The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-25

i
lated. Unfortunately, they ran,.- rem accunu I
100 or more, if anything, and H. scented s.
iucky TO escape prison. An ~ oulh va l.
MOI lons ago mailed to the treas,,r1 "ona
Der OF rolled-up pellets of ns,,ay nun
she SAID represented a & NOT - Who
chlld. The pellets We're straioS.I-n Up
ana found to be thirteen cent? ieelied %
lengthwise from as many x iniAps
haruIy necessary to say thar H. II
81 g ys IN RETURN People seem +o ot
that Uncle Sam is precious 60 60 10 thl
same time the redemption AN at
get cheated now and then. undo-,Slu dos
Late IN the year 1892 it was djscoI'edly
the redemption division that tba eve cred
per Oh 5000 notes of the series &c lT al nun
Deen redeemed. Nevertheless no+o -0 - IA
series were still coming in for ro1"ol ID
AT Hrst IL was thought that there ny
an overissue by some strange nist -.au peg
cordlngly, all of these notes fror, +LHt' AZ
on were withheld from the custor Ia uHi
Structlon,and their numbers were ro..3 Os
ca Iot the purpose of seeing if d,nIjoa
Woulu appear and 1t is now believed ~
the trouble arose from an error ~ 'na
part of the officials appointed 10 vi I'd
destruction committee. They rnrs4 as
made a mistake in their record 90 AaV
destroyed, putting down the fie1,res III" W!
instead OF those of some other vear Nt
NO business concern in the wor,,
more carefully managed than tho IN
States treasury, but it's Operation IN ol''ea
such gigantic scale that occa sionoI %
takes are unavoidable. Not long AuS'
$40 silver certificate received bv t5e eo
oemptlon division exhibited a stro.
freak It's NUMBER being stated dinererS'
on the upper right-hand corner - ao, my
lower left-hand corner. Similar "'iu 'na F
In printing have occurred several V .,
in the bureau of engraving. Anotbo '.ll i,
silver certificate, of the series oF ,o
omitted the legend" entirely NJ. %4
reau OF engraving could give no w.
factory explanation of the nbeno,.e9aa 's' |
investigation developed the fact +ba.
large number of these certifcatas :
the signature of d. N. Morgan troa.
urer, were defective in this resnect 'e oa
OF ene many steel plates used for nrin,
ing the pills evidently lacked the tress,
urer's name. "edS'
On one occasion it was found n..
number of United States $50 notes qua, os a
series of 1880, bore the legend of i071 ~
this instance the trouble was o,is ~
enough. The bureau of engraving urs.-
took to alter the plates of 1874 for +ba ~,
series, and in one of them the cham
the legend was forgotten. National ba.l
notes are frequently found lacking "a,
signature of the bank officers. Sucb no-'
are always signed by hand, whereas M
signing OF treasury greenbacks and GER
tlflcates is accomplished by printing l.
the old days of the national currencS ~
signatures were by hand, and bistorv
states that Gen. Spinner was proud to NM
his eccentric autograph upon the frso
tlonaI shlnplasters during the war Pr
even he found this too laborious fnanr |
Fractional notes bearing his autogranb
real pen and ink fetch high prices to.d.r
Speaking of fractional currency tbs,
was received on June %, 1894. from I'M
National Exchange Bank, Augusta Ca
the sum OF $512.45, in brand-new fraction
al notes. That is to say, they had never
been used. They were done nm in N,
original brown paper straps, which hora
the inscription, Counted in the division
of issue, Treasury Department" INA
notes had been held like so much coa.
eral, without disturbing them. Every
now and then consignments of fractional
currency are received by the treasury in
this condition, though the bulk of this
money arrives in small lots and in all
stages of dilapidation. Millions of dol
lars worth of it are yet OUTSTANDING
and much of it has doubtless been de.
stroyed in one way or another
On July 2, 1894, a package of SO notes
York. 1t was one bill short and in place
of that bin was found slip of brown pa
per bearing the words Good for $40"
written in pencil This seemed very odd
but the explanation was easy The clerks
in New York who had counted the pack
age put in some brown paper slip as
memorandum. He forgot afterwards to
replace it with the requisite so note OF
course, he had to make 1t good.
The story of the rise and fall of Ernes-
tine Becker has never been truthfully
told in print. She was the ingenious wO.
wan who, being employed in the redemp.
ton division, devised a method Of max
ing nine notes out of eight. OF course
the paper money that comes into the
treasury for redemption is in all stages
of dilapidation. Some of it can only be
identified by pasting scraps together. En-
neStine would tear a strip from one note
and paste it upon another, so artfuy
manipulating the sections thus obtained
that the original material of eight notes
served to compose nine, leaving one Dill
over for herself. This was very prohta'
BILE, inasmuch as she was able to deal
with fifties and hundreds; she never
bothered with notes of less than $40
There is no telling how long she prose
cuted this business. She did it with the Ut
most boldness, and there is every reason \
to believe that she carried 1t on for
number of years. Her profits may be tant
ly surmised from the fact that on the as.
day OF her employment, she earned wy
in this way. This was in the autumn Oh
1888. On that day she was so unlucky as 70
be absent from the Office for while anu
a package of money she had made up was
torn by an accident. 1t was handed over
another clerk to be repaired, and the av'
ter counted it again, according TO the es
tablished usage.
The first thing that excited her attenlOl
was that the numbers on the tops aut
bottoms of some of the notes dlu Nv
match. Nevertheless she suspected nun ,
ing. 1t was evident that the notes nsu
been patched wrongly. Accordingly sl'
soaked them in water and put them ~
gether properly. AS a result, she Eal
less number of notes and less anl0 ~.
by $3.50 than had been indicated. rms az
covery resulted in an investigation Erlles 81
inc claimed that the money had reacI sa
the treasury and been handed TO her u .ss
shape in which it was found. PROOF 10 Wv
contrary could hardly be obtained, anu !"
no prosecution was attempted Inc W.
man made good the $780, A WasnlhgDa
real estate agent, who died the other ua',
swallowed the fortune which was 'nS NV,
criminally acquired. The woman dieu n
long ago of cancer in New YORK hO'P'
tai.
Nervousness in Birds.
From the Washington Evening star