Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-04-03
Mutilated No tes in the Treasury
DeDar tment.

Oepar tment.
Farther on we come to the room de-
voted to the counting OF tile mutilated
money received by mail, for, i'm addition
TO the receipts by express, an average
of one hundred packages is received
each day by mail. The money so re-
ceived is in much worse condition than
that which comes by express, for the
reason that currency which is mutilated
is redeemable only by the Treasurer,
and usually coueS in small amounts by
mail; while the various assistant treas
urers, depositaries, and depositary
banks are agents for the redemption OF
currency merely soiled and defaced,
which is forwarded by them to the
Treasurer by express. The money re-
ceived by mail comes in all sorts Of
damaged conditions, and has all i'm
aginable kinds of horrible or ludicrous
histories. Sometimes it has been
swallowed by calf or goat, which,
finding a pocket-book carele5sly lett
within its reach, proceeded to regale
itself with the salt which the leather
mad absorbed from the perspiration,
until the book was forced open and the
contents exposed. The green notes
had an inviting and familiar appear
ance, and the contiding animal eagerly
= Swallowed them and SO sealed his own
death-warrant;fo for the owner, returning
and seeing the wreck of the pocket
book, rightly conjectured where his
money had disappeared, put the unwit-
ting thief to death and recovered the
half-digested notes. Others have been
found on the bodies of drowned Or
,,atrrdnraH runnlrc rNarDhannn affnr
their death. Frequently they have
been so burned that nothing remains
but the charred resemblance of notes,
so frail. and brittle slight touch will
change them to cinders. Sometimes a
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 eX-
changed for new note with which 10
pay for food and lodging. Or it may
be that it is one which a termagant wife
has thrown into the fire TO spite her
hen-pecked mate, who has rescued it
before it was entirely devodred by the
flames; or one that some luxurious
LIDS olOlCu kllO
drawer and used to line his nest. Once
poor Frenchman sent a handful OF
minute fragments of notes, with the
statement that they had ''met with Tire
accident of little dog" Our Fenian
friends are prone to put lighted pipes
in the same pockets in which they car
ry money. The consequence is that
many greenbacks with round holes
and looking for all the world like bull
let-riddled ensigns of the Irish Repub-
lie. Some stories are so frequently re-
peated as to excite grave doubt OF their
entire trutnfulneSs. For instance, a
note which is so badly damaged as to
call for a severe stretch of the rules in
order to make it worth anything, is
pretty sure to be said to belong to a
poor, hard-working vic ow withan as
tonishing number of children, ,for whom
the writer, tn the fuiIness 0f his char
liable heart, has forwarded in for re-
demption.
All these notes, SO variously multi
ated, must be restored as nearlya5 may
be to their original shapes their value
can be definitely ascertained. Here
again the skillful fingers Of women are
C<tilcu lllO -IStulSltAOus AoOtHO VI tsiO
women employed in this work have,
by long experience, become exceedingly
expert in pasting and restoring notes.
Fragments which are SO burned rs to
seem to Others only fci1arred pieces OF
paper, or SO minute as to be almost
indistinguishable, under their patient
hands again assume the semblance of
notes, so that their kinds and denom-
nations can be readily distinguished.
Notes which have been nibbled by
mice into such tiny fragments that
most persons would say that it was be-
yond human power to restore them to
their original shapes, are arrangd and
restored bit by bit, until after perhaps
a labor OF days they begin to assume
their former forms, and at last are re-
stored with sufficient perfection to
warrant their redemption. These ladies
have made an art in which they have
no rivals. 1t would require years to
educate 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
Department. From "AR Ho,TAn'O'lg
tie Green6acks," an illustrated article
in ,Scri6aea''S for AprH.