Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-07

was not punished. In 1885 another silver
robbery occurred at the Philadelphia mint.
There were no vaults for silver at that time
and the silver bars were piled in the court
yaro " course. no one from without
could get into the courtyard without break
ing Into the mint when the mint building
was closed. But the employees of the mint
mad free access to the courtyard through
the day and visitors were coming and going
all the time. One day four silver bars were
missed. 1t was never proved to the salts
faction of one man that they were stolen
This was Prof. James c. Booth, the melter
and refiner of the mint He had receipted
Tor the bullion and was responsible for it.
one bar was recovered and Booth always
claimed that the others had been melted.
But he had to make good about 81. 800. Booth
Is dead. but there is bill now before Con-
gress to reimburse his family. The bar that
was recovered was sold to bullion broker
In New York. BY remarkable coincidence
he was the bullion broker who had sold the
bar to the mint. These bullion brokers
watch bullion very closely. Something
aroused the suspicious of this one, and he
locked up the record and found that this
bar had been sold to the mint He reported
the matter to us. and we caught the man
in New York from whom the bar had been
bought. But he was a man of some in
fiuence and he was not punished. I think
that they have the bar now in the Phila-
delphia mint. 1t will weigh perhaps 800
ounces. strong man could carry it away
with him without much trouble"
l asked Mr.. Preston what was the weight
Of the silver in the vaults at Philadelphia.
There are about 49, 900 ounces now in
the Philadelphia mint. 1t will take four or
five months to weigh it out when the trans
fer of the mint Is made to new superin-
tendent. And after the developments Of
last month / suppose that the new super
intendent will want to have a count made.
All of the silver in the mint now is kept
in vaults. We do not pile it in the court
yard any more"
III
Orleans mint in 1880. The coin in one of the
vaults was being counted. and negro steve
dores were hired to carry the bags from the
vault Each bag contained 1000 silver dol
the vault door disagreed about the count
and the bags of silver were taken back
into the vault. When they We're counted
again one bag was missing. 1t was never
accounted for, but the general belief was
that one Of the workmen had carried it
away under his coat.
Since the robbery Of 1885, Mr. Preston
sGid, there had been no theft from the
minis SO far as he knew until the Cochran
case, except the case of the cashier Of the
New Orleans mint, James M. Bowling. who
was arrested recently on suspicion of hav-
ing robbed the government of $4,000 in cur
rency. There was fire in the vault Of the
mint between Saturday night and Monday
morning, and Bowling claimed that the
missing currency was destroyed In this
fire. He was suspected of having kindled
tiiS III " CoNSA uP q Sfii1iC, dIiA AC 10 III"
out on bail.
The jewellery Complaints.
spoke to Mr.. Preston of the complaints
which have been made since the Cochran
robbery by the jewelers. Of Philadelphia
that they had not received full value for
old jewelry which they had sold to the
mint as bullion. These jewelers. claim that
they are victims of Mr.. Cochran.
have no doubt said Mr. precfon
that the jewelers. have received all that
their jewelry is worth. Old jewelry is a
mean thing to deal with. 1t is very sell
dom worth what 1t seems to be worth.
There was a lady in here only few days
ago who wanted US to send some jewelry
to the mint for her. and she expected to
get SIS or SIS for 1t. / am going to send
word to her that she will have to send 1t
over to the mint herself. We had an ex-
perience a year or two ago that cured us Of
sending old jewelry to the mint for people
The wife of a well-known public man came
into our office one day, accompanied by her
husband. and showed me some gold chains
and other jeweiry; family heirlooms. She
said that she had taken them to a jeweler
and he had told her that they were worth
go. He would not give that amount for
them. he said, because he could not Use
them In his business, and he would have to
send them to Philadelphia. He advised her
to send them to Philadelphia herself 1 told
her that 1 thought that she would find that
their value had been Overestmated, and
that II she could get $50 or even $55 she
would better take 1t. But she insisted, and
to oblige her 1 sent the jewelry to the
mint accompanied by letter asking them
70 De particularly careful in handling It.
They sent me for this jewelry $43 The lady
was very much dissatisfied, and she is
very much dissatisfied to this day Since
that experience we have made 1t a rule
not to send jewelry to the mint to oblige
any one"
asked Mr.. Preston II he thought, in
view OF the fact that all the other mint rob
oers had been allowed to go scot-free. Coch-
ran would be punished. He said that IT was
certainly remarkable that immunity should
that he believed that Cochran would be
punished; and that, so far as he had any
be pushed. 00'N