The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1897-12-19

| SuidcS anu integrity. The ambition to
reach one more promotion and hold an
| oLlce Whlcn seemed almost within reach
must be felt. To report. this latest loss
was 70 demand an investigation which
| would bring out the Justification of the
books to hide the first. Surely here was
SAD case OF q victim Of circumst ances.
| A.A the victim was an ordinary man.
| a second time the books were fixed
70 make an appearance of correctness.
around the unhappy man a net seemed
&c De drawing. Perhaps n,uety-nine
men out OF hundred would have
thrown pride to the Winds forgot Tho
am'biaon Of n spotless lifetime and CITED
out:
We Is roL:iy here!'
The hundredth man wouldn't He
would have done as this man did His
hist impulse would have been to carry
| on the deception of figures. Growing
desperate with the terrible secret, he
would at last have taken into his con-
hdence the very men from whom he
should have held ,aloof He would
nave accepted the suggestion that there
were easy and quick ways of making
thousand OF dollars to replace the
amount mysteriOusly missing. He
would have listened 10 the seductive
stories Of large odds won IN an after
moon at the race track He would have
refused to take Il dollar of Uncle Sans
|
he might have allowed men about him
To- take sums of money and try to win
enough to make good the losses while
ne further falsiiicd the figures to hide
the growing deficit. And SO the time
might come when without having real
lied personal beneiit from any of this
money, he would find himself face to
race with n loss too large to be longer
concealed.
An Inspector stepped into the cash
ler's Office one day and took possession.
From Washington had bsem sent an in
llmation that some Irregularities
seemed TO exist. The inspector worked
ana worked At length. with many
figures before him, he turned TO the
cashier and said:
No" replied the cashier, true to the
Lifelong accuracy, the amount is
And so it was Friends more famil-
lar with the ways of the world realized
now good name had been lost, how n
lie had been wrecked. when they heard
the beEnninE of the deficit Their
vigorous comments awakened the ca sh-
Ter TO the knowledge of the trap into
which he had fallen. y trial is coming.
| Shrewd lawyers will cndcavOr TO trac,
the written combination. They will
snow, IL possible, in whose possession
| IL was when the two losses led the
| cashier .Gto Il false position Written
! demands have been made unon those
who are supposed Ia know for state
mcnts i'll detail about the combination.
| They have been asked to tell what was
done with the combination when il
| passed ielto their possession al the be
| ginning of the present uostmaster's
| term, whether others have had ucccsS
10 the information, and where the
written memorandum is now.
Officials of the Tostoflicc Department
/ va n al, n
| inns case. To them it has more than
! local interest. y double reason has
| prompted them. In the first place the
manner IN which the deficit was con-
cealed ON the books for a period of
months has shown the department
| something new in malfeaSancc. In adj
| dltion to this, there is sympathy for
the cashier, so long regarded as the
| model. This sympathy has stimulated
n strong desire that the complete story
| OF the downfall shall be told and that
| the chief guilt shall he placed where IL
| belongs. The trial is looked forward To
! as cr,e of the most important in the
| exposure and punishment of postolicc
| crime In many years. PostoiIicc Of-
! cials Will furnish some OF the scnsn-
| tional testimony. There is n belief at
the department that the cashier did not
realize any Pecuniary ncnetit: in other
tWords' mat he did not make direct use
OF the money which disappeared.
| In the banking business there is 4
| theory that long ana continued hantll-
! !ciS OF large umounts OF cash hcgets in
! som" minds gradual Weakening of the
! law of thine and mine. Bank officers
| go along for years without the error
| OF a penny in their cash ACCOUNTS
! IhcE come to be looked upon as be-
/ ycAd the pale OF temptation 10 appro-
| PIRATE from what is passing through
| their hands. Then, after having estab-
! iish9d such regulations. they sometimes
/ FAY. They take the money for spccu-
/ iation, expecting To replace H. become
. involved ana plunge deeper and deeper
| untll exposure follows. There have
! beon enough instances Of ihis kind to
I establish the theory as 4 principle ap-
! pliouhle not tn ali, but to some When
! the fact of this postoilice defalcaliom
! became public property those who had
! felt unlimited confidence in the cashier
! adopted this theory as the exclamation
of what seemed otherwise an unac-
! countablc lapse. Later came the krIowl-
! edge communicated to Il few Of the
| two shortages with which the compli-
| cations began. And now the feeling
| among officials who know most of this
unhappy affair is that the moral re-
| sponsibility will not appear so great
| when all the facts are made kriowu.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY.