The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-09-05
A FRIEND OF ROOTS.
A ps..l,ar visit to the Treasury Fourteen
Years Ago.

"A EGOtAAA7A $50 go ~~~N@e
Years Ago.
From a Washington Letter.
The silver vault of the treasury de
partment is at last completed, and with
in O few days will receive the first con-
signment of standard dollars-about
5000, 600, in all. 1t will require the
better part of a week to make this
transfer from the old vault, which is
badly overcrowded, to the new one.
The system Of gaurding the enormous
sums of money which are daily ba2dled
10y the department. is so thorough and
complete that only once in the
last fifty years have the repeated
effort of cracksmen aud confidence men
been successful in defeating it. The
particular incident referred to occurred
in 1870, when Spinner was treasurer.
The amount stolen was a package Of
1000 en-dollar notes. The objective
point of the thieves 1.-TWO in number)
was the division issue, the bureau at
which the freshly engraved notes are de-
livered, to be counted and turned into
the treasury.
Subsequent inquiry revealed the fact
that the scheme for the robbery had
been planned and matured several
months previous, waiting meanwhile
with the most c~ommendable patience for
a favorable opportunity to accomplish
it. One day the wife of a prominent
resident of Washington, In company
with another lady and her husband.
were passing the upper door of the
room where the money packages were
piled on a table to be counted. The first
named lady and the chief of division were
we'll acquainted. As she came to the
open door they recognized and saluted
each other, she with her friends adyanc-
ing into the room. While in the act of
doing so one of the thieves forced
himself between her and her friends.
He Immediately entered into converse
ton with Mr.. Root, the chief Of the di-
vision, making inquiry as to the manu-
f~acture, receipt and counting of the
notes. Root supposed him to belong
to his friends party, and was thus
thrown entirely off his guard. The lady
in turn supposed him to be an acquaint-
ance of Roots. A moment later the
two ladies with their gentleman escort
sauntered carelessly to the further ex-
tremity of the room. The principal
thief, whose observations we're clever
and pertinent, soon absorbed Roots
whole attention. His conversation
showed him to be q man Of fine mind
and cultivated While
chatting thus his accomplice has
tily entered and approaching the
messenger whose duty it was to
watch the money packages, made
some casual inquiries about a clerk who
had long since been dead. The woman
turned about to answer his inquiries.
At this juneture thief No. ] exclaimed:
"Ahl / see my friends are leaving. I
must join them.n Root looked in the
direction indicated. Sure enough the
party were moving toward the door.
His eyes were taken off of the stranger
for only an instant, but in that time he
had managed to secrete the package
within the crown of his wide Panama
hat, which he negligently swung In his
left hand. The amazing GOODNESS and
audacity of the maj was then shown by
his polite invitation to Root to go out
and "haye something" The l&ster,
however, declined with thanks, and
the thief made his exit on the p~retence
Of reIoining his friends. The money
wa missed within the hour hat it was
taken, but there was no suspicion that
it had been stolen. On the superstition
that it had not been received from the
bureau Of engraving and printing,
twenty-four hours we're allowed to
elapse. When the fact of the theft was
fully established, the aid of the tele-
graph and secret service detectives was
freely employed. The effort was futile.
The thieves escaped with their booty,
and have never to this day been APP
pretended. The most singular feature
OF the affair is that the stolen package
was only one OF probably q score which
contained notes Of hat denomination.
The contents of the others were mainly
$50 and 800 bills.
Girls BawaraI