The Topeka state journal., 1897-10-20
TREASURY ROBBED.
Has Been Going on for Years-5o
Clerks Now Counting Coin

Washington, Oct 20.-The United
States treasury has been robbed of a
lot Of it's silver dollars. The nations
strong box has been tampered with.
Just how much money has been taken
has not yet been ascertained, but it
may reach into the thousands. The
trouble is that the thefts, each small in
amount, have been going on for years;
how long nobody knows.
The probable seriousness of the rob
berry may be imagined from the fact
that a force of fifty clerks is now en-
gagged in counting piece by piece the en-
tire contents of a vault in which 100,-
100000 silver dollars were stored, foE-the
sole purpose of finding out how many
of them have been stolen. This work
was commenced a week ago and the
force has averaged a count of 100000
coins a. day. At this rate the job will
last about six months, and will cost at
least $4,000.
Rumors of the robbery have been
floating about the treasury corridors
for several days, but while admitting
the fact, the officials affect to make
light of the affair, and say that but a
small amount of money is missing
Further questioning developed the
fact, however, that they do not yet
know how much is gone, and that they
fear that the amount may be swelled to
considerable proportions. There is an
air of great uneasiness about the treas
urer's office. Mr.. Roberts of New York
who recently succeeded D. H Morgan
of Connecticut, as treasurer of the Uni
ted States, has refused TO give his pre-
decessor receipt for the nations mon
ey until after the new count shall have
been completed, as he can not know un-
til then by how much Mr.. Morgan is
short. OF course, the government will
look to Mr.. Morgan and his bondsmen
to make good the loss, no matter what
the amount may be.
The way in which the robbery was
discovered was this: When the new
United States treasurer is appointed it
amount of money on hand should be
counted and receipt given by the new
man to the retiring treasurer. The
bags OF SILVER dollars are each supposed
to contain 1000 coins, and they are US
ually counted by weighing each sack on
a pair of scales. This method was at
first used in the present case, and for
the last four months force of trusted
clerks and labOrers has been employed
in handling the heavy bags. One of the
cOlOred labOrerS would get on top of the
piIed-up heaps of sacks of coin and pass
the sacks from the rear to his aSSiS-
tants in front. The man who did this
work was John Martin, one of the most
trusted employees in the office. One day
he was discovered in the act of opening
one of the bags. abstracting a handful
of silver dollars and substituting d few
Jumps of lead of the same weight in
their place A short investigation dis
closed the fact that he had performed
the same operation on several of the
bags in the compartment upon which
the gang was then at work. When
F. searched SO silver dollars were found
upon him. Martin was questioned close
ly, but he strenuOusly denied having tax
en- more than that amount. saying that
he had yielded to temptation for the first
time on the day he was caught in the
fy those in charge of the count and the
work progressed, but without Martins
ASST Stance. He was indicted and is now
out on bail pending trial
All this occurred two months and
since then the count by weight has
been completed, apparently showing
that everything was all right. But
Treasurer Roberts was not quite sat
isfied Some one recalled the fact that
Martin had been engaged on two or
three previous occasions in handling
the bags OF silver during the counting
process, and there was no telling but
that for years he had been helping
himself to Uncle Sans silver Assis-
tant Treasurer Meline said, "A thief's
word cannot be trusted and on his
suggestion sample bag was taken at
random out of the heap and opened.
1t was found to contain pieces of lead
instead of some of the coins that should
have been there. Several other bags
were then tried, and more evidences of
theft were discovered. Some of the
sacks We're found to be lacking in the
necessary amount of coin, but without
the pieces of lead to make up the neces-
sary weight. This fact recalled the
rObberies of white man named Ander-
son, who was caught a year and a half
ago opening bags in the vaults with
long steel wire, and raking out silver
dollars under the iron grating with
which the compartments in the vaults
are closed. He returned 5000, which, at
the time he said was the total amount
of his peculatiOnS.
These discoveries caused Treasurer
Roberts to call Secretary Gage into
consultation, and it was decided that
every bag should be opened, and every
piece of money in that particular
vault counted, to be absolutely sure of
the real amount of money on hand. So
the work of counting 100,000,0005 silver
dollars, piece by piece, was commenced,
and Treasurer Roberts is now congratu-
lating himself upon the fact. Already
there have been found a large number
Of bags containing lead pieces instead
of silver, and it is said that the amount
missing is over 81. .000.
The officials are reticent as to the ex-
act sum lacking. Treasurer Roberts,
when asked. about it today, admitted
that the unusual piece by piece count
now going on was the result of newly
discovered thefts. But he refused to
tell what had been the developments SO
far. But it is known that there have
been enough to make ex-Treasurer
Morgan feel uncomfortable.