St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-03-04

Wit and, when he found it would tax,
some little time. work and patience. b,
said be wanted to start to Philadelphi,
that night and he guessed he wouldn'
take the trouble on the slim chance o
getting anything. In this and all sim
liar cases the real feeling Of the appli
cant almost invariably is thst any ef
fort to regain what is lost is simply
time thrown away, and SO he dismisse.
the matter.
Mr. Barlow, mentioned above rs be
ing connected with the cashiers ofics
In the post Office department. has I
great many applications for assistance
In getting mutilatcd currency re
deemed, and as he prepares the afi
davits for the parties he makes him
self thoroughly acquainted with ths
circumstances Of each. and can narrat<
some interesting cases An old mar
living out in this county came in one
day heartbroken over the loss Of sev
eral thousand dollars which he hai
placed under the hearth for safe-keep
ing. and which mice had almost totally
destroyed It took some correspond
ence. but he finally got new bills fol
the old ones Another man had twist
ed up . wad Of paper without looking
at it and lighted his cigar. when he
found that his new cigar-lighter was Z
ten-dollar bill An interesting case was
that of an old negro from down in one
of the adjoining counties, who was at
the Union depot about . year ago
buying a ticket homo. He had q roll
of bills in his hands and Z
couple Of St Louis toughs jumped
on him and tried to rob him.
In the scramble that ensued the bills
werc torn to shrcds and the pieces
strcwn over the floor. but the old ne
gro held onto most of his wealth. while
the thieves. failing in their attempt
made their escape. The Africans
walls over his misfortune brought the
suggestion from some one that maybe
the treasury officials would help him,
and he went up to inquire. A few
afiidavits and q little time brought him
an entirely new lot of bills in exchange
for the pieces Mary Davis, an elderly
negro woman living over on Morgan
street, came to Mr.. Barlow some
months ego ''in a peck o. trouble" She
had . twensy-dollar bill, which she
was treasuring IS the apple of her eye.
and being about to make . visit one
Sunday afternoon she thought the best
place for her fortune would be in the
oven of her stove, where she carefully
placed it. Returning late In the even
ing sue built q fire without thinking
of her treasure, and it was some time
afterwards that she attracted the at
tention Of the household and her
neighbors by dashing water over the
hot stove and screaming at the top Of
her voice. The charrcd remains of the
bill were nearly destroyed BY the
water. but enough was saved to sat
isfy the government as to the truth Of
the story. and Mary got q brand new
twenty-dollar bill
Perhaps the most interesting case
that has come up before the depart
ment in St Louis was tho one of young
Miss H., which was taken before Mr..
Barlow for an affidavit some months
ago. Her father, who lives out on Dor
cas- street. and is an employe in ono of
the Wholesale drug houses, had made
her presents of little sums till she had
sixty-five or seventy dollars saved
up. Her pet dog one day got hold Of
it and when his young mistress came
in it was all torn to pieces and most Of
IL chewed into pulp She was In terri
BILE distress, and not wishing her papa
to know of her loss, she, at the sug-
gestion Of q friend. applied to the sub
treasury. Part Of the pieces were
large enough to come within the three
fifths rule, and SO about one-third Of
the amount was cashed at once. The
rest had to 60 through the process Of
proof, but in due time she
received . draft from Washington for
the full amount
Instances like the foregoing could be
given In great numbers, though the in-
stances in which the losers pocket"
their losses, to use an old but common
are much more numerous.
The amounts range all the way from =
one dollar till tower which sum one
man Of some means spent two months
Of correspondence year or so ago) up
to packages containing thousands Of
dollars. Perhaps the largest amount
ever redeemed at St Louis after total
was the instance which oc-
CURED about four months ago. The
treasury at Washington had shipped
BY express to the sub-treasury at that
point . package of currency amounting
10 forty thousand dollars. The express
car with all its contents was burned.
and the express company was response
bic for the loss of the forty thousand
dollars under its contract Realizing
this, the company took Chief Clerk
Kicker of the 'sub-trcasury and
had him present when the safe was
opened very carefully. and the cbarrcd
Of the money examined. The
PACKAGES could be plainly seen and
identified Is to the amounts, as paper
when burned will sometimes retain its
and SO these bundles Of
burned paper were carefully shipped to
from which point forty
thousand dollars In crisp new bills
came back.
When We realize the immense aqpouns
II money that Is lost or destroyed every
rear, and never found or made good,
We can appreciate what . sum Uncle
Sam has constantly accumulatinX for
The right side Of his profit and loss &c
sount OF course many losses occur
which are total and cannot be made
A~>,,e> - ~ro,,1I - y>v~cHs~>l1~
in some Of the cases to sat
sfy the United States treasurer to such
In extent - to preclude the posi-
bility Of fraud. But there are also
many losses Of money occurring al the
lime which could easily be made good
% %h> yorts>e vrArA awarA ~ thA lar