Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-05-27
Uncle Sans Conscience Fund. .

From the New York Sun.
In the vaults of the United States
treasury at Washington there is the
SUM of 1920, 1926 which is entered
upon the books of the treasurer as
Miscellaneous receipts from persons
unknown, and which sum constitutes
WHAT is known as the Conscience
Fund, as it Is supposed to come from
pet,nle who have at some time de-
frauded the government, and who
wish to make restitution by refunding
the amount of their populations.
This conscience fund, said a treas
ury official, ''has bsen steadily in
creasing for sixty years, until now it
reaches the enormous sum of nearly
quarter of million dollars. The hrst
money of the kind received at the
treasury was $3.50, received in 1927,
from an unknown person who ex-
planned in his letter that he was re-
funding for some customs that he had
once defrauded the government of.
Since that time remittances of all
amounts ranging from eight cents to
50, 500 have been coming in. They
come from all over the country, and
even from foreign lands. A letter was
received not long ago from fellow
out in the Sandwich islands enclosing
$3.50, which, he explained, was the
proceeds of the sale of some old brass
he had stolen from an American man.
DIVA: several years previous at the
Mare island navy-yard. The recollec-
ton OF his crime worried him until he
had to refund to ease his conscience.
"a great deal of this money is re-
ceived from the priests and ministers,
who write that some sinner in their
parish requested them to send it i'll.
During the smallpox epidemic in Can.
ada a Catholic priest in Quebec sent
us draft for $50 which adyiag Cana.
dian had given him, confessing he had
stolen that amount from the United
States government, but not giving the
details. Frequently nothing accom-
panies the remittnnce to indicate what
it is for, but generally line or two OF
explanation is gwen. Not long since
we received letter enclosing an old
and creased $40 bill with a note as
follows:
''GRIDLEY, Georgy, Febuery 4.-Mister
treasury pleas take this ten dolers it is all
have got and | have had it long time
but don't want it more for my old man
said as how he had stole mule from the
yankees just after the surrender and as
how he reckin it mite be stealth for the war
was done over with and he did not have
any rite to take nothin from the yankees
no more and so / don'twant no stealing in
my family and | reckin the mule warnt
wuth more than ten dolers for it war a
a spawned old critter anyway and amt
got no more money your umble sarvint.
ANN GRAY Hoes.
''P. S.-My old man died last week"
There was u case of true conscien-
tiousness. Another time we received
letter containing four tNo-cent
stamps, but not a line ofexplanation
This, believe, is the smallest contri-
button ever sent in. Another letter,
postmarked at Kansas City, was re.
ceived enclosing ten So bills, with a
note saying, This money belongs to
the government A fellow out in Mis-
souri, sent in S21, with the explana-
ton that he had broken into post
office in New York state some years
previous and stolen that amount, but
having since joined the Methodist
church he felt that he could not be
forgiven for his sin until he refunded the
money.
1.-TWO letters were received from
men who said they had been quarter
masters in the United States army
during the war and had defrauded the
government. One of them RENTED
the amount of his peculation, with in
terest at six per cent. for twenty years.
A bookkeeper in some wholesale house
in New York wrote that in making
out a bill for some supplies furnished
the government be had by mistake
overcharged $50, and, not wishing to
acknowledge his error for fear OF being
discharged, he wanted to pay back
the money.
"1n January we received an official
envelope postmarked at New York,
and containing 50, 500 in bills, one of
81 900, two OF $500 and five OF 500.
They were all cut in two, with a small
piece cut from the centre, and the
word Cancelled written across the
face. A note enclosed ran thus:
Here are $500 in United States
bills, mutilated so as to insure the
governments getting the money.
Whatsoever a man sows, that he shall
reap. / have sowed the wind and am
reaping the whirlwind. This is next
to the final payment due. God grant
me speedy release.
1--WE had received $500 from New
York shorty before, and circum-
stances connected with the two remit
tances indicated that they were both
from the same party.
"There is tale connected with a
conscience item OF $500 we once re-
ceived. A gentleman down in New Or
leans wrote, enclosing a check for $500,
with the following explanation: He
said that up to a few weeks previous
there had lived an old man at the
mouth of Calcassieu pass in Mississippi
who was reported to be q SNUG
'gler. He lived in a miserable hut
near the beach, and was ostensi-
bly, fisherman. This gentleman who
sent the money, and whom we will
call Smith, was out ducking one day,
and severe storm coming up, he
sought refuge in the old fsherman's
hut. He found the old man very sick
in fact, dying. Smith stayed with
him all that night, and about daylight
the old man died, having made Smith
swear that he would send S500in bills,
which he would find secreted behind
board in the wall, to the United States
treasury. The old man said that a
year before, while going out to his nets
one morning, he found a drowned
mans body washed up on Caleassieu
bar, and in a leather wallet on the
mans person were these bills. Some
papers showed the man to have been
an officer in the United States navy.
The old man buried the body and APP
propIiated the money, but would
never use it. Smith kept his word and
sent the money in.
zone man sent in 500 bill with
most contrite letter brimful ofremorse
and repentance. The bill was found
to be counterfeit.
I'D