The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-17
TREASURY BAGS RcB8ED.
Boxes Filled with Shot and Lead In
stead OF oliver.
From the Ne'r YORK Tribune


stead OF oliver
From the Ner YORK Tribune
WASHINGTON, y V. l3.-A deficit has
besn discovered in the Office of the Uaited
STATE, Treasurer which forces the conc,u-
sdon that systematic course of robbery
has been goiug ON for some time. When
tho new silver vault was completed, it was
Jstarn1ined to relieve the minis at Phila-
delnnia and New Orleans of the burden of
silver dollars which crowded them and
.sused great Inconvenience. These silver
JoIIors were first shipped here from
the Philadelphia miut and were
veigbed. counted, and then stored away
In the large vault in the courtyard of the
treasury department. Nothing wrong was
discovered in the money received from thai
noipt. About month ago the work f re-
fievinC the New Orleans mint was begun,
and the silver dollars have been received at
the treasury department at the rate OF
ahout 100000 every Two days The
money was shipped just the same as in the
case of the mint at Philadelphia 1t was
nIaced il. sealed wooden boxes, eacl con-
tanning two bags OF $1,000 each. Of course
II has been impossible for the
clerks here to open the boxes and count the
money as rapidly as it is received, and quite
. number of boxes have accumulated
which have not yet been opened. The boxes
are taken up as rapidly as possible, aud the
first thing done is to weigh them and see if
they are up to the standard. Then the
boxes are opened, the bags taken out, and
fine money counted. The money is then re-
placed in the bags and they are stored away
in the vault.
SHOT AND LEAD WHERE DOLLARS OUGHT
TO BE.
week ago, on opening one of the boxes,
which had boon weighed and found ali
right. one of the bags was found to be filed
with shot so as to weigh exactly what a
thousand silver dollars would weigh. The
other bag in this box was filed with lead
bars of equal weight. The CLERKS who dis
covered the fraud reported the matter at
once, and the facts were laid before Assist
ant Secretary Thompson last Wednesday
morning. That officer Immediately sent
for Mr.. Bell, the chief of the secret service
division and detectives were assigned to in
vestigate the affair thoroughly. The utmost
secrecy has been observed by every one in
the department having knowledge of the
robbery, and the fact only leaked out to-
day by accident.
Further examination showed that the
box in question had been opened after it
had been sealed at the mint in New Or
leans. and when it was sealed the second
time the wax bore, not the impression of
the government seal, but that of a silver
quarter Other boxes were found to have
been tempered with in the same way, and
on examining the bags in them it was dis
covered that portions of their contents had
been distracted, and the weight made up
by shot and lead bars.
THE AMOUNT OF THE LOSS UNKNOWN.
How much money has been taken cannot
now be determined. 1t is estimated that
S.. 900 will cover what is known to be lack
ing, but as there are many boxes yet to be
examined, the amount of which the gov
eminent has been robbed may run into
very high figures. ..-....-..
The treasury officials, of course, claim
that the blame rests upon the express COM
pany which has transported the money.
They say that the boxes are carefully
sealed before they leave the mint and are
guarded on the tram. They are taken
from the station at Washington to the
treasury building in large express wagon,
Gagged in on all sides with heavy steel wire
and guarded by representatives of the ex-
press company and of the treasury, who are
heavily armed and sit on the boxes within
the cage Every care that can be thought
of is taken to guard against loss, and the
detectives are puzzled to know how it was
possible to substitute the shot for the silver
dollars.
WHERE DOES THE RESPONSIBILITY REST!
Mr. Bell, the chief of the secret service,
says that he believes the thieving was GER
tainly done after the boxes left the mint
and before they were delivered at this
department. He says that if the official
clerks doing up the packages had done the
stealing, they could have used the govern
ment seal to fasten the boxes again. This
theory, however, is criticised by outside
detectives, who say that the care that was
taken to make each bag weigh the exact
amount that 100 silver dollars call for
shows that the theft was committed by
some person or persons who had access
10 scales, and who had time carefully
to perform the work of abstraction and
substitution. The fact that the govern
ment seal was not used after the boxes had
been tempered with is not regarded as a
proof of the innocence of those in the mint,
for had the boxes been found prop
erly sealed, the crime would at once
handled them at the mint The substitu-
ton of the impression of a silver quarter
was probably for the purpose of throwing
suspicion upon the employees of the express
company. The department will undoubt-
eddy hold, until more light is thrown upon
the subject, that the express company is re-
sponsible but it will take considerable time
to ascertain the exact extent of the loss
1t is not likely that the express company
will admit its responsibility without an in
vestigation on its own account, and there
may be some startling developments before
the matter is settled. The government Off
cial who is directly responsible for the GUS
tody of the money is the United States
Treasurer, James W. Hyatt. His bond is