The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-30
ONLY 4 PENS sCRATCE,
But Monstrous troubles Lay Follow
IN It's Wake
Fro,, the PaIodelphiq Reoord

IN It's wake.
From the Philadelphia Record
1.-THE witcbery Of one little numeral will
set the world awry,n said phllosophizing
postofice Official a few days ago. "Sir
Isaac Newton's capricious terrier destroyed
the work Of months by e single switch of
his tail. and the error Of a paltry nickel
may roll up into thousands Of loss 70 some
body. T5s man who invented numbers
ought to have known better than 70 make
an so closely resemble a g. BOokkeepers
have gotten them mixed from time Imme-
mortal, and thousands Of hairs have grown
gray in the attempt to straighten out the
errors that have grown out Of such a mix
ture.
JUST FIVE CENTS MISTAKE.
"Why, recently a clerk in the postoffice
spent a great par [ Of six weeks in trying 70
lust an error of this sort that had crept
into his accounts. The Philadelphia Office
Is subservIent to Washington, and all the
transactions here must be accounted for
there. The error was discovered at the
main Office, and a lively correspondence
began vita a view to setting it right For
nearly five weeks this correspondence con
tlnued- There was thorough overhaulirg
Of figures, iteration and reteration of addi-
ton, subtraction and ali the rest, and at the
end perfect balance, y hlch was in amount
Just cents in excess Of the original balance
found some weeks previous Hours Of cal
culation and an abundance of letter-writing
had been necessitated by the dropping out
Of cents.
THE EXPERT ACCOUNTANT GROWS FAT.
This is the freshest case have in mind,
but there have been lots of like character
There was a New York financier who paid
man for nearly ten months to wade
through his books and discover the cause of
the discrepancy-S2 900 or so-between the
contents of his wallet and the statement of
his ledger. When the searcher at length
cried Eureka" his discovery was that 50
had been made to appear as 30, and with
the cumulative force of several months a
big error had grown uU. The capitalist
paid his helper 81, 400 for his services but
his sense OF satisfaction at the find" made
him quite oblivious Of what it had cost him.
ERRORS TRAIL OVER MILES,
"These errors are bound to happen in
even the best regulated business house but
perhaps their occurrence in a postofffce in
creases the difficulty of their adjustment,
since they are more than local in their rela-
tiors. In the money order department it is
almost impossible that these otfenses should
be committed, though in the transmission
Of money across the ocean | have known in
past years instances where interminable
complications have arisen. If a Partisan,
for example, sends money to New Orleans,
he takes out an order in terms of francs
This must be converted into dollars and
cents in New York, and then sent on its
journey. If difficulty arises or an error
is detected after it has reached its destina-
ton it must take backward steps through
the New Orleans postoffice, thence to New,
York, to the Washington office, and finally,
to Paris.
FOLLOWING HARD ON THE TRACK.
Here must ensue various adjustments
and explanations, and there may be long
and tedious periods of delay. All the mis-
takes that have accumulated must be care
fully traced out one by one, and supreme
caution must be employed. If the original
error is not easily discovered, the officials
at each of the several stages of the missive's
journey must be set searching, and numer-
Gus letters relative to the matter must pass
between them. l speak as if this was a
matter of ordinary occurrence, but it is
really far from being so. Only at very
rare intervals, in fact only twice within my
recollection, have any serious difficulties
arisen. One time the error was due to a
bit of ambiguously penned German script;
at another time to the confusion attendant
upon the conversion of Spanish currency
into American