Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-09-02
MADE OUT OF MONEY.

Red Indians, Blue Quakers, Green Africans
and Many Other Green Things.
Seven little red Indians and five blue
Quakers were exposed for sale yester-
day among other curiosities on a stand
near the city post Office. There were
also three green Africans. whose ma
tionality was proclaimed by the banjoG
they held. No explanation was given
as 10 why this trio was of the color
mentioned, though possibly their com
ploxion was supposed to have been al.
fected by Over-indulgence In the sur
reptitious moonlight watermelon. One
could buy any one of the small statu-
cites for ten cents, Notwithstanding the
paper plasters they bore stating their
estimated value" at from fifty dollars
20 two hundred dollars each. The secret
of 1t was that they were made out Of
macerated postage stamps. The Qua
kers were of one-cent stamps, the In
dams of two-cent ones and the colored
persons of the ten-cent denomination.
1t was learned by the Star writer, upon
investigation, that the material of which
they were composed had been purchased
at the bureau of engraving and print
ing. Postmaster-General Wanamaker
has the use of a macerator at that es-
tabliShment one day in each week for
the purpose of destroying his spoiled,
but unused stamps.
The people who turn out the stamps
by contract for the post-ofico depart
ment, IL seems, have an allowance made
them Of about two per cent. for what In
called spoilage. In other words, II
ninety-eight stamps out Of every
hundred are satisfactory In point
of paper and printing the gov
eminent is content. Rut all stamps
printed must be delivered into the
postmaster-generals hands, and those
rejected have to be destroyed. Until
quite recently this destruction was 90
complished by burning; but four or Ave
years ago an ingenious person who was
employed TO conduct this operation was
seized with conscientious pity that so
much value for letter-carrying purposes
should be annihilated, and so he PEE
served from the flames with painstak-
ing care many thousands Of dollars
worth of the paper tokens, selecting by
preference those of high denominations.
Believing that he had right, on the
well-recognized principle of salvage, to
the possession of what he had thus Sc
cured from otherwise inevitable de-
struction, he sold the stamps at par, or
nearly, to individuals who were less ex-
acting as to quality than Uncle Sam.
BY this means he secured a great deal
Of money.
Unfortunately, the post-ofice depart
ment withheld its appreciation from this
novel idea of the salaried destroyer,
and there was forthwith adopted q
fresh and purely mechanical fashion Of
disposing of unavailable new stamps.
This is the method used for more
than fifteen years past by the depart
ment of the treasury. Everyone has
heard how the United Stases notes and
certificates come into the redemption
division from all over the United States.
Batches of them arrive In quantitieG
every day from all parts of the Union,
and one important Official devotes his
whole time to sorting over the paper
money that passes through the cashier
hands in the course of business, reject
ing every bit of 1t 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
huge knife made for the purpose
peouniary guillotine, not made actually
to destroy, but to revive. The body Of
the cash may perish, but the soul sur
wives to animate the resurrected like.
nesses of the vanished guarantees tC
pay.
When bundle of bills il thus out II
twain one set of halves is sent to the
register of the treasury and the Other
set of halves to the division Of loans anC
currency. In both offices they ART
counted, and the sums must agree with
each other as well as with the count IL
the redemption division. When thi.
has been declared correct the treasurer
of the United States is credited will
the amount.
Next the divided halves are packed
in wooden boxes and conveyed in a biz
covered wagon to the bureau of engrav
ing and printing. The progress of thi
wagon is watched by five men In a one
horse carriage, who follow closely
These men are the committee in charg,
of destruction. One of them represent
the secretary of the treasury, anothe
the treasurer of the United States, an
other the register of the treasury, an
other the commissioner of internal rev
enue, and another the people of tn
United States. The first and the las
of these five are appointed by the sec
rotary of the treasury; each of tn
others is given Office by the official il
behalf of whom he acts. All the In
ternal revenue stamps are destroyed
like the notes and certificates, at tn
bureau of engraving and printing
where they are made originally.
Upon their arrival at the bureau tn
halved notes, certificates and interns
Fevenue stamps are carried by the ches
full into a room In the basement at tn
rear, where their contents are poure
Through a huge iron funnel into an iro
cylinder, five feet In diameter and to-
long, in the cellar below. The cylinde
Is partly filled with water and heate
by steam, which boils the erstwhil
precious contents for thirty-six hour.
at the end of which the money an
stamps are reduced to a mud-lilke pulE
There are two of these cylinders, an
while one is stewing away the other /
ready to receive fresh supplies. Tn
masses of pulp thus prepared are heaps
into pit below. from which the noi1
material is carried upstairs again
passed through machine that trans
forms it into sheets quarter Of an inc
thick and dried in that shape, when it /
ready to be sent to the paper mills q
stock.
Fifteenyear ago all the paper none.
TO be destroyed, instead of being mac
Grated, was burned In an air-blast FIRE o
great heat. But congress, perceivini
that the stock reduced TO pulp woul
be valuable enough at least to pay tn
expense of destruction, passed q law de
erecting that the process at present fol
lowed should be adopted. The pulp, .