The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-03-27
The Aged Greenback Destroyer.

EVERY afternoon at four o'clock sew
enty-hve female scrubbers and sweep
ers are let loose on the halls and rooms
of the Treasury building. Prior to this
charge of the broom brigade, they are
massed in one of the lower halls with
their brooms, buckets, brushes, squill-
colors and nationalities. Their pay is
fifteen dollars per month. and occasion
ally among them may be found women
who once came to Washington in quest
of positions more lucrative. But bread
is as pressing a necessity in Washing
ton as elsewhere, and scrubbing is bet
ter than starvation.
In company with the matron, Mrs.
Scidmore, l reviewed the broom brig
ade the other day in the basement after
the hours allotted to Treasury visitors.
Seventy-five busters and sweepers seem
an imposing number, but when scat
tered about the halls of the vast building
at their work they are few and far be-
tween. The waste paper collected is
sorted and placed in three bins, for there
are grades even in waste paper. Going
to the top floor found myself in lanes,
passages, highways and byways of
Treasury accouhts, ledgers, records,
big books, little books and millions of
packages in millions of pigeon holes,
all red tapped and tagged. It's frightful
to contemplate this avalanche of finan-
cial reckoning from all the States, en-
bracing Custom House, Army and Navy
affairs, and all other business since our
Government saw the light. There isn't
room for it. Piles Of accounts and well
worn ledgers cucumber the landings
and Railways. From the Treasury gar
ret | was taken once more to the Treas
ury cellar. Here are the carpenters
and blacksmiths shops, for the Treasury
makes all its own desks and pigeon
holes and paints and varnishes them.
But the chief anxiety was to show me
the macerator." The macerator was
at work. The macerator is the mill
wherein is ground to a soft, nasty pulp
the called-in and condemned green
backs. 1t grinds to utter paste and i'm
possibility of recognition from 800, 600
to $500, 900 daily. 1t has ten-horse
power engine all to itself, and grinds
about two hours daily. The money
goes into a huge round cauldron-like
hopper into which open three small
dials secured by three separate locks.
The obsequies of the condemned green
backs are daily observed with a rigid
and precise formality. Three separate
United States Treasury officials, men of
known trust, probity and honor, "high-
ly respected by all who know them, :"
carry the condemned bills to the sacri-
fetal hopper, unlock the sacred doors,
chuck them in, lock them up and care
fully watch each other to see that none
of this Government paper sticks to their
clothing or to the tar on their heels.
Then hot water is let on, and the cogs
of the Government coffee mill rend the
tens, hundreds and thousand dollar
notes to atoms. You may look through
little window in the top of the hop
per and see this process of liquidation
going ON. The engineer scooped up a
handful of the ground up CURRENCY
from mass and put it near my nose
and eyes for inspection. 1t is a nasty
muck. Yet, since it has been money.
one gazes at it with grief, curiosity and
even respect. The Washington people
get hold of this financial filth devel-
oped from rags, which after a circula-
ton of years in greasy pockets and
pocket-books, passing from dirty hands
to dlrtier, from den to dive, from dis