, 1889-05-03
GOOD BILLS FOR SCRAPS.
NOVEL WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT
REDEMPTION BUREAU.

Singular Ways In which Money Has Been
D~estroyed-Fire, the Baby and the Pet
Dog Among the Chief Agents of De
structIon-No Chance to Dcfraud.
When n small portion of n United States
note is returned TO tho treasury with
sufficient proof that the remainder of 1t
has gone out of existence, the treasury
will give the full value of the original
note. Naturally the greatest destruction
of money is wrought by fire, and bits of
bills with charred edges are constantly
coming in for redemption.
But several instances have occurred
where men, in their desperation at their
loss, have simply boxed up n lot of ashes,
in which there was not the slightest
trace of the original material and de
manded hundreds and thousands Of dol
lars for them Such requests are, of
course, refused, and the senders are in
formed that their only recours is TO ask
congress by special act to indemnify
them.
MICE WITH EXPENSIVE NESTS.
Next to fire the young baby is put
down in the department as the most de-
structivo agent. Innumerable afiidavits
arc received in which John Jones, or
whatever his name may be, being duly
sworn, deposes and says" that his in
fam son did chew up and swallow the
missing portions of certain IS bills, and
that the said missing portions were
thereby wholly destroyed md are now
no longer in existence.
Tho fashion Of Eoopfpr ap,an not Iors
has also been the cause of many solemn
afidavits being sent TO the department
Your pug and your poodle seem to take
especial delight in masticating the fruit
and reward of tho many days of severe
toll of the head of the house.
Tho fancy Of mice for $40 bills Us lin
ing for luxurious nests has been impress
ed upon tho redemption bureau by n long
series of examples. Only n few days
ago several hundred dollars worth of
nest lining was redeemed for n southern
man who had for many years given up
all idea of finding his missing treasure.
There was 500 Of it in the first place,
notes Of almost the first issue made by
the government early in war times. 1t
had been hidden away in q place sup
posed to be secure, and had disappeared
A quarter of n century later, in repair
ing the porch of tho old house, tho nest
of the wealthy mouse had bcen discov-
cred, and enough of the fragments re-
covered to ecure moro than half of the
original deposit.
Also from tho south came most of the
moldy, worm eaten bills which have
been hidden In bottles or buried In the
earth for years. There are not so many
savings banks in the south MS in thrifty
New England, and hiding places are
used.
But the habit of using the parlor or
kitchen stove as n safety deposit vault Is
no confined to any one section of tho
country. Neither is the custom of burn
ing up this treasur by some other mem
Der of the family who is all unaware of
its value. Years ago tho clerks in the re-
demption bureau ceased to declaim upon
the stupidity of such people. 1t has be-
come matter of course with them, and
they expect about so many letters every
week from people who havo warmed two
pair of hands with 81 900 worth of silver
certificates.
FROM II DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
There arc not many attempts to de-
fraud the government through tho re
demption bureau. and none have been
successful. The sending of the two halves
of n motto of large denomination by diff
fercnt people, each ono swearing that
the other half is destroyed, and asking
for tho full value of the note, frequently
looks like an attempt to dcfraud, but the
AHf.fnla 1lfply flat ~ ,,4.k ,ann, al.
senders believe they retelling the truth.
Counterfeit money comes from every
part of the country, mutilated, probably
by design, with requests for its rcdemp-
ton. 1t is always indelibly stamped
counterfeit" and returned to the sender.
Tho redemption bureau Is not n good
place for Showing the queer" even in n
f~ragmentary condition.
There is in the treasury vault n brown
wooden box eighteen inches long, n foot
wide and eight inches deep, which con-
tains paper money of tho 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 1t came from the
dead letter office of the postofice depart
meIL- OOfne portion OF IL Is counterfeit,
but the most Of it was genuine money
many years ago. The banks which Is
sued it and the officers who signed 1t
are gone and forgotten. 1t was all sent
over to the treasury department some
years ago, and Assistant Treasurer
Whelpley undertook to trace up the
various banks and get as much as posi-
BILE of it redeemed. Occasionally he
found descendants OF these old bank Of
ficials, themselves bankers, who were
willing to redeem some of the notes for
the sake of tho signatures of their
fathers, and in this way he succeeded In
getting several hundred dollars worth of
it redeemed.
But of that remaining, not u bill can
be redeemed. A little of 1t Is Con-
federate money, put 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 1912. One
package contained S54 900 and another
$1,000. The mystery is how so much
money could have zen lost in the mail.
Neither the men who sent it o the ones
TO whom it was sent could be found by
the postolfice department, nor could Mr..
Whelpley find any trace of them or their
descandants The 50 m nackoO was