St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-09-23
STORY Of A MINT.
SUPT. MASON, UNITED STATES AS
SAVER, VISITING IN SIT.
PAUL.
A TALE OF STOLEN COLE
EXPLAINS HOW HE FATHOMED
A MYSTERY OF CARSON CITY
MINT.
WORK OF A CLEVER OPERATOR
The Men Supposed to Have
Robbed Uncle Sam of $4,000
Rounded Up

Supt. Andrew Mason, of the Unit
| ed States assay Office at New York
| city, now visiting has brother, w. F.
| Mason, OF 544 Wabasha street, is
returning from an important official
mission to Carson City, New. This
mission involves shortage at tine
Carson mint of nearly $4,000 in gold.
MIR. Mason is a genial and enter
tanning gentleman who has passed
lifetime in the government serv-
ice. During forty-four years he has
been employed at the Philadelphia
| and New York assay office, having
passed through all the important
| grades of the service, until twelve
| years ago he became superintendent.
In the course of his long experience
he has invented or perfected new
| processes of dealing with the pre-
cious metals, and has gained the rep
| utation of knowing more about prac-
ucal mint methods than perhaps any
| other man in the United States
| For that reason he was called to
Washington suddenly last February.
| Secretly closeted with Director Pres
ton, of the United States mint, he
was shown a letter from H. Harris,
superintendent of the branch mint
at Carson City. Harris wrote that
he was chagrined to state that a
clean up had just been made in
his mint, the first since he had taken
charge in the spring of 1894, and
that there was an apparent short
age of almost 1000 ounces of gold
| and a surplus of 5000 ounces of sill
yer, making the total deficit in the
neighborhood of SIS, A close in
vestigation had been made, but the
mystery was still abysmal. Mr.. Ma
son was urged by the director to go
TO Carson and locate the loss, and,
although delayed by illness, he at
length arrived there last March.
Inc second day of his Investigations
ne decided to assay once more ten
samples from the lots of partially re-
/; fined gold and silver already assayed
and valued and placed to the credit of
the mint in the Carson vaults. The
third assay discovered "a remarkable
dlHerence. A "lot' which should, ac-
cordlng to the previous assay, have
contained 4S2 parts of gold and 500 parts
/ out to contain only 1876 parts of gold
and GAG parts of silver. The records
stated that this lot had been received
In 1893 by the former director of the
Carson mint. The book where the
record was made also indicated that
this lot had been recorded the very
| last one, on the occasion of a periodical
clean up, and, moreover, that sew
eral small lots had been registered just
before this last lot Now. the small
lots showed such proportions of gold
| and silver that an experienced man
would see that they were made of the
| odds and ends of gold and silver found
in the very last process of cleaning the
mint machinery. Why, therefore, this
| final large lot, when, apparently, all
available metal had been melted up?
The assayer, questioned by Mr.. Ma
son, thought that the big lot might
come from the "slum,'' meaning a
sort Of overflow vat, so known locally.
Here are gathered particles of the
precious metals which drift away in
waste water during one of the refining
processes. But again experience dem
i onstrated that the proportions shown
| by either assay did not resemble those
usually found in wastage that collects
in the "Slum." Said Mr. Mason: "The
case is simply this. Some one who
could control matters had been steal
ing gold or silver when that record
was made. He 'doctored' his lots to
cover all he had stolen, and recorded
the proportions that he wanted each
lot TO show. Then, at the end he
found he was still short about $40 900.
and he fixed up this last lot to straight
en- things out But, mind YOU. this
shortage of $4,000 was a surprise to
him. 1t must have been taken. then.
by some other thief, whom he didn't
dare to report, lest his own shortages
would be found OUT
The very next day a government
detective, already employed for some
weeks on the case, was Informed bv
private smelter named Beck. located
at Reno, New, that, in July and Au-
gust, 1893, man called Reaney. repre-
senting himself as one of the lessees
on certain mine, had brought to
Keno about $4,000 worth of gold and
silver to be refined and sold. The
miner had made bets about the phe-
| nomenal fineness of his product. and
| had requested that the facts be kent
! secret, so that he could renew his
lease. Reaney proved to be an employe
of. the Carson mint, who was dis
charged in June, 1893, just before he
TOOK the stolen metal to Reno. Thus
the unknown thief indicated by Mr..
Mason the day before was unearthed
within twenty-four hours.
Further investigation brought ont
that the former superintendent of the
mint-one Zabriskey-had been i'll dur
ing most of his term, and that he had.
therefore, left everything to his as
sistant, John T. Jones, over whose
work there was no check until the new
| superintendent, Harris, was appointed
by Cleveland. Harris, however. had
| exercised the greatest care, and had
| carefully checked the work of his
! subordinates. In all probability, there
| fore, Jones was the robber of the mint
| He had, as later researches made
| almost certain, melted down various
| lots, extracted and disposed of the old
and transferred the number on these
valuable lots to cheaper lots made up
| chiefly of silver. But when the new
superintendent took charge of affairs
Jones could no longer manipulate the
returns" Hence it was found that
when a lot were remelted that had
been received under the new superin-
| tendent, the results were satisfactory
but when the ''old soldiers,' as the old
lots were styled were melted over
again, they usually showed a marked
deficit of gold and surplus of silver.
On Mr.. Mason's representations an
attempt was made to capture Reaney.
The latter remained out of sight for
months, but at length surrendered at