The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-02-22
M~VT!LATE.'D MONEY.
:IOW DAMAGED CURRENCY IS n
DEEMED BY TIE GOVERNMENT.

OsCrtCp III iT1G ~
Wonders Worried H.. Tr>. t;rOar. ia.
Tr-,,ur, Expert in a-hin.,on-i lc'r
Case, In which i:ii!. Were Apparently
Hopc,e,s,y De>sro5 ed.
The redemption division of the trr;i:-
ury department Is one % the most i.,.'.-
esting OF its branches. Ii Is here t..t
mutilatel money comes fer iienti.ca-
ton. a:d the form IL which it come
romance and many a tale of woe. TaeT.
is much that is humorous and mrc,!
that is pathetic in Mrs. Browns rlllic
experience. That experience ranges over
nearly eighteen years now. and in thu.
tine millions of dollars have passed
through her hands. most of it in sncn
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-
CARS with it when they are drunk: rats
gnaw it into t~atters, and fire crisls it
into brown ashes. Whenever there is a
sudden cold snap az the beginning Of
winter the redemption division has Il
perfect harvest of mutilatel iioncy. one
of the fnvorite hiding places winch worI-
on have for their savings is the ovc..
When !. cold day come, the woln
probably ~for.sets all about the moe.
builds IA fire in the stove Hnl cooks the
bills to what is known Ill the cookbook
as il rich brown"
An interesting case is tina. of II wolnan
living hear Hamilton. o.. who was
burned to death. Shn iln@l II ,"cket6ook
with ncr containing sertnl.. dollars.
Her children sent TIA. po"i,et!nox viii
its chavred contents to the treasury de
pli.nent. and Mrs. Brown picked OFT
tire seventy dollars and identified it. y
great deal of the nonc. that comes in i,
partly burned. Wherever a part Of the
burned money can he Identified and Il
satisfactory affidavit is furnished as to
TIE facts the government restores the
mount to the owner. But if a note is
entirely destroyed the government is just
SO much ahead.
Much OF the money which comes III fer
redemption has beef damaged in rail-
road wrecks. When il car is burned in IL
railroad wreck no attempt is made By
the express company to remove tho
money from the safe. The safe is sent
direct to the treasury department and
opened there. The money is usually in
"A pretty badly charred condition. 1t il
&,l.., Ay,t ,,l tt. ,,,r nr,,ar% ~,
over it and identify as much Of it IA can
be recognized. Two years ago a pack
aye containing Saa.OW was taken from n
wreck neat st. Louis. and all of the
money was identified and restored to is
owners.
Afavorite hiding place for money with
men who have no faith in banks is in
their cellars. \ 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 widowed
and rotten. The 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 hit
by bit and arranging them Oh sill, of
brown paper cut to the size OF a dollar
bill. She said that she expected to iden.
tify the whole of it.
One man sent in some time ago forty
two dollars which had been taken fror.
the stomach of a goat. The goat was rot
worth forfy-two dollars. so he wa sacri-
feed The identification of this money
WAS not a very nice task. but it was COM
paratively an easy II When Mrs.
Brown dropped the sticky mass into "a
basin, of water the bills came apart AID
Were very easily identified. This is not
the only goat case which has come to the
redemption division, and it has happened
that even cows and pigs have been sacri-
feed to recover money which they had
swallowed. There is one case on record
where a 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
affidavits are received accompanying por-
tons of bills which say that the missing
portions We're swallowed by babies and
therefore wholly destroyed
Usually when mutilated money is sent
in for redemption the owner has a close
If not perfect idea of the amount which
is represented, but one old German in
the west sent in some years ago what he
claimed to be the remains of i 5000, and
after a long. long investigation Mrs.
Brown fully identified 81, 100 in the
package. A secret service agent was
sent out to investigate the case, but he
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 o from bills, ac-
companied 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 a minute
whether "a piece has been torn off or eaten
of. and these petty frauds are never sue
cessful.