Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1890-09-17
WORN AND TORN ellis.


out of existence, the rrea sury will give the
full value of the orr ginal note, says tho
Washington Post. Naturally the grea test
destruction of money IS wrought by fre,an1
bits OF bills with eharrea lges are con-
stantly coming in for redemption.
Bat several instances havo occurred
where men, in their desperation at theirloss,
have simply boxed up lot of ashes, in
which there was not the slightest trace of
the original material, and demanded hun
dreds and thousands of dollars for them.
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 5 are received
in which Joan Jones, or whltever 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 afl-
davits being sent to the department.. Your
pug and your poodle seem to take especial
delight in mastic ting the frait and reward
of the many days Of severe toll of the head
of the house.
The fancy of mic, for ten dollar bills as
lining for luxurious nests has been i'm.
pre- scd upon the redemption bureau by q
long series of examples. Only a few days
ago several hundred dollars worth of nest
Inning was redeemed for Southern man
who had Tor 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 Govern
ment early in war times. II had been hid
den away in place supposed to be secure
and had disl 0oelred. A quarter OF a
century later, in repairing the porch of the
oil 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
Eoldy, 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 orlSitch-
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
| ilywho 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 81, 900
worth of silver certificates.
Evidence of a family row crops out in n
| queer way in the bureau occasionally. Mr..
Blank sends on the hail Of ten dollar note
with torn edge and an affidavit that the
remainder of the note has been destroyed.
| Presently comes the other half with cor
respondlngly ragged edge and an affidavit
rom Mrs. Blank tnat 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 a VIVID picture of
! Blank clinging to one end of the note aud
| ais wife 10 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 re iemption. 1t
is always indelibly stamped counterfeit"
md returned to the sender. The redemp-
| ton bureau is not q good place for "shoving
the queer" even in "a ftagnentary cond ton.
There is IN the Treasury vault brown,
wooden box eighteen inches long, foot
wide and eight inches deep, which contains
| paper money OF the nominal value of several
hundred Thousand doliars. 1t IS not worth
dollar. The queer thing aoout it is the
manner In which it was col ccted. Every
bit of it came from the dead-etter Office of
| bhe PoSt-O ai:c DE Jarlmcnt Some portion
| OF it is counterfeit, but most OF it was gen.