The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-01

Wulcn consisted IN dOSfrdcL-nE small |
amount of the gold from each kettlcful OF |
solution. After accommodating consldera- /
bic quantity of the precious metal I'm the /
manner described. he took IL 20 the Reno |
Reduction Works and sold H. He eX-
planned that IL was obtained from mine |
which he had leased. and that he was anN- |
tOus Tor secrecy for fear lest the owner /
would refuse TO renew the lease n ne found |
out how richly the mine was producing In |
this way he secured 5000 IN cash.
Thus Il appears that Uncle Sam was
being robbed in two ways at once at the
Carson mint. While Heny was stealing
the granular gold in the refinery Jones
and the third confederate We're making |
bogus melts.' as they are technically
called. and substituting fake bars for
goods ones. II is "a wonder that the con-
spirators did not actually clean out the
establishment: but, doubtless through
fear Of detection they only took $4,000 al
together. How long they might have kept
at 1t without discovery nobody can say.
but trouble was precipitated by the APP
pointment OF new meter and rehner.
Jones still remained as assistant In his
department Gold coin being wanted by
the treasury. the new official drew on the
stock of bars but was astonished 20 hnd
that some OF the latter did not PAN out
as advertised by the alleged assay stamps
on them.
Evidently something was awfully
wrong The new melter ana rchner tel
egraphcd to Washington, and the treasury
authorities promptly sent out Andrew
/ Mason, superintendent of the New YORK
assay office, who has been in the service
| nifty years II did not take him long 20
/ unearth the whole plot, ana Heny
prompt offer to confess was declined with
| thanks as unnecessary II Is worth men
tionng that the FIRST bar which excited un-
| favorable attention bore mark declar-
| ing that IT contained 4S2 parts of gold in
| / 900 on being assayed It proved 70 be
/ nearly pure silver. having only 10 parts OF
| gold. Whether the government will get
| any of the stolen money back IS very
doubtful. The superintendent Of the Car
| son mint is not technically responsible for
| gold that IS In the custody OF the conner
| and the melter and rehncr
| The case of the robbery from the Phlla-
| delphia mint three years ago, was some
| what different. The thefts there were com
| mitted by the weight clerk, for whom SUI
| perlntendent Bosby was held to be
| responsible The suit brought by the gov
| eminent against Bosbysheu is not yet set
| this week. ! Is an odd feature Of this affair
| that the robber, Henry Cochran was pro-
noted to the place OF weight clerk be
| cause of his good work in detecting MS
| predecessor in that office in acts Of steal
/ ing. This predecessor took advantage or
| favorable opportunities for theft which
| were offered forty years ago, when large
| quantities of gold dust were flowing into
the mint from California. lie used 70 ab-
| stract his own percentage or II, taxing a
| spoonful at time
AS Charles Reade, remarks, where there
| Is mole there Is usually mole-catcher.
| Cochran IN this instance was the mole
! catcher He spotted the gold thief, and
| received the latter's place as reward.
| Presumably at that time he was an hon
| est man. but there are many minus 80
constituted as to lose their sef-control in
| the daily contemplation of immense ac-
| cumulatiOns of wealth. The mint In Phil
| adephia commonly has on hand from $lOO,-
| 100000 TO $4,000 600 in gold bars The bars,
| each of them worth a small fortune are
stacked up like so many bricks. Cochran
| had the key 10 vault In which $4,000 600
| worth Of them were kept He could go in
| and out when he liked and without let or
ta ti proved at last too much for him
The gold bars were not out in the open
vault, but were contained within an iron
cage, in one corner OF II, for additional
security. one day It occurred to Cochran
| that II would be easy enough to alb
stract some OF the bars from the cage by
means Of an iron rod with hook on the
end of Il. Just by way of experiment, lie
tried 1t, and he managed to hook bar
down off the pile, and 70 pull II close to
the door or the cage. The cage was ola
and the door could be lifted high enough
TO permit the bar TO be slid out beneath
It. Having possessed himself of it,
Cochran decided that II was a good thing
and that he would hold on to II. He
| concealed II, and at the conclusion Of his
| days work he managed to convey it out
OF the building IN his lunch basket.
| Having taken one bar, IL was natural
that Cochran should have felt an apes
title for more. lie took another, and then
another They were small ones, but only
few were required to represent the sum
Of $4,000. He carried them away each
time to his home, where he established
a little mint of his own. He bought
small furnace and a couple of crucibles
with which he melted the stolen gold.
These bars were Of fine metal. Some OF
them were coin bars, 900 parts in Loo
pure gold, like the coins OF the realm
| Others were the so-called commercial
bars, made for sale to manufacturing
| jewellers. 500 fine or practically pure
| gold. Cochran added some silver to them
for disguise and actually sold them
back to the mint from which they had
been stolen Thus Uncle Sam was
placed In the unseemly position of chas-
| ing his own tail, so as TO speak-buving
] ~
| vaults.
But by and by the treasury Inspector
came along and examined the contents
OF the robbed vaults. Cochran knew thai
| this was sure to happen; but it Is impOssi-
| bic to account for the Vagaries Of the
| amateur thief About that time he oughf
to have been in South America: but he
stayed on and waited for inevitable dis
covery. Detection being surely at hand
he took a desperate step. He took
100000 worth of gold bars from the
cage all at once and secreted
them in. a yentilator. shaft above the
ceiling Of the vault, where nobody would
| have thought of looking for them. Just
why he did this was never explained;
| presumably he thought that he would
| have an opportunjfv to ger avyav Vvitb
them in some fashion. Before he could
do so, however ne was arrested. He
! confessed and the government officers
raided the laboratory at his home Uncle
Sam never got back his 900, and Bos-
byshel was held responsible.
Some years ago a laborer in the Phil
| adelphia mint took advantage of a
| tempting opportunity to pick up a large
brick Of silver which was one Of a stack
OF similar ingots, and threw it unob-
| served into barrel of refuse. 1t was
easy enough for him to remove the bar
rel from the building. Having thus pos
sessed himself of the silver brick, the
thief found II a an elephant on his hands
| He did not know how to dispose of it,
and finally tried to sell 1t in New York
1t had not occurred to him TO efface the
| mint stamp, and so he was promptly ar
| rested and sent TO prison. Quite recently
| Uncle Sam suffered a loss of $4,000 at
| the mint In New Orleans. In this case
II was paper money that disappeared
The cashier, who had charge of il, claim
ed that IL was burned by accident and
| exhibited some charred fragments of
notes in support of his statement The
treasury authorities were convinced that
this was merely an attempt to hide a
theft. but they could not secure sufIicient