The San Francisco call., 1895-12-19
ANOTHER MINT SCANDAL At CARSON CITY,

on the venture, which was only something
in the neighborhood of $40, ,000."
Under these circu instances, Mr.. Col
burn, admitting that you consider it i'm
possible for such a job to be operated, can
you suggest any way by which that $50 900
of 93 coin got into the State Treasury? Is
1t not true that the associations and rela-
tionships of the Superintendent of the
Mint, the State Treasurer and others were
such that most any arrangement could
have been made with reasonable assurance
of immunity and protection?'
"You probably refer to the fact that
I. r. Hofer, at that time Superintendent,
was,also cashier of the Bullion Exchange
Bank. and that Evan Williams Of the Ne
vada Mill was president of the bank, and
that George Richards was a brot her-in-
law of the Chief Clerk of the Mint, Law
renee Elrod. That was the way the story
got its backing when the rumor first
started. The suspicious ones held that
Mr. Williams secured the bullion from the
mill; that Mr.. Hofer saw to it that it was
coined properly; that Mr.. Richards, State
Treasurer, accepted the dollars, for which
he gave gold, which was used in the
Bullion Exchange Bank; that I, as the
friend of them all, permitted the ma
chlnery in my department to be used
IN the work. and that we were all in
cahoots together to make little deal at
the expense of the Government machinery.
L do not believe such thing ever occurred
and l cannot explain how that silver got
into the State treasury. One thing [ can
assure you, however, is that if it is any
part OF the money made while 1 was conner
of the mint it is first class
Mr.. Colburn was inclined to treat the
matter lightly, and rather laughed at the
idea that anything wrong had ever been in
troduced in the mint management under
the Harrison administration.
eugene Howell, Secretary of State of
Nevada and also one of the State Board of
Examiners, is on visit to San Francisco,
and when approached yesterday was not
disposed to go very deeply into the matter.
He admitted, however, that there was
$73 900 in the State treasury, and. that it
was, so far as he had investigated, of the
mintage OF 1893 and fresh from the mint,
apparently.
When asked if it was the intention of
the State Board of Examiners to bring the
matter before the next session of the Legis-
Iature, he stated that something would
probably be done in the matter of looking
into the circumstances of how the silver
deposit came to be on hand, but aside
from that he refused to discuss the su biect
giving as a reason that he did not care to
talk of State business that had not yet
been settled. He did not deny, however,
that something in the way of an investiga-
ton was in the wind.
Governor Jones, another member of the
State Board of Examiners of Nevada, is
at the Palace Hotel, where he has
been for the last five weeks. ~ have not
permitted myself to be annoyed with State
business any more than can help, and if an
investigation of the affair is 30 be brought
about l am not familiar with the reason" 4"
said Governor Jones. at is true that there
are seventy-three sacks of silver in the
vaults OF the State treasury, and
how they got there I do not know,
but 1 have seen them myself. If
any new steps are contemplated it is
probably because something new has de-
veloped in the case. So far as am able to
state to-day, l know nothing other than
the existence of the silver there and | do
not think it just to condemn until some
thing more definite is learned
good, stiff wrangle over the transac-
tion is likely to occur in Nevada and those
who are in a position to know wink the
other eye and advise inquisitive people to
wait and see something very lively in that
section of the Pacific Coast