American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-05-10
Counting New Greenbacks.

Years of experience have made the
counters who have been longest employed
marvelously expert and almost infallibie,
their fingers passing from one note to an
other with the CELEBRITY and regularity of
some wonderful machine. The lady
who sits nearest to the chief OF
the room, and who has come to
be considered sort of assistant
to him, having sometimes performed his
duties during his absence, has been en-
gagged in the division ever since its origin
ization in io02, and probably has no rival
in accuracy ard deXterity in counting.
On many occasions she has counted fifty
thousand notes in one day As the nomi-
nal hours of labor are from nine to three
O'Clock, end as at least half an hour must
he deducted from this for necessary inter
ruptiOns and for lunch, the time occupied
in counting these fifty thousand notes was
five and half hours. This is at the rate
of nine thousand and ninety every hour,
one hundred and fifty every minute, and
two and a half every second, The lady
informs us that it is no unusual feat her to
pick up bundle containing four thou
sand legal-tender notes in twenty minutes,
We doubt whether this can be exceled.
If any gentleman thinks it can, let him
try the experiment of simply tapping his
finger on table at the above rate, and
we predict that at the end of
half an hours trial he will change his
mind. There are other ladies who are al
most as rapid and accurate. They are
sometimes called upon, with others equal
ly skillful from the redemption division,
to visit other cities, when the Treasury of
fees in those places are to be examined,
and to assist in counting the Government
funds there.
Through this division and under these
skillful fingers has passed every note,
whether legal-tender or fractional, which
has been issued by the United States since
the beginning of the rebellion-every note
which we have ever handled or seen-as
well as all the gold-notes, and many mill
ions of imperfect bonds and notes which
were never put in circulation. The total
value of the money which has been count
ed in this division previous to the first
day of July, 1872, was, according to the
Treasurers last annual report, nearly two
thousand nine hundred million dollars
more than two hundred and twenty-thre
millions of which consisted of postal and
fractional currency. Just now, the count
ers find full employment in counting
new legal-tender and fractional notes.
From ''An Hour AnaOng tie Greenbdcks," in
Scribner's for april
SOCIETY is commonly too cheap. We
meet at very short intervals, not having
had time to acquire Il new value for each
other. We meet at meals three tunes
day, and give each other Il new taste of that
old musty cheese that we are. We have
had to agree on certain certain set of
rules, called etiquette and politeness, to
make the frequent meeting tolerable, and
that we need not come to open war.-H.
ID. 7Horedu
A GERMAN farmer rushed into one of
our dry goods stores the other day and hur
riedly inquired of the clerk if he could
give him "zom small pills for vife."
The clerk told him they did not keep pills,
and told him to go to the drug store. He
afterwards found out that it was as small
bills for Il tive'' the man wanted instead of
physic for his "vrow."
MAGIC YEAsT.-One cupful of good hop
yeast, one cupful of flour batter one table
spoonful of brown sugar mixed with water
to the consistency of yeast. Mix these to-
gether, and let the mixture stand for TWEEN
ty-four hours, when it will be ready for
use. Whenever you use the yeast, replace
the amount taken out by Il like amount of
batter and the yeast will steadily improve,
the presence of the hop yeast in SO large
proportion in the first mixture making ii
less agreeable to sensitive tastes than it
becomes afterwards. In winter use warm
water in making the batter. Keep the
yeast cool in summer and warm in win
ter