Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-09-06
INDIFFERENT TOMILLIONS
HOW THE TREASURY EN-
PLOYES GROW CARELESS.
Treasurer Wyman's Excuse for the Re
cent Glaring Negligence-NavaI Officers
Plotting-HOw the Next Congress will
be Housed-The Pathetic End of Mas
ter Putnam

cent Glaring NegIigence-NavaI Officers
Plotting-HOw the Next Congress viii
be Housed-The Pathetic End of Mas
ter Putnam.
Correspondence Of the Noyniag Ne1os.
W WASHINGTON, Sept. 5.-Mr. Wyman,
Treasurer of the United States, recently
made report upon some missing notes.
In that report he incidentally referred to
the fact that quite a number of similar
cases had come within his knowledge, and
that clerks, as general rule, We're care
less in the handling of money. asked
Mr.. Wyman about this to-day. He has
been in the Treasury Department for
twenty years, starting in as s., 200 clerk
and winding up with his present position
of United States Treasurer. He said i'm
reply: ''The whole thing can be ex-
planned in comparatively few words.
l have noted, from the time that l have
been handling public money, that the man
who is accustomed to have government
checks, money and bonds. and the inter-
est on the latter, pass through his hands,
in the course of time becomes callOus.
Though thoroughly responsible in every
respect, he-and it is in accordance with
human nature-becOmes so accustomed to
handling big sums of money that he does
not regard it as of any value beyond the
responsibility that a man would feel who
tied up for customer a twenty-five-cent
parcel OF dry goods. The people
who handle the government funds,
therefore, get reckless and careless. They
see no value in what passes through their
hands. Mistakes must occur, but they
are not willful. They are simply the re-
suit of an inevitable action on the human
mind. / have noticed this for years.
There is not man now i'll the cash room
who is not more or less careless. But il
would be nonsense to remove any of them
And for this reason: Although an old
man in the business may by usage, as |
have described, make many mistakes, he
would not make half the errors that a
new man would
THERE HAS BEEN A CONFERENCE
between naval officers stationed here and
among officers who come here to receive
their orders and depart. In fact there
have been a number of conferences of this
character. Officers of the navy are smart
ing under the injustice which they think
was done them at the hands of the last
Congress. They want what might be
called remedial legislation. They don't
expect, they say, to get back to where
they were before the last naval
bill was passed, but they want
something. Therefore they have banded
themselves together, and will work to
undo something of that which was accom-
plished by Mr.. Robson at the last session.
AS the South has always been somewhat
partial to the navy, both before and since
the war, they expect to be received favor
ably by the next House, and hope that Mr.
RObesOn's legislation may be made
nOnenity or be materially altered, so that
the lower grades of officers in the line NAV
hope that i'll far distant years they may be
enabled to get enough pay TO allow them
to take unto themselves wives.
Your correspondent has within the past
few days talked to number of
REAL ESTATE AGENTS
in this city. OF course they all say that
Washington is just booming for the in
yestment of money in that kind of prom
erty. But that is not the idea which |
wanted to get at. / wanted specially to
know if there was any clue as to how
members of the next Congress were going
to live. l had heard it limited that
they were going to give up cheap
boarding houses and hotels and live in
private houses rented for their own use.
l found that such was the case There
has never been a Congress like the next.
which has concluded TO flock by itself en-
fdmiIle. Members and Senator's, both
new and old, have rented and are renting
houses, furnished and unfurniShed, to an
extent never before known. They usually
take furnished houses. There is one pO-
tent reason for this beyond the fact that a
member of Congress is charged more at a
hotel or clearinghouse than anybody
else. That reason is the privacy
which is the accompaniment ofoccupying
other than public quarters. A man who
stays at an hotel, or a public boarding
house, is public property. He can be an
-nOyed indiscriminately. When he, how
ever, lives privately he ceases to become
common target, and the fact that he
lives in his own house, even temporarily,
is sufficient to ward off an army of cor
morants. The movement thus started
promises to result in a prevalence of
members of Congress at their houses of
nights instead of an overwhelming mass
OF them around the various hotel lObbieS.
THE LATEST IMPORTATION
received by the Navy Department from
the vicinity of Alaska indicates that GER
tain small relics of a supposed naval
officer have been found on Prince Ed
wards Island. These relics-a button
and penny-are supposed to have be-
longed to Master Charles F. Putnam, who
was swept out to sea from the Alaskan
coast on an ice foe. Putnam was one of
the officers Of the Rodgers, which was
sent in search of the Jeanette. His death
was a singularly sad one. His parents |
were wealthy. He had all that even a
young man could desire. He was of dark
skin, big black eyes, sineWy and agile. !
He was in short an admirable crichtOn. !
When at Annapolis his handsome bear |
Ing, clear mind, physical ability and per-
feet independence-the latter character !
istic so seldom found in New England |
people-endeared HIM to all. Unlike a |
great many young men possessing these |
qualities he was always to be found, |
when opportunity favored, in the COM |
pany of ladies. He could suit himself |
with an easy grace to any COM
pany in which he found himself. |
He would fight-which is a
characteristic of the Thoroughbred Yam. |
kee-at a moments notice Before Ieav- |
ing Annapolis and afterwards in the ser.
vice he frequently engaged in battles with |
those with whom he had differences. He |
would not. however, seek a quarrel but /
being quick at taking offense often found |
himself compelled to fight. He never shirk- |
ed that duty. When he left on the Rodpers |
from San Francisco he was engaged to
q beautiful young lady of that city. His
lather died soon after he graduated from
Annapolis in 1876. He was an only child.
and his mother, in the midst of her wealth
is said to be inconsolable. His short his
tory, with the wiQledBess left out. re-
minds one furcibly of the character of
Steerforth, which Dickens presents TO MS
In DaYid COpperteld.
Monument to Leblanc
tSW hen M Dumac vioi+oa CIoc.o-...- .