Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-11-27
THREE BA X ERS 4 j, 10 CH.

ss ss IL
THREE B B "A AT / 10
Each sol. One lRelatss m Alleged Trne In
notwithstanding How Persons who Ham
y die Other Peoples Money arc Tempted
4 and How soAae Rslnain Honest.
From tho New York Times.
Three downtown bankers sat at a
lunch table in one ofEthe coy eating
rooms on the top floor Of the Mills
building. It was after banking hours
on q pleasant autumn AFTERNOON.
The mild sunlight peered through q
bull's-eye window facing the Bay and
danced Tnerrily over the. glittering sill
yer and glass paraphernalia of the Ia
BILE. It also causod q blaze Of light to
Hash from the jeweled scarf OF one. Of
the bankers. The threegentlemen had
mot BY accident, and they ts,rried over
their coffee and cigars to enjoy q half
hours social chat. One Of the nun
Der had suggested the desirability of
throwing greater safeguards around
the cash vaults Of banks. Addition
al checks should be placed upon the
cashiers and tellers, (" hesaid. THANKS
must either put q stop ito these fire.
quent defalcations or they will suffer
through the speedy loss of public con-
fdence. E.s.,~ . 1' ~ sg ;.
The youngest and smallest member
of the trio. who is. &. brisk, natty gen
tleman, with grayish side whiskers, a
dearth OF hair on his head and q keen,
observing eye, exclaimed: "Pshaw!
what can you do? It is impossible to
keep a man honest by: watching him.
You must trust your cashier and you
may trust your teller to a certain ex-
tent, no matter how strictyour meth
DDS are. If a man has a grain OF dis
honesty in him the realization that
he is being watched will excite his bas-
er qualities, and in nine cases out Of
ten will make thief OF him. There is
that i'll human nat:;re that makes q
man-especially g. clerk-proud Of be-
ing trusted. Some men, however, are
bound to be thieves, and whether you
watch them or trust them makes no
difference. I have in mind a notable
case OF what I call instructive dishon-
esty."
'''Let lis hear it, exclaimed the 9th
or two gentlemen, settling back COM
fortably on their chairs.
,"All right, you can have it. When
my banking house was in Wall street,
L lost 5000 in United States Treas
ury notes oflarge denominations. One
OF my customers had left the notes at
my office withsa request thai they. be
sent to the Bank Of, which was then,
as you know, one of the soundest
financial institutions in the city. Ny
customer wanted his notes exchanged
for Il certified check drawn by that
particular bank. OF course. after tax
ing the order ! turned the matter over
to one of my clerks, and thought no
more aboutit for the time being. A few
days afterward. the owner of the
Treasury notes came for his certified
check, and called upon my book
keeper for it. why, I seen no such
check, said the book-keeper. ..,,z
",'But you must have it, insisted.
i remember distinctly telling you to
send the notes to the Bank of-and ex-
change them for certified check
al recall the circumstances now,
said the boo|1-keeper, but no check
was ever brought to me-
A diligent search was then made
through the Office, and it did not take
long to find the clerk who had dis
patched the package ofTreasury notes
to the bank. He speedily picked out
the messenger whom he had semitic de-
liver the notes. The boy was young, and
as I thought, very5honest and faithful
He remembered having taken the
package to the bank, but he said that
he did not remember any instructions
concerning certified check. He was
positive that he took the notes where
he was told to take them, but he could
not recollect to whom he gave them.
He came directly back to my office
and nothing was said to him about a
certified check. Well, / sent my con-
fideptial clerk to the Bank of -, and
he saw the President, Cashier and Re-
ceiving Teller, and was assured in the
most positive manner by each one OF
them that no such package OF Treasu-
ry notes as described had been re-
ceived at their bank. Next Isubjected
my messenger boy to a searching cross
examination. He "stoutly insisted
that he had delivered the package as
directed, but being a mere lad he nat
urally became nervous and began to
cry. told him that if he had lost the
package and would tell me all aboati it
I would forgive him. He, however,
persisted in his first statement, and
believing that he had either stolen or
lost the notes | discharged him. At
the same time Isent the numbers OF
the missing notes to the Treasury De-
partment at Washington with the in
formation that the notes had either
been lost or stolen" +==sr 800
a.1'Well2"" Intercepted the listeners,
as the speaker paused. e<. = 1T.
almost year passed before I
heard any thing Of those notes. One
day j received a lotter from the
Treasury Department stating that
the missing notes had, been presented,
together with some other currency, in
for some registered bonds.
I wrote for thename of the person who
presented them, and by return mail
Ireceived information that staggered
me. The $4,000 Of Treasury notes
had been sent to Washington to COM
plete 9 private purchase .of bonds by
the President OF the very bank to
which my messenger had been sent
with the package. That man is no
longer a bank President, but he is q
rich man, and you doubtless both
remember him. I had q personal in
terview with him, and showed hin, the
letters that I had received from the
Treasury Depart ment. He turned as
pale as d sheet and tremblingly invit-
ed me to accompany him into a pri-
vateroom. There he broke down
completely, confessed 4 that ahe had
stolen the notes. and begged me to ac-
cept back the amount with interest,