The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-23
THINGS MADE OUT or MONEY.
Red Ind ans. Blue Quakers aad Green
Africans Made of Postage stamps.

seven uLJio reI 1uOlauS anu nVe due
Quakers were exposed for sale yesterday
among other curiosities on stand near the
city postofice. There were also three green
Africans, whose nationality was proclaimed
by tue banjos they held. No explanation
was given ass to why this trio wasof the
color mentioned though possibly seeir
complexion was supposed to have been
affected by over-indnlgence in the
surreptitious moonlight watermelon.
One could buy any one OF the small
statuettes for 10 cents, notwithstanding the
paper plastsrs they bore stating their esti-
mated valuen at from 800 TO 500 each.
The secret OF it was that they were made
out Of macerated postage stamps. The
Quakers were of 1-cent stamps, the Indians
OF cent ones and the colored persons of
the l0-cent denomination. It was learned
by the Star writer. upon investi cation, that
the material of which they were composed
had been purchased at the bureau of en-
craving and printing. Postmaster General
Wanamaker has the use OF a macerator ut
that establishment one day in each week
for the purpose of destroying his spoiled but
unused stamps.
WHY BURNING WAS ABANDONED.
The people who turn out the stamps by
contract for the postotfice department, IL
seems. have an allowance made them of
In other words, II 9S stamps out Of every
100 are satisfactory in point Of paper and
printing the government is content. But
all stamps printed must be delivered into
the Postmaster Generals hands, and those
rejected have TO he destroyed. Until quite
recently this destruction was accomplished
by burning; but four or five years ago an
ingenious person VINO was employed 10
conduct this operation was seized
with a conscientious pity that so
much value for leJter-carrying pur-
poses should be annihilAted, and
80 he preserved from the flames with paius-
taking care many thousands u dollars
worth of the paper tokens, selecting by
preference those OF high denominations.
Believing that he had n right, on the we'll
recognized principle Of salvage, to the pos
session of what he had thus secured from
otherwise inevitable destruction, he sold the
stamps ut par, or nearly, to individuals who
were less exaoting as to quality than Uncle
Sam. BY this means he secured great deal
of money.
Unfortunately, the postoffica department
withheld its appreciation from this novel
idea of the salaried destroyer. and there was
forthwith adopted a fresh and purely me-
chanical fashion of disposing of unavailable
new stamps
HOW NOTES ARE DESTROYED.
This is the method utilized for more than
fifteen years past by the department of the
treasury. Every one has heard how the
United States notes and certificates come
into the redemption division from all over
the United States. Batches OF them arrive
in quantities every day from all parts OF
the union, and one important official de-
votes his whole time to sorting over
the paper money that passes through the
cashiers hands in the course Of business
rejecting every bit Of it that is not really
fresh and nearly new, and putting all such
bills aside for renewal, The women in the
redemption division count them over with
skilled and rapid fingers, after which they
are cut in halves with a huge knife made
for the purpose-a pecuuiary guillotne. not
made actually to destroy. but to revive.
The body OF the cash may perish, but the
soul survives to animate the resurrected
licensees of the vanished guarantees to
pay.
When bundle of bills is thus cut in
twain one set of halves Is sent to the register
of the treasury and the-otber. set Of halves
TO the division of loans ara currency. In
both offices they are counted, and the sums
must agree with each other as well as with
the count in the redemption division. When
this has been declared correct the treasurer
of the United States is credited with the
amount.
TAKEN TO THE MACERATOR.
Next the divided halves ere packed In
wooden boxes and conveyed in a big covered
wagon to the bureau of engraving and
printing The progress Of his wagon 10
watched by five men ia o1e-horse car
riage who follow closely. These men are the
committee in charge of destruction. One of
them represents the Secretary Of the Treas
ury, another the treasurer of the United
States, another the register of the treasury
another the commissioner Of internal reve-
nue. and another the people of the United
States. The first and last of
these FIVE are appointed by the
Secretary of the Treasury; each OF the
others is given office by tie official
IN behalf Of whom he acts. All the inter-
nal revenue stamps are destroyed. like the
notes and certificates, at the bureau of en-
craving and printing, where they are made
originally.
Upon their arrival at the bureau the
halved notes, certificates and internal reve-
nue. stamps are carried by the chest full
into room in the basement at the rear,
where their contents are poured through a
huge iron funnel into an iron cylinder
feet in diameter and 10 feet long, in the cell
lar below. The cylinder is partly filed with
water and heated by steam, which boils
the erstwhile precious contents for thirty
six hours, at the end of which the money
and stamps are reduced to a mud-like pulp.
There are two of these cylinders, and while
one is slowing away the other is ready 60
receive fresh supplies. The masses Of pulp
thus prepared are heaped into pit below,
from which the moist material is carried
upstairs again, passed through o machine
that transforms 1t into sheets quarter of
an inch thick aud dried in that shape,
when it is ready to be sent to the paper
mills as stock.
THINGS MADE FROM THE PULP.
Fifteen years ago all the paper money to
be destroyed, instead of being macerated,
was burned in an air-blast fire of great
heat. But congress, percsiving that the
STOCK reduced to pulp would be valuable
| enough at least to pay the expense Of de.
process at present followed should be
adopted. The pulp, as now prepared, is sold
TO the paper-making concerns for 800 a
| hundredweight, dry. Any one else can buy
the pulp, which contains so per cent OF
water, for one-flfth that price. The paper
manufacturers would not purchase It in
that shape, because the freight would be
too much for so great weight. Those who
invest in the pulp for che purpose OF max
| ing 1t into busts OF Abraham Lincoln and
representations Of the Washington monu.
ment employ their own molds and make
their own estimates of the value OF the
original money material composing their
wares. The guess on a replica Of the monu-
ment is usually $1,000, but the only GER
tainty it is based upon is the verdancy OF
the casual visitor.
National bank notes are not destroyed at
the bureau OF engraving and printing. FOR