Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-06-26
AN UNCLAIMED DEPOsIT, OR, A RIO
NANCE OF REAL LIFE.

h Il
Formerly country postmasters made
quarterly remittances to the General De-
partment at Washington, by depositing
the amount in some neighboring bank, to
the credit of the Postmaster-General,a and
sending him therefor a certificate of the
depository bank. person intending such
an operation, deposited in our bank $500
and took the usual certificate. He was a
stranger to us, nor did we know his resi-
dence and the occurrence having nothing
peculiar about it, excited no general notice,
and was soon forgotten. Several years
elapsed, when, on o transfer of accounts
consequent to the opening of a new ledger,
our book-keeper stated to me the existence
of the deposit, and the time it had re-
mained unclaimed but the disclosure pro-
duced 10 particular action-we supposing
that the department. having funds in ex-
cess, had chosen to let it lie with us. The
depositor, however, as we subsequently
learned, had, on returning home, placed
the certificate in q drawer, among other
papers, intending to transmit it to
Washington, after he had copied some
vouchers which were to accompany it; but
being taken suddenly i'll, and his illness
terminating speedily in death, the trans
mission was never accomplished.
The existence of the certificate was un-
known to any person belonging to the post
Office, and the books of the deceased ex-
hibited only the amount Of his indebted
ness to the General Department, while no
funds wherewith to pay the Indebtedness
could be found, after the most diligent
search of the premises and inquiry of the
widow. The condition Of the office as
sumed much the appearance of q defalca-
ton, and rumors soon connected there
with the sudden death of the supposed
defaulter. Whispers circulated around
the neighborhood that he had taken poison,
while some insisted that he had hung him
self and all remembered that he had, for
several days previous to his death, evinced
q nervous and unbecoming urgency to col
lect small outstanding debts that, in the
period alluded to, were accorded by coun-
try postmasters TO neighboring residents.
Nor was the department at Washington in
ignorance of what had happened. An
active politician of the village, who had
long coveted the Office, and had made fire.
quent efforts to supplant the incumbent,
wrote speedily to Washington for the
vacant place, taking occasion to, justify
his former violation of the Tenth Com
mandment by relating the existing detalca-
tion, and insinuating that his long expecta-
tiOn of such q result had been the leading
motive for his former applications for the
Office. He succeeded in his application,
and, in addition, received power to demand
from the two securities of the deceased a
liquidation Of the balance due to the Gov
ernment.
The loss by death of the head of the
family, is a great calamity, in its most
mitigated form; but it assumes unwonted
proportions when combined with loss of
the means of support to the bereaved
household and the incumbrance of debt
which would absorb all its pecuniary pos
sessions. Such, however, was the apparent
condition of the widow in the present in
stance, incumbered also with three small
children. They were too young to under
stand the full nature of their bereavement;
but the widow possessed strong sensibili-
ties, and felt, as the greatest of her afflic-
tions, the suspected delinquency of her de-
ceased husband. She could not be induced
to believe his guilt though she knew not
how to controvert it and that no obstacles
on her part should operate to the injury of
his sureties, and that thus her husbands
character might be partially relieved, she
voluntarily relinquished to one of them
the right of administration on the in
testate's estate, that the trihing effects
might all be sold in the most expeditions
manner. The administrator happened to
be benevolent man, and, by advancing
some funds Of his own, the Government
was paid the balance due from the de-
ceased and the family were left in the
ownership of their small homestead, with
most of its essential furniture-the efforts
Of the widow suiicing to provide scanty
sustenance for herself and children.
Years passed on this way; the subject
had originally engrossed the little village,
and reached to some of the surrounding
parts; but it had long been forgotten by
the young, and was only occasionally re-
membered by the old; when one Of the
widows children, female, just grown into
womanhOOd, asked her mother the use
Of retaining so many old papers that were
lying in q trunk which the young woman
had long desired to possess. The mother
admitted she knew no use in retaining
them. Some Of them, however, were letters
which she had received from her husband
during his occasional absence from home,
and she was reluctant TO destroy them,
though she was equally reluctant to read
themi but the greater part of the papers
were old postoffce documents, way bills
and blanks, of no use whatever; and If the
daughter would preserve the letters, (they
would not amount 10 a large numberl, the
other papers might be destroyed. Forth
sped the girl, elated to take possession o
the long-cOyeted trunk, and they were soor
sorted from the mass that was destined fol-
destruction. Curiosity induced the girl 4
open few Of the antiquated, sallow letters
when in one of them she found a printel
paper, that so arrested her attention by il
resemblance to bank-note, that she tool
it with her, when she returned to he
mother, that its character might be elu;i
dated.
The mother no sooner saw il than sh
recognized it as a certificate Of deposit
and her true womanly instincts, all loya
still to the husband Of her youth, surmiset
Immediately that it might, in some way, b
connected with his alleged ,defalcatior
She lost no time in showing il to the be
nevolent surety, who still lived in tn
neighborhood, and who had constantly a.
sisted her in her struggles to keep th
family from want and educate the children
lie had long exercised tbe 9fies Of jastiC