Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-30

dence of his guilt was found on him. But
he scaped prosecution. He stole less than
Sivo. Another employee of the redemption
agency. who used government money. was
the first teller of the office, q man from
New Jersey named Wilson. Wilson had
been in the employ Of q New York bank
thought that his knowledge would be Of
value In the redemption office. He had
been in other bureaus Of the Treasury De-
partment for nearly twenty years. Not
agency he distracted small sums and faisi-
fed his books to conceal the theft BY
chance Mr.. Rogers inspected the books and
made a very unusual comparison between
two of them within twelve hours after the
false entries had been made. Wilson was
arrested, but he was never brought to
trial. His friends, particularly a Congress-
man who was interested in him, made good
$1,000 Of the shortage and the employees of
the redemption agency made up the other
500. The last theft in the redemption
agency occurred about two years ago. 4
young man employed in the Office took
$500 from package. The theft was traced
to him very quickly and he was arrested.
but in consideration of his youth the court
let him off with fine.
All Of the money that was lost in Mr..
SpinnerS time was charged against the
treasurer's bond, but Congress relieved
Gen.. Spinner Of the liability. 1t is under
stood that Mr.. Nebeker has applied for re-
lief from loss of $1,000 suffered during his
administration of the treasurer's office by
the loss of 81, 900 note. This note was in
a package Of fifty-one notes of a similar
denomination. The package went through
the hands of a very ineXpert counter and
when 1t reached the controllers office there
were only fifty notes. Nothing has ever
been heard Of the missing note.
Mrs. Becker's Methods.
Treasurer Hyatt suffered a double loss
during his term of office-one by theft and
the other perhaps by accident. The first
loss was through the act of a clerk in the
redemption division named Mrs. Ernestine
Becker. She had the handling Of large
numbers of silver certificates of the denom-
ination of $780, Under what is known as
the "three-fifths rule" the government paid
face value for a note when three-fifths Of
II was presented for redemption. Mrs.
Becker watched her opportunity. when no
other clerks were near her. and from time
leaving three-fifths. With the scraps she
pieced out enough of a new note for re-
demption and when opportunity occurred
substituted this patchwork for a complete
note. This had been going on probably for
long time before she was suspected. One
night the clerks We're put to work on the
packages of Mrs. Becker and plain evidence
OF fraud was obtained. The loss. so far as
II could be traced, was about 81, 600. How
much had been stolen before the investiga-
ton was made no one knows. Mrs Becker
was arrested. She mortgaged some prop
erty which she held in Washington and
made restitution. She Is now out on bail.
and 1t is altogether unlikely that she will
be prosecuted. The other loss under Mr..
hyatt was by the disappearance Of ten
sheets of s. notes between the bureau OF
engraving and printing and the sealing d.
vision of the Treasury Department All
notes are sent to the treasury from the
bureau OF engraving and printing complete
except that they lack the red seal. This
seal Is printed on them at the Treasury
Department The presses in the sealing
room have automatic registers. When the
n n ~ 90 H..
up before the sheets are separated into
notes, 1t was found that ten sheets of the
notes were missing. An examination of
.he register on the printing machine
the presses were reached. The bureau of
engraving and printing had a clean re-
ceipt FOR the sheets; so the responsibility
rested with the clerks Of the first office of
has ever been found
One OF the most celebrated losses in the
history OF the Treasury Department is
known as the Golden Rule case The
government actually lost nothing: but an
parently 1t lost 81, OOO, 0O0 and the affair was
made very sensational by newspaper publi-
cations at the time. On the 18th of MAY,
1866, the Treasurer of the United States
shipped to the assistant treasurer at San
francisco one thousand 1000 time notes,
payable In three years. These notes were
shipped on the vessel Golden Rule" The
Golden Rule" was wrecked on Roncador
Reef and the safe containing the trea sury
notes was never recovered A New York
newspaper published the statement that
the vessel had been wrecked by
her captain as part Of conspira-
cy to obtain possession OF the treasure on
49," safe which contained the
government notes had been found broken
and empty. and that the captain Of the
Golden Rule" and the other consorators
had bought a great deal OF property and
paid for II with the lost notes The Treas
ury Department waited six years before
closing the Golden Rule" matter. In that
time although almost all of the other notes
Of the anne issue had been presented for re-
demption. none of the thousand notes lost
on the Roncador Reef had ever appea red.
So the Treasurer of the United States en-
tered this 81. 900. 600 on his books among the
notes destroyed. Not one Of these notes
has been presentd since. and there Is no
doubt Of their complete destruction.