The Russellville Democrat., 1881-03-24
TIE CONSCIENCE FUND.
An Increditable story of Death-bed Repent
 unce--Other Remarkable Cases.

An Increditable Story of Death-bod Repent
 ance--otber Remarkable Cases.
 The Washington post publishes the following interesting facts concerning 'conscience money" returned to the Treasury: A rather remarkable letter which was received at the Treasury, yes terday, inclosing . check for $500, and stating that this was sent by an old wo- man on her death-bed. in reparation of a theft of q similar amount, which she had stolen from the Treasury rwenty-seven wears ago, when employed as clerk, reads well to the general public, but sounds suspicious to the Treasury author ities. There are several facts about 1t which led to the conclusion that the story is not genuine one. In the first place, twenty-seven years ago there were no women employed in the department in any capacity. At that time" said an official, "in every room there was pile of tobacco quids in the corner, and clerks sat with their feet on the mantel pieces. Salmon F. Chase appointed the first wo- man to a position in the Treasury, and that was in the year 1861. The sweep 1 ing even, was done by men. Then, again, in those days the revende of the Government was light, and the entire expenditure was comparatively small, so | that there was but a small amount of money kept in the Treasury and $500 would have been very soon missed. At any rate, if this money was taken 1t was made good by some bonded officer who was responsible, and therefore it now does not belong to the Government. There is no record of any such occur renee. Another suspicious circumstance is that the letter is written on a sheet of paper from which printed heading has been torn, and the paper has the same water mark and is identical with paper used in the department. This paper is of peculiar manufacture and is not gen. erally in the market. From these facts the conclusion Is reached at the Treasury that the story is a manufactured one; but whatever may be said of the genuineness of the story, there is no doubt that the $500 note which has already been re- ceived into the Treasury is good, but the letter is evidently made up. There are several theories advanced to account for this singular incident One is that the person wished to pay the amount into the Treasury, and in order to be certain that it's receipt would be announced in- vented this story. Assistant Secretary Upton, who has wide experience with the ways of correspondents of depart ments, thinks that the money was sent and the letter written by crazy person, who had an idea he or she owed the gov ernment this money. He says that it is a common thing for people to get such notions, and, while perfectly sane in other matters, are insane in this particu- lar. He believes that the larger part of contributions to the conscience fund are sent by this class of persons. The result is by no means unprofitable to the gov ernment The conscience fund has all ways been source of much speculation, but beyond bare amount, and sometimes the postoffice from which it was sent nothing has been known. In former years these amounts were placed to the credit of customs or internal revenue re- ceipts, if the sender indicated for what purposes restitution was made; but when nothing was indicated by the sender it was swallowed up in the miscellaneous items of the Treasury. Since 1873, how ever, all receipts from this source have been stated separately to the register of the treasury, and the record of this fund since that date is an interesting one The total amount for each year is very large, considering that it is made up of small sums The following are the re- ceipts to the conscience fund for the l years sDecified.