Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-24
any way; making the total amount Of his
operations S4,740.
Other Wop ReIies-

amounting to about S1i,000 aIi payable to
| the order of soldiers and therefore as safe
as such securities can be. In a few in
stances the banks, Jay Cooke & Co., for
example, failed years ago, and the pass
books and certificates are back numbers,
but in the great majority Of cases If the
heirs OF the soldiers could be found the
banks would pay on proper Endorsements.
AS some of the deposits were made thirty
years ago the accumulated interest far
exceeds the principal. and the certificates.
&c, would be a little fortune to the Irish
or German heirs of the Sol1iers, whose
names leave little doubt as to their nation
atty. The checks were mostly issued by
United States disbursing officers, and the
money is in the treasury awaiting appli-
cations from those to whom il legally be-
longs
A less desirable class of effects consists
of promissory notes. due bills, &C., amount
ing to more than 5000. Among the notes
are two for 500 each and enc for Sl,2JO.
dated February and March, 1865, also one
| for $500, dated April }, 1886. all payable at
short periods, sixty and ninety days after
date The three first mentioned notes no
doubt represent part of the big bounties
given during the last few months OF the
war. The one for $500 belonged to sub
stitute who was accepted in March, 1865,
and the correct date of the note is prob
| ably April 3, 1861, instead of 1886. 1t looks
| as If the drawer of the note might nave IN
! tended to play little game" on the sub
| stitute by giving him a promise to pay,
which, being antedated nine years, was
| apparently outlawed three years before II
was actually issued. One soldier OF the
second United States artillery evidently
made a bad investment of his bounty
money. Among his effects are some shares
of the American Flag Company of San
Francisco, Cal, and papers showing that
he had embarked 81 400 in that concern.
Whether the shares of the American Flag
Company were ever worth the paper they
are printed on, even making liberal al
lnx for he oil o,,,;-, t.rc
with which the paper is profusely deco
rated. is not known to the writer, but they
are certainly of value now, the COM
pany having given up the ghost years ago.
Picked Up by the Way.
Some Of the effects seem to indicate that
the boys occasionally were pickers up Of
unconsidered trifies probably when they
were on foraging expeditions. For ex-
ample, one soldier who was on duty along
the Potomac left $40 in bills of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Bank, dated in the fifties,
which had no value when he obtained them
and never will have any. They may rep
| resent the savings as well as the bad luck
of some thrifty Maryland or Virginia farm
| er. Another soldier had by some means or
other become possessed of a warrant for
100 acres of land but the warrant could
have been of no use to him, as IL is not
in his favor and has not been assigned or
transferred. Another had picked up some
original patents for lands in one of the
southern states. possibly when he was
marching through Georgia AS ancient doc
uments they We're interesting and might
be valuable to the owner of the land, but
as effects of the soldier who left them
| their value is nil.
! In addition to a lot Of uncurrent bank
notes, which in their day were all right
! enough there are many wildcat and red
| dog bills, which were no doubt passed upon
the boys when they We're scarcely In a
! condition to distinguish a genuine bill from
a circus poster. That may seem violent
| suppesiton, but inasmuch as many of the
/ bills are Incomplete, lacking both numbers.
dates and signatures of the bank officers.
/ the persons who accepted them as money
could not have been very wide awake Quite
| number of state bank bills which were
J turned over to the second auditor as I'M
current, or bogus. and as such had been
4 refused by army paymasters. were found
/ TO be genuine and on presentation were
| redeemed by the banks and the amounts
placed in the treasury In these cases the
should thew ever apply for II, as the records
| of the office show that the soldiers are
credited with the proceeds of the bills. The
collection of bogus money would not be
complete without confederate promises to
pay, of which several specimens were left
| by deceased prisoners of war. The con-
/ federate treasury notes, confederate state
/ bank bills and fractional currency, printed
| on almost all kinds of raper that would re-
ceive and retain the impression Of print
ers' ink. are genuine war relics in every
sense of those words.
A Photographic Gallery.
column might be written on the collec-
/ ton of photographs. ambrotypes and tin
/ types which form part of deceased SOL
diers' effects. Even the old-time daguerreo-
| type is not absent. There are pictures of
elderly people taken in far distant lands.
perhaps the soldiers parents; there are
buxom matrons and chubby infants, whom
the soldiers left in the fatherland when
| they crossed the Atlantic to seek fortune
| and find death instead. The soldiers them
! selves are present in fatigue dress, in full
! uniform and even in citizens clothes. Their
! comrades are here also, singly and in
7 squads. Two or three of the pictures are of
| a somewhat grewsome character, being pho
! tographs of unknown soldiers taken after
| death apparently with the idea that they
might be recognized at some future time
| They were killed while facing the enemy.
as evidenced by bullet marks on face ard
| forehead. Not long since photograph OF
| an officer of New York volunteers was
found among some old paymaster's vouch-
ers. How it came there no one knew. The
officer died during the war After some in
quiries his widow was found and the photo
graph sent to her. much to her surprise. IL
was Ike message from a loved one who
had been dead for more than quarter OF
| a century.
A few months ago one of the paymasters
! on duty in the War Department had coca
sion to overhaul the contents Of an old So fe
! which had been used by his predecessors for
| no one knows how long. Among either
things he found parcel of allotment checks
/ drawn on the assistant treasurer, New
! York. IN 1862 and 1863. in favor of lllottees
| of soldiers of two New York regiments
| These checks 5i5 in number and S11, TGj in
| amount, are not indorSed and bear no evi.
| deDce either of presentation or payment
They were transferred to the second auditor
1t appears that the paymaster by whom
they were drawn was a defaulter TO the ex,
tent of $21.So0. In conjunction with q
to purchase large quantity of timber or
land inVirginia. When his defalcatiOn came e
light, it was discovered that his official bond
was so informal and defective that the sure
ties could not be held and the matter wa.
compromised by the government taking pos
session of the timber. the 1aymaster beins
credited with the appraised value thereof
$2o00. His friends paid $3.50 into tn,
treasury, and he escaped with simple dis
misSal from the service. The most singular
feature Of this case is that there is no rec
ord that any of the allottees ever made ap
plication for the amounts due them. which
range from SO to 500 each.
Watches by the Peck
The remainder Of the war relies make III
a miscellaneous assortment. consisting o
about half peck of gold, silver nickel anC
brass watches, some of them valuable. 9th
ers worthless except as memenros; gold
silver, brass and hair watch chains an,
/ guards: rings of almost all kinds ipcl,,5ir,