The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-10-29
LUoI' MONEY UhDEkS.
Millions Of Dollars Left in the Gov
ernment's Vaults.
Through Accidental Deaths and Igno-
rance of Postal Regulations
the Money Remains
Unclaimed.

There is on deposit in the sub-treas-
ury in New York city more than S3,O00,-
600 representing outstanding money or
ders, and of this amount more than
S2,000,000 representing money orders
which are overdue, and which may new
er be presented for payment. Ten
years ago, says the Providence Journal,
in q spasm of virtue, congress appro-
| priated the money to pay the salaries
| of ten clerks, who should check up the
books of the money order Office and pre-
pare list of money orders which had
not been presented for payment. 1t
was estimated then that if this list was
! prepared the owners of two-thirds of
this money should be traced and the
money could be restored to them. To-
day one solitary clerk sits in little Of
Zee on the top floor of the post office
department. annex, checking up the I'M
)aid money orders. He is working
now on the orders issued in 1871; at this
rate he would not catch up with his
work in twenty years, and by that time
most of the owners of the money will
be dead and their heirs or executors will
be hard to find.
1t seems strange, under the precau-
tionary system now used by the post
Office department, that such an enor-
nous amount of money should have ac-
eumulated to the credit of unpaid
money orders, but the chief accumula-
ion was under the original rules of the
flee, which were much more conserve
i've than those now in force.
If A sent money order to B to-day
nd the order was not presented for
aynent the postmaster examining the
atters of advice received from other Of
ices at the end of month, and, find |
az this money order to have been un-
)aid at the end of the previous month, |
would notify 3 that there was money |
rider in his favor on file in the Office,
sent to him by A. If at the end of an
,thcr month the money order was still
inpaid he would notify him again.
Md if at the end of third month the
loney had not been claimed he would
.elvise the postmaster, who would noti-
~ A that his money order in favor of
3 had not been presented and ask him
70 urge 3 to have it cashed. 1t would
Secm that these precautions ought to
insure the payment of money orders
within u reasonable time, yet every
rear hundreds of them remain unpaid
until they are invalid.
Men who go from the east to make
heir fortunes in the new west frequent
y buy with their savings money orders
ayable to themselves at New York,
hey know that the money is secure,
1ecapse the money order cannot be
'aShed by anyone else if it is lost or
aolen, and because the money can al
ways be had on application for a
duplicate by the original purchaser. {
There is no savings bank more secure.
Even trustees have been known to in
est small trust funds in money orders
'ossibly q good proportion of the two
lillion dollar fund in the sub-treasury c
) on deposit, and the original money L
riders viii be found in the course of u
me in old stockings, in safe deposit
oxes and in desks But q great deal j
it represents money orders lost and g
''People are drowned with U
loney orders in their pockets; they get h
runll and tear them up said Sixth a
uditor Coulter. Besides great many IL
aople do not know that lost money
,ders can be duplicated. They think e'
lat a lost money order, like lost IL
lnl1 note, is gone beyond redemption. Ia
nd many people would not take the p;
ouble to apply for duplicate OF an IL
der for a small sum. Still some very h
d money orders come in for duplica- tt
Oh almost every week. A few days
70 three orders, dated 1860, came in
+ duplication, and within the past
70 weeks an order of the date 1866 has
,en received All these orders were tb
companied by formal applications.
othing is known of their history. he