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


his spring house. After a few weeks he
went 10 look at Il. and he found that the
rats had gotten IN and eaten Il uD. These
were all the pieces that remained. and he
wanted 10 know II Uncle Sam would paw
him back his $4,000.
me story was very fishy." continued
Ar Relyea. I questioned the man. but
ne stuck 10 his tale. and l finally told
MN that l would put the money in the
hands OF our experts and see what they
eou!d make OF IL. They pasted IL on these
sips. and they found that 1t represented
pieces OF $1,000 worth of notes. The
FRAUD IN the case. however, was evident
II was strange thing that there was
no piece from the middle OF note. and
that the rats had left only those pieces
OF the notes which had some printing
on them 70 show their denominations
We told the man we could not allow him
the money. He went away very angry.
About three weeks later ne came back,
bringing three big rats nests with him
he laid these down on my table and
said: There, sir. are the nests them
selves You win find some of my $50. 900
sun IN them. 1 found these after l went
nome, and l have brought them down
JUST 10 snow you that have been tell
ing the truth. Ny money has been eaten,
and 1 want it.
an right said I. we VIII look at
the nests 1 handed them .yver TO our
experts and the pieces Of money were
picked out. We found that in the nests
there were the pieces OF seven bills.
one OF these was 500 bill. another was
a ten, and there were five 81 bills We
at once saw that they were not torn by
the rats, but that they had been pulled
apart by hand. A rat makes a clean
cut When II eats a greenback. II does
not mastcate the whole bills, but IL
cuts holes in ii and gnaws out a piece
here and there. His notes were torn in
httle pieces. We then turned him over
to the detectives.
They traced him. and they found
that he was, as he GAINED, a farmer
pedlor. who had gone 20 Oregon and
made there $500 by jumping a mans
claim. He had brought this money back
10 pennsylvania and had deposited IL
In bank. 1t is my belief that
he drew it out in large bills. say twenties,
hfties and hundreds. He then pinched
corner or little strip off the top Of each
OF these bills. This would not be noticed
and would not prevent his passing the bill
and having it changed for smaller bills.
The small bills he would again deposit.
and again draw out the money in large
bills, pinching off the ends. so that he fin
ally got the pieces which made the repre-
sentation Of 81, 900. He was a great ras-
secret service to see him. ! remember he
came into the department that day with a
rank cigar in his mouth. IL was so bad
that had to tell him he must not smoke
while in the redemption bureau. He was
loud In his language and very profane.
and told him he must not swear before
the ladies. 1t was shortly after this that
ne went up to see Chief Brooks. Mr.
Brooks Is a kind Of Sunday school man. He
likes to warn boys against entering the
paths OF crime. and before we came to
business he told me of a Sunday school
meeting which he had just attended in
Philadelphia and a speech which ne had
made TO the boys. He then talked at
length with the swindler, while | sat in
the background When we left. however,
l saw the swindler throw his arms around
Mr.. Brooks's neck, and heard him say
this; Brother Brooks. ! am good man.
l nevr smoke; / never swear. / am poor
humble follower of the lowly Jesus, and
l want you to help me to get back my
money The rascal had heard Brooks's
remarks about the Sunday school, and he
thought he could work upon him in this
way"
rs not money often lost through the
counters, Mr.. Relyea?" l asked. You
have large number Of women here who
handle hundreds of thousands of dollars
a day l should think 1t would be easy
to slip out bill now and then"
Such thing is impossible" replied
the chief The money all comes to US
done up in packages from the banks. The
amount in the packages Is marked, and
the woman who counts IL is responsible
for the amount she receives. They come In
packages of a hundred bills If the pack
ages are not as marked the woman must
report them at once TO the chief and the
bank stands the loss. If she makes a mis-
take or passes a counterfeit she must
make the mistake good After the money
Is counted it is cut lengthwise in halves
and one-hah goes to the secretary's Of
flee and the other half to the counters of
the registers office. Here II is recounted
and there is, in fact, no chance for the
slipping out of bills, as you call 1t. We
had, however one case of this kind, and
the woman who did II probably stole thou
sands of dollars from the government
This woman's name was Mrs. Ernestine
Becker. She had been in the department
for twenty-five years, and she was ap-
pointed through the influence of President
Johnson. She was considered very good
counter, and up to my taking charge or
the redemption bureau she was not sus-
uected. Toward the last of her career
however, she grew reckless. She spent
great deal of money She came to the
department every morning in her carriage.
was treasurer at that time, and he ana
! usually walked down together because
we were too poor to afford a carriage.
saw this woman, and 1t seemed strange
that she should live so well on s., 600 a
year. She had a house in the city and
one in the country, and she had sent her
boy to Europe to be educated. Upon in
quiry it was stated that she had re-
ceived a fortune from the death of
relatives.
Another thing that created suspicion
was the fact that it was discovered that
she had one name in the department and
another outside She had been married
twice, and on the treasury rolls her name
was Mrs. Becker, while outside she was
Mrs. Smith. Well, one evening we found
an error in our accounts, and this error
was traced to Mrs. Becker's desk. / asked
for her the next morning, intending to
give her little scolding for her careless
ness. She was not present; she had re-
NAMED away from the Office without
leave. This had happened quite frequent
ly, and gave orders for her papers to be
examined. and for the money she had
counted to be gone over. There was only
the account of three days which had not
yet been sent to the macerator. In the
money she had counted during those three
days we found that she had stolen SQa0