The Lake Charles echo., 1893-02-24
MUTIIIATED MONEY.
HOW DAMAGED CURRENCY IS RE-
DEEMED sy THE GOVERNMENT,

wonders worked BY MRS. nrown, the
Treasury Expert In vashinston--A FeW
Cases in which Bius Were Apparently
Hopeiessly Destroyed.
The redemption division of the treas
ury department Is one of the most inter
sitiHs of lis branchea, Il Il here that
mutilated money comes for identifca-
ton, and the form in which 1t comes
tells to the chief of the division many
romance and many a tale Of woe There
is much that is humorous and much
that is pathetic in Mrs, Brown's public
experience. That experience ranges over
nearly eighteen years now, and in that
time millions Of dollars have passed
through her hands, most Of it in such
condition as to be beyond identification
by ordinary means,
There is hardly any way you can think
Of in which money is not mutilated or
partly destroyed, Men light their ci-
gars with it when they are drunk rats
gnaw it into tatters, and FIRE crisps it
into brown ashes. Whenever there Is
sudden cold snap at the beginning Of
winter the redemption division has
perfect harvest of mutilated money, One
Of the fayorite hiding places which wom-
en- have FOR their sayinga Is the oven,
When a cold day comes the woman
probably forgeta all about tho money,
builds a fire in the stove and cooks the
bills to what Is known in the cookbook
as a "rich brown"
An interesting case is that Of a woman
living near Hamilton o., who was
burned to death, She had q pocketbook
with her containing seventy dollars,
Her children sent the poeketbook with
its Charred contents 10 the treasury de-
partment, and Mrs. Brown picked out
the seventy dollars and identified it. A
great deal Of the money that comes in is
partly burned Wherever part Of the
burned money can be identified and d
satisfactory affidavit Is furnished as to
the facts the government restores the
amount to the owner, But If a note is
entirely destroyed the government is just
SO much ahead,
Much Of tho money which comes IN for
redemption has been damaged in rail-
road wrecks. When d car Is burned in
railroad wreck no attempt is made hy
the express company to remove the
money from the safe. The safe Il sent
direct TO the treasury department and
opened there. The money is usually in
pretty badly eharrad condition. II Is
taken out, and the treasury experts go
over 1t and Identify as much Of II as can
be recognized. Two years ago a pack
age containing S99, 900 was taken from a
wreck near Sb Louis, and all of the
money was identified and restored to its
owners,
A favorite hiding place for money with
men who have no faith in banks is In
their cellars, A Philadelphia man sent
$3.50 which he had buried in a tin box
under his cellar floor, When he took up
the box he found the money mildewed
and rotten. Tho package as it came
into Mrs Browns hands looked like a
bunch Of tobacco leaves. 1t was almost
impossible to distinguish the character
of the notes with the naked eye, MIS-,
Brown was picking apart the pieces bit
by bit and arranging them on slips of
brown paper cut TO the size Of dollar
bill She said that she expected to iden-
tify the whole Of it,
Ono man seat in some time ago forty
two dollars which had been taken from
the stomach of a goat. The goat was not
worth forty-two dollars, SO he was sacri-
feed. The Identification Of this money
was not q very nice task, but il was COM
paratiyely an easy one, When Mrs,
Brown dropped the sticky mass into q
basin Of water the bills came apart and
were very easily identified. This is not
the only goat case which has como to the
redemption division, and IL has happened
that even COWS and pigs have been saori-
feed to recover money which they had
swallowed There is ono case on record
where q baby swallowed some bank
| notes, and an emetic saved the money
and possibly the baby. Babies do not
often swallow an entire bill, but many
aftidayits ara received accompanying poE-
tions Of bills which say that the missing
portions were swallowed by babies and
Therefore wholly destroyed
Usually when muilated money is sent
in for redemption the owner has aciose
| If not perfect idea Of the amount which
is represented, but one old German in
the west sent Ia some years ago what he
claimed TO DO the remains Of $5, ,000, and
after long, long investigation Mrs
Brown fully identified $1,000 IN the
package, a secret service agent was
sent out to investigate the case, but III
could discover nothing that would throw
light upon the mystery, and so the mis-
take was charged up to the old mans
stupidity and the department sent 81 100
to him
The redemption division receives very
frequently pieces torn from bills, ac-
companiad by affidavits saying that the
remainder Of the notes has been destroy
! ed by mice. But the experts Of the
treasury department can tell in q minute
whether piece has been torn on or eaten
Of, and these petty frauds are never sue
cessful
Treasurer Nebeker has d five dollaT
bill ia his Office made Of sixteen pieces
cut from five dollar notes matched %
nicely that the ordinary eye would not
detect the fraud. This composite note
was sent in by bank clerk III New
1 York. Tie treasury experts detected
the fraud Immediately, and Of course the
4 bogus nete was not redeemed Wash-
( ington Cor. New York Press
EEttle Eeonamiep.
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