Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-04-10

chiefly due to dirt accumulated ln
passing through many hands; but this
clever thief was able to smell new
bills through on envelope with equaI
certainty. 1t is said that an expert
is able to tell if letter contains
money by the "feel," and another
method is to draw a thread with q
knot on the end of it through the en-.
velope, when some of the fibre paper
of the notes will come with it.
The mere fact that 800 or more post
offices in this country are robbed
every year affords a suggestion of the
amount of business to which the de-
tectives of the postal service are OBJ
liged to attend. But a large part OF
their time is occupied in efforts to pre-
vent the use of the mails for fraudu'
lent and otherwise Objectionable pur.
poses. Some of the most difficult
cases are made by women who write
anonymous letters. Nearly all of that
sort of work is done by women, and
usually jealousy is the motive. Again
much trouble is caused by persons who
send immoral literature and indecent
pictures by post. There is the green
goods industry to be attended to, not
to mention an immense variety OF
minor frauds, such as swindling mat
rimonial bureaus and claim agencies
for mythical estates. Mailbox pilfer'
ing is a regular industry, very hard to
suppress. An old method consisted in
pulling the letters out of the box by
means of piece of waxed sole-leath-
er on string, but now the favorite
dodge is to personate carrier with
false key.
Notwithstanding all that the gov.
ernment detectives have been able to
do, thefts in the treasury have been
frequent, and in some cases very large
In June, 1870, a sneak thief dropped
his hat over package of ten dollar
notes in the issue room, carrying it
away without being observed. On
discovery of the loss memorandum
was made of the numbers Of the notes
there were 1000 of them in the bun
dle-and the thief was arrested when
he deposited some of them in New
York bank. More than half of the
money was recovered. In the same
year two employees of the treasury
named Marden and Johnson, acting
together, took $4,000. Marden was
chief of the division of accounts, and
johnson was an assistant paying-teller
OF this money, $12,700 was regained
1t was also in the same year that ar
employee of the redemption division
one Edwins, substituted waste paper
for $4,000 that was in package for
warded by a bank. Of this sum al
but SIS, ,749 was recovered.
The treasury detectives have done
some wonderful work in the detection
of thefts from Uncle Sam; but in two
or three recent instances they have
failed entirely. Not long ago a one
thousand dollar note vanished from 6
package of ffty-one bills of that de-
nomination, and nobody could ever
tell what became of it. Treasurer
Nebeker had to make it good out O.
his own pocket. Again, ten sheets o
five dollar notes disappeared appar
emily while in transit between the
bureau of engraving and the treasury
No trace of them was ever found. l,
is believed that Ernestine Becker, ar
employee of the redemption division
who invented the process of making
nine notes out of eight, carried on this
business for years before she wa:
found out, and her thieving was dis
covered only by an accident. On the
last day of her employment, which
was in the autumn of 1880, she earned
nine hundred and eighty dollars thi:
way. In 1875, Benjamin Hallock, 6
treasury clerk, passed out a package
containing forty-seven thousand dol
lars in five hundred dollar bills, to 6
saloon-keeper named Ottman. O
this money twenty-nine thousand dol
lars was recovered. Only last yeal
the government was cheated out o.
seventy-five thousand dollars by EN-
ployees of the mint at Carson, who
substituted chunks of base metal fol
gold bricks.
Somewhere in the neighborhood O
Roncador Reef is lying an iron safe
containing 81, 1000, 900 in paper money
The cash, consisting of 1000 $1,000
notes, was shipped in May, 1865, by
the treasurer of the United States tc
San Francisco on the Golden Rule
The vessel was wrecked, and it was
claimed that the disaster was due to
conspiracy which had for it's object the
stealing of the money. Government
detectives worked hard on the pro
blem, but could secure no satisfactory
evidence. The case was not declared
closed until six years had passed, but
the fact that none of the notes have
ever been offered for payment is suf
fcient proof that the suspicion oi
fraud was without foundation. Up to
date only one attempt has been made
to steal from the bureau of engraving
An employee engaged in printing notes
tried TO get an impression of the en-
graved plate by slipping piece OF
lead foil through his press. This could
have been used as a matrix for stereo'
typing. But the girl who acted as his
assistant gave him away. Since ther
each press has had an attachment
which registers every revolution Of
the cylinder, and the number of sheets
printed is required to correspond ex
actly to the number of revolutions.
One of the eleverest pieces of work
ever accomplished by the government
detectives was the tracing of the treas
,,,o, ,,,h; oh ,,,o,a otolap from the pat-