Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-07-09
MADE OUT OF MONEY.
Ned Indians, Blue Quakers, Green Africans
and Many Other Green Things.

hsed Indians, Blue Ouakers, Green Africans
and Many Other Green Things.
Seven little red Indians and five blue
<9uakers were exposed for sale yester-
day among other curiosities on stand
near the city post office. There were
also three green Africans, whose ma
tIonality was proclaimed by the banjos
they held. No explanation was given
as to- why this trio was of the color
mentioned, though possibly their COM
pleXion was supposed to have been af-
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
to two hundred dollars each. The secret
of 1T was that they were made out of
Enacerated postage stamps. The Qua
2Sers were of one-cent stamps, the In
dians 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
mt the bureau of engraving and print
ing Postmaster-General Wanamaker
has the use of a macerator at that es-
Establishment 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-otfice depart
ynent, 1T seems, have an allowance made
them of about two per cent. for what is
called spoilage. In other words, if
uinety-eight stamps out of every
hundred are satisfactory in point
of paper and printing the gov
erument is content. But all stamps
printed must be delivered into the
postmaster-generars hands, and those
rejected have to be destroyed. Until
quite recently this destruction was ac-
compiished by burning; but four or five
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 pre-
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
Che possession of what he had thus Sc
cured from otherwise inevitable de-
StTuetiop. 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-office depart
Tnent withheld its appro baton from this
novel idea of the salaried destroyer,
ard there was forthwith adopted a
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
nent of the treasury. Everyone has
heard how the United Stases notes and
certificates come into the redemption
division from all over the United States.
catches of them arrive in quantities
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 cashiers
hands in the course of business. reject
ing 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
4 huge knife made for the purpose-a
Pecuniary 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 to
pay.
When a bundle of bills is thus cut in
twain one set of halves is sent to the
- flr
set of halves to the division of loans and
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
Next the divided halves are packed
In wooden boxes and conveyed in big
covered wagon to the bureau of engrav-
ing and printing. The progress of this
wagon is watched by five men in one
horse carriage, who follow closely.
These men are the committee in charge
of destruction. One of them represents
the secretary of the treasury. another
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 the
United States. The first and the last
of these five are appointed by the sec
rotary of the treasury; each of the
Others is given office by the official in
faehaif of whom he acts. All the in
ternai revenue stamps are destroyed,
like the notes and certificates, at the
bureau of engraving and printing,
where they are made originally.
Upon their arrival at the bureau the
halved notes, certificates and internal
revenue stamps are carried by the chest
full into room in the basement at the
rear, where their contents are poured
through huge iron funnel into an iron
cylinder, five feet in diameter and ten
long, in the cellar 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 stewing away the other is
ready to receive fresh supplies The
masses of pulp thus prepared are heaped
into a pit below from which the moist
material is carried upstairs again,
passed through n machine that trans
forms it into sheets quarter of an inch
thick and dried in that shape, when it is
ready to be sent to the paper mills as
stock.