The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-27

A Thrilling Incident in the Treasury depart
mont thrillingly told-A Case tna'"ia :.
make spirltualists Proud

WASHINGTON, Aug, "a, 1874.
As the dearth of news, spoken Of in my
last, still continues, l hardly know what TO
tell you, unless you will be patient enough
to listen to little incident which occurred
some time ago, and bothered and perplex-
ed me more than many a weightier matter
would have done.
Belonging to the U. S. Treasurer's bur-
eau, and forming part Of the Redemption
Division, the Mail Division occupied a
prominent position, before the regulations,
permitting people to forward even small
sums of money for redemption, by express,
at government expense, went into effect.
Daily hundreds of letters and packages,
containing all sorts of mutilated money, in
all sorts of denominations, and from all
sorts of people and places, would find their
way into the deft fingers of the eighteen
ladies who formed this sub division.
As the laws of discount were then in
their prime, and necessitated any amount
of nice calculating how much real value
each piece Of torn, soiled paper possessed;
and as people .oould hide away their spare
greenbacks into all manner of places, seem
ingly to tempt rats and mice to make com
Portable little nests out of them tried the
efficacy of the almighty dollar" in paper
form, as food for cattle; or experimental
upon it by assaying it by fire, why, de-
cidea turn for mathematics, patience SUI
perior to Jobs, and that peculiar talent
for detecting the spurious from the genu-
inc at glance, were indispensable in any
one occupying desk in that room. The
consequence was that, with one or two ex-
ceptions a superior class Of ladies were
collected there, who agreed better, work
ed better and took more genuine interest
in each others welfare, than in any other
division in the great building.
Well had swung the immense scissors
in clipping, till my arms seemed in
state of chronic falling off, and had worn
my fingers bloody in counting the monoto-
nous zone, two. three, till one hundred,
of new currency, in the Division of Issues,
when the Redemption" chief took it into
his blessed head that | might answer as
one of the eighteen, and accordingly had
me transferred.
| liked the change immensely The
work was varied, and, while requiring
thought and care, it also furnished not a
little amusement Shade of Webster
how those p. Ms did use the phonetic sys
tenn of spelling with vengeance; and
what lodges people would resort to, to get
good money for counterfeit; and how sol
emily some innocent from some way-otf
jumping off place, would trustingly confde
the political outlook and social news of his
neighborhood to the Honorable the e. s.
Treasurer, who, after all, never saw the
effusion
Well, all things pass away, and the
eighteen have dwindled down to three, with
few dozen instead of hundreds of daily
cases"
1t was in the summer Of II that |, one
day, opened letter from the interior of
SS5 in crumbling bills. | had handled
money coming from all sorts of horrid
places and might have been supposed to
be well fortified against squeamishness in
that line moreover. L IN not superstitious,
but in touching that package, a nameless
horror took possession OF me, which chilled
me to the bone, palsied my hands, aud
gave such an expression of fixed, staring
terror to my face. that the ladies near me
supposed me seized with mortal illness,
and overwhelmed me with kind attentions
and-smelling bottles.
By great effort | regained control over
myself, and not knowing how to explain
my feelings, permitted my kind compan-
ions to remain in their error, pleading
that fresh air and a glass of water would
bring me all right at once. After those
remedies had been found successful, |
managed to read the letter accompanying
the money, finding that the sender, being
coroner, had been notified by some chill
dren who were out "huckleberryiup," that
a dead man lay in the woods that he had
gone there, summoned a jury, and made
all possible inquiries concerning the re-
mains, but had not been able to elucidate
the mystery surrounding them in the
least that the money was found in de-
cayed pocket book clinging to fragments OF
clothing and that he respectfully request
ed to have it exchanged for good, &c, &c
Duty is duty, and in spite OF my repug-
nance each crumbling bit of paper repre-
senting value was nicely arranged and
pasted, on tissue paper; but il ever |
wanted to go home, more at Que time
than another, that was the time, I'm sure. |
Day after day glides silently into the
river OF eternity, carrying joy aud sorrow,
love and hate, sunshine and shadow with
1t. L had almost forgotten the incident
and certainly laughed at myself for an irr-
presslble stupid when / did think of it;
wheh one day letter, stamped. marked
covered with hieroglyphics as only a Euro
pean letter can be, recalled it all, and |
solved the mystery. My friend wrote
GU remember that fierce Italian, don't
you. who used to look daggers at you and
the Professor when you had those delight |
ful scientific discussions in the bay window |
at homers; and who scared us almost out
OF our wits with that horrid stiletto the
night OF the masquerade? Well. he died |
az Rome two weeks ago. Brother VIII
recognized HIM on the street, in spite OF
discharged appearance, land helped to nurse
HIM to the last. just think, before he
died he told Will that, two years ago. he
went on botanizing tour With that Young
Montelli, whose singing we admired so
much, ana that somewhere in northern
New DIRK, he killed him in the woods.
during one of his Berserk fits, and then
made his escape and took the first steamer
TOR Europe. Be glad you did not etc etc"
Some OF my friends think that, after all.
the remains found may not have been those
OF Monteli; but l have no doubt yhatev-
er on the subject, and shall believe it till
some one can prove that they were those of
another, and that some subtle Intelligence
did mol act upon me when came in con.
tact with what had so long lain near his
neglected body. LENARD
saxdust Brandy.
Na ora Sarrr 49, |