Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1890-10-08
WORN AND TORN BILLS.
singular Ways In Which Pap0r Nosley
Has Been Lost Rnd Destroyed.

out OF existence, the Trea sury will give the
full value Of the original note says the
washington Post. Naturally the greatest
destruction Of money wrought by tireand
bits OF bills with charred e iges are con-
stantly coming in for redemption.
But several instances have occurred
where men, in their desperation Mt their loss,
have simply boxed up q lot of ashes, In
which there was not the slightest trace OF
the original material, and demanded hun
dreds and thousands of dollars for thea.
Such requests are, of course, refused, and
the senders are informed that their only
recourse is to ask Congress by special act
indemnify them.
Next to fire the young baby is put down
In the department as the most destructive
agent. Innumerable affidavit are received
in which John Jones. or whatever his name
may be, "being duly sworn, deposes and
say - that his infant son did chew up and
swallow the missing portions of certain five
dollar bills, and that the said missing por-
: tions were thereby wholly destroyed and
are now no longer in existence.
The fashion of keeping small pet dogs has
also been the cause of many solemn afii-
davits being sent to the department.. Your
pug and your poodle seem to take especial
delight in mastic iting the fruit and reward
OF the many days of severe toll of the head
of the house.
The fancy of mico for ten dollar bills as
lining for luxurious nests has been i'm
pressed. upon the redemption bureau by
long series of examples. Only few days
ago several hundred dollars worth of nest
lining was redeemed for Southern imam
who had for many years given up oil idea
OF finding his missing treasure. There
was 500 of it in the first place, notes OF
almost the first issue made by the Govern
mept early in war times. 1t had been hid
dep away in place supposed to be secure,
aud had disappeared. A quarter OF q
century later, in repairing the porch of the
old house, the nest Of tn. wealthy mouse had
been discovered, and enough of the frag-
ments recovered to secure more than half
of the original deposit.
Also from the South come most of the
moldy, worm-eaten bills which have been
hidden in bottles or buried in the earth for
years. There are not as many savings
banks In the South as in thrifty New En-
gland, and hiding places are used.
But the habit of using the parlor orixitch-
en- stove as safety deposit vault is not
confined to any one section of the country.
Neither is the custom Of burning up this
treasure by some other member of the fam
lily who is all unaware OF its value Years
ago the clerks in the redemption bureau
ceased to declaim upon the stupidity of such
people. 1t has become matter Of course
with them and they expect about so many
letters every week from people who have
warmed two dollar pair of hands with 8, 200
worth Of silver certificates.
Evidence OF family row crops out in a
queer way in the bureau occasionally. Mr..
Blank sends on the halt Off ten dollar noto
with a torn edge and an ahkdavit that the
remainder Of the note has 6een destroyed.
Presently comes the other lalf with cor
respondingly ragged edge and an affidavit
from Mrs. Blank that the first half has been
destroyed. Then the redemption bureau
people know that there has been an exciting
time over money in the Blank family, and
there is before them Q vivid picture of
Blank cnging to one end of the note and
his wife TO the other end until itparts in the
middle.
Counterfeit money comes from every part
OF the country. mutilated probably by de-
sign, with requests for its redemption. 1t
is always indelibly stamped "counterfeit'
and returned to the sender. The redemp-
tion bureau is not good place for ''shoving
the queer" even in fragmentary condition.
There is In the Treasury vault brown,
wooden box eighteen inches long, q foot
wide and eight inches deep, which contains
paper money of the nominal value of several
hundred thousand dollars. 1t Is not worth
dollar. The queer thing aoout it is the
manner In which 1t was collected. Every
bit of it came from the dead-letter Office of
the Post-OMce Department Some portion
of it is counterfeit, but most of it was gen.
uine money many years ago. The banks