The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-16

a Pennsylvania PedIer and His $780,
900 Rats Nest--A woman Who
stole n FOrtune-Express Robber-
les.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Washington have more stories to-day
of men who are trying TO break into
Uncle Sans money-box. He keeps his
pile, you know, in the United States treas
ury. and there are in his vaults to-day
SS54OOO,OOO This vast sum IS under the
charge Of the United States treasurer. a
bright-eyed. active man of 50 perhaps.
who stands not over five feet seven in his
stockings. and does not weigh more than
$50 pounds. He has not the muscles Of a
Sandow, and If he carries a revolver IL
is not to be seen. Still. he Is responsible
for more money. perhaps. than any other
man in the world. and when he took pos
session of Uncle Sans purse two years
ago, he gave what is said to be the biggest
receipt ever written for money actually
transferred. 1t was for Tl0.sl7.4l9. This
mans name is Daniel N Morgan. and he
is Uncle Sans chief Watchdog / called
upon him this afternoon There was not
even a messenger to stop me at the door,
and l walked right up and stood beside
the big desk before which he was sitting
and signing away millions with a black
fountain-pen. During our talk l referred
to the pen, and he told me that within
the last five days he had signed drafts to
the amount of S17,OOOOO0 with it, l asked
him some questions as TO the small change
which he had charge of for Uncle Sam,
and found he was posted as to every cent
of that steady stream of gold and sill
yer which flows at the rate Of almost
$l0O0,00O day in and out of the United
States treasury.
Said he-"You want to know Of some OF
the ways in which Uncle Sam is robbed?
Well, they are few. The United States
government loses very little money, l can
tell you, though there are many attempts
of one kind or another to steal from il.
But first let me give some idea of the
money which we have ON hand. we have
seven great vaults, each Of which con-
tains millions. In vault No ] there is
nothing but silver. 1t is in silver dollars
and halves, and the sum total is more
than lO0,000000. In vault No. we have
lot of fractional silver and
| between two and three millions
dollars worth of gold coin. Vaults and A
are filled with national bank notes, which
come in for redemption, and in vault 6
we have a little matter Of S25, COO 600 worth
of mixed money for our daily USE In vault
there is quarter Of a billion dollars
worth of bonds, which are held as Sc
curity for the national bank circulation
and in another vault we have $500 OO0, 900
worth of notes to replace worn and mu-
tilated money which is unfit for circula-
ton. The total weight Of the coin is 5000
tons, and there are enough greenbacks
to carpet a farm. The chief robberies
attempted are in connection with the
greenbacks, and most of these come In
through the redemption bureau. / will
give you a messenger now. who will take
you to the chief of that bureau, and
l will ask him to give you all the in
formation you want"
With this Treasurer Morgan pressed
button. An ebony messenger appear
ed. He led me down into the basement
of the treasury building. opened a door
or iron grating and took me into a great
room where hundreds of thousands OF
dollars in all sorts of packages, were
lying about. These packages were of
old bills, which had come in for redemp-
ton. Some were corded up in piles, 9TH
ers were neatly laid out upon the coun-
ter, and others were still in the great
boxlike carts in which they are carried
from one part of the treasury to the
other. The packages were lying about
just as they came from the banks, and
as l looked Mr. Albert Relyea, the chief
of the bureau, picked up one of them
and handed it to me. There is enough
in that handful to make you rich" said
he. 1 looked at the figures on its out
side and found that l had 100000 in my
hand. You have $1,85O,000 before YOU"
he went on, as he pointed to about two
bushels of bank note packages on desk
at the right. I'VE handle In this bu-
reau just about a million dollars worth
of notes day Uncle Sam, you know,
gives new money for old. We pass upon
the old, cut into pieces and send il out
TO the bureau of engraving and print
ing, where 1t is ground up into mush. If
there are any pieces Of a bill left and
II can be shown that the man holding
the pieces has legitimately lost the bal
ance, we give him new bills We have
replaced burnt money and money
chewed into thousands of pieces. A great
many of the attempted frauds upon the
treasury are from people who pretend
that money has been destroyed when |
1t has not, and want Uncle Sam to give |
them a new supply.
Here, for instance, is a $4,000 Job that |
has been troubling me for some time"
said Mr.. Relyea, as he took handful of |
MANILA paper slips, each the size of |
banknote, from a drawer at his right |
and laid them before me. On the corner /
OF at the top of each slip there was a lit /
tie piece Of bank note pasted. Some of
these were pieces of $5O-notes, some of |
twenty, some of ten, some Of a hundred
and several Of a thousand. None of the
pieces were bigger than your little fin
ger nail, and they came, as II was after
ward shown, from at least a hundred diff
ferent notes. Those bits of money" said
Mr.. Relyea, were brought in to me one
day few weeks ago by a slouchy-looling
adventurer. who came from one Of the
baclxwoods counties OF Pennsylvania He
brought them In a pill-box and laid them
before me and told me that he wanted the
United States 10 redeem the amount OF
money which they represented. / asked
him how the money had been DESTROYED,
and he told his story. He said that he was
a peddlcr, and that while out Ia Oregon
about a year ago he had made lucky
real estate speculation. which had nctted
him 5000 This money he had brought
back 20 him % his home IN the east. ana
had taken with him 70 his farm In Penn
syiyania. lie said n was IN The time ~