot was a curious miscellany: a Mickey Mouse watch, three strips of lace, a cigar cutter, Confederate money, an old carburetor and an autographed program for a 1919 Rachmaninoff concert. Far from proving a love of lucre, the auction results suggest that Americans can be careless about money: the whole lot went for a total of $13,991.89.

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