The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-04-18
Mutilated Notes In the Treasury De.
Dartment.

t &c.. partMents
Farther on we come to the room de-
voted to the counting of the mutilated
money received by mail, for, in addition
to the receipts by express, an average of
one hundred packages is received each
day by mail. The money so received is
in much worse condition than that which
comes by express, for the reason that
currency which is mutilated is redeema-
BILE only by the Treasurer, and usually
comes in small amounts by mail while
the various assistant treasurers, deposit
aries, and depository banks are agents
for the redemption Of currency merely
soiled and defaced, which is forwarded
by them to the Treasurer by express.
The money received by mail comes in
all sorts of damaged conditions, and has
all imaginable kinds of horrible or ludi-
crous histories. Sometimes it has been
swallowed by calf or goat, which,
finding pocket-book carelessly left
within it's reach, proceeded to regale it.
self with the salt which the leather had
absorbed from the Precipitation, until
the book was forced open and the con-
tents exposed. The green notes had an
inviting and familiar appearance, and
the confding animal eagerly swallowed
them and so sealed his own death war;
rant for the owner, returning and see
ing the wreck of the pocket-book, right
ly conJectured where his money had dis
appeared, put the unwilling thief to
| death and recovered the half-digested
notes. Others have been found ON the
bodies OF drowned or murdered men,
weeks perchance after their death. FREE
quently they have been so burned that
nothing remains but the charred resem-
blance of notes, so frail and brittle that
a slight touch will change them to Gin
ders. Sometimes n note is sent which
some drunken fool, lord for the hour of
untold riches, to show his disregard for
money, has used to light his cigar, but
which, upon the return of reason. he
has FASTENED to send to the Treasurer.
with an humble and penitent request
that it be exchanged for new note with
which to pay for food and lodging. Or
it may be that it is one which q terma-
CANT wife has thrown into the fire to
spite her hen-pecked mate, who has res
cued 1T before it was entirely devoured
by the flames !; or one that some lux
urious mouse has stolen from the money
drawer and used to line his nest. Once
q poor Frenchman sent handful of
minute fragments of notes, with the
statement that they had "met with the
accident of a little dog" Our Fenian
friends are prone to put lighted pipes in
the same pockets in which they carry
money. The consequence is that the
Treasurer receives for redemption a
great many greenbacks with round holes
burnt through them here and there, and
looking for all the world like bullet
riddled ensigns of the Irish Republic.
Some stories are so frequently repeated
as to excite grave doubts of their entire
truthfulness. For instance, a note
which is so badly damaged as to call for
n severe stretch of the rules in order to
make it worth anything, is pretty sure
to be said to belong to poor, hard
working widow with an astonishing
number of children, for whom the
writer, in the fullness of his charitable
heart, has forwarded it for redemption.
All these notes, so variously mutilated,
must be restored as nearly as may be to
their original shapes before their value
can be definitely ascertained. Here
again the skillful fingers of women are
/ CuliCu lllto Icl llSltloli. DOulc VI lue
women employed in this work have, by
long experience, become exceedingly
expert in FASTING and restoring notes.
Fragments which are so burned as to
seem to others only charred pieces of
paper, or so minute as to be almost in
distinguishable, under their patient
hands again assume the semblance of
notes, so that their kinds and denomina-
tons can be readily distinguished
Notes which have been nibbled by mice
into such tiny fragments that most per-
sons would say that it was beyond hut
man power to restore them to their
original shapes, are arranged and re-
stored bit by bit, until after perhaps a
labor of days they begin to assume their
former forms, and at last are restored
with sufficient perfection to warrant
their redemption. These ladies have
made an art in which they have no
rivals. 1t would require years to edu-
cate others to the same degree of skill
and knowledge, and it would be difficult
! to estimate the embarrassment which
their loss would entail on the Depart
ment. Prom "An Hour Among the
| GrcenbackS," In Scribner's.
|