Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-05-23

dompt1On bureau ana none nave O0on
successful The sending Of the two
halves of note Of large denomination
BY different people, each ono swearing
that the other half is destroyed and
asking for the full value of the note.
frequently looks like an attempt to de-
fraud, but the officials think that in
most cases the senders believe they are
telling the truth.
Counterfeit money comes from every
part of the country. mutilated, prob
ably by design, with requests for its
redemption It is always indelibly
stamped counterfeit and returned
to the sender. The rede mption bu-
reau is not good place for SHOWING
the queer" even in fragmentary
condition
The redemption bureau people must
be entertaining correspondents At
least, people like to continue writing
to them, when there is no necessity for
it. A man up in Pennsylvania sent in
a mutilated S. bill some time ago. and
received in return a check for S. on
the sub-Treasury in Philadelphia.
Presently long letter came from him
complaining that the teller of the bank
in his town, who had paid him thou
sands of dollars previously. re-
fused to cash the check unless he
brought somebody to identify him.
What should he do? The bureau cor
respondent answered him courteously
that the bank teller was undoubtedly
following instructions and was doing
right He should take man to identify
him. Back came another long letter.
with further complaint about the
bank teller.
This time the treasury sent him a
S. bill and thought it had
done with him. Not so. All the
letters sent out are signed by the
treasurer as a matter of form. but the
man who actually writes them puts his
initials at the upper left-hand corner
of the sheet and under them is printed
the direction, please quote these
initials in replying" which, of course.
is for the convenience of the depart
ment when the reply is received, so
that the writer of the first letter can
be readily traced. Now, after the
Pennsylvania man had got his money
and had no further business with the
department. he writes another long
letter inquiring why he should always
be asked to quote those initials. He
did not see that he had ever gained
any thing by it, and he would like to
know why he should continue to quote
those initials.
Another courteous letter explained
this matter to him, but he replied that
he did not understand the necessity,
and since it had never done him any
good to quote these initials he would
be blessed if he would do it any more.
This did not seem to require any re-
ply and none was sent, but the re-
demption bureau is daily expecting
another letter from HIM.
There is in the treasury vault q
brown wooden box eighteen inches
long, foot wide and eight inches deep
which contains paper money of the
nominal value of several hundred
thousand dollars. 1t is not worth a
dollar. The queer thing about it is
the manner in which it was collected.
Every bit of it came from tho dead let
ter Office of the Post Office Depart
ment Some portion of it is counter
felt, but the most of it was genuine
money many years ago. The banks
which issued it and the officers who
signed it are gone and forgotten. It
was all sent over to the Treasury
Department some years ago, and As
sistant Treasurer Whelpley undertook
to trace up the various banks and get
as much as possible of it redeemed.
Occasionally:he found descendants of
some of these old bank officials them.
selves bankers, who we're willing to re-
deem some of the notes for the sake of
the signatures of their fathers, and
in this way he succeeded in getting
several hundred dollars worth of it re-
deemed. But of that remaining. not a
bill can be redeemed. A little of it is
Confederate money. but most of it is of
banks, State and private, that went
out of existence many years ago. The
oldest notes are dated back as far as
1872. One package contained $54, 900
and another $1,000. The mystery is
how so much money could have been
lost in the mail. Neither the men who
sent it nor the ones to whom it was
sent could be found by the Post-Ofice
Department, nor could Mr.. Whelpley
find any trace of them or their de-
scendants. The $1,000 package was
sent from Brandon, MISS, to jackson,
Miss. in 1910, and the letter accom-
panying it shows that it was sent in
consequence of repeated demands The
most diligent search fails to discover
the slightest trace of any such banking
company rs that at Brandon. Miss
~ A.