The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-05-01

cautious as to mail at the same time $lo00 to
the secretary of the treasury, $500 to the
United States treasurer and S4Oo to the as
sistant treasurer at New York.
People NAV steal from Uncle Sam occa-
sionally, but he more than recoups himself
by what he gains on paper money that is
DESTROYED, and so never offered for redemp-
ton. Some queer eases of that sort have
been turning up lately. For example, only
a few DAYS ago, the town treasurer of at
moderate sized community out in Michigan
had SAT- of the town fund paid to him late
in the afternoon. The bank being closed
he did not know what to do with the mon
ey, so he decided at length to hide it under
the barn. The next morning he went to get
the cash, but discovered that the family goa
was ahead of him. 1t was busily engaged in
chewing on some bills of large denomina-
ton, which it seemed to have chosen by
preference, while some of the smaller ones
were scattered about. The man .shooed
away the goat and..managed to pick up SIS
IN notes which the animal had not had time
to consume.
Sometimes babies eat money, and then 1t
is very awkward, because it is not practical
BILE to cut the infant open, and a mild
emetic Is not always efficient. But in the
case of a goat there is never any question as
to the proper course to pursue. In this case,
accordingly. the owner slew the animal,
and recovered the missing cash from its
stomach. He sent it on to Washington in
the shape of an unpleasant wad, and the
treasury experts managed to identify ST.
of it. Considering the difficulty involved,
they thought that the town treasurer wou Id
be delighted, and waited for thanks to ar
rive from him. Instead they got letter
asking where in hi the balance of his
money was, and explaining that he could
not afford to lose it,
Another very recent case was that of a
man in Texas who is dealer in cattle.
he drew 5000 from his bank and went to buy
some steers. Entering the enclosure in which
The animals We're confined, he inspected
them with view to deciding which ones he
would purchase. Meanwhile an enterprising
Young heifers saw his large wallet protru-
ding from his hip pocket, with the ends of a
punch of greenbacks sticking out, and de-
clded to annex the same When the cattle
man discovered his loss, the heifer had pref
ty nearly finished chewing up the missing
property. 1t rejected some fragments of the
pocketbook, but had already swallowed the
precious contents. The man lost no time in
killing the animal, and the contents of it's
stomach were forwarded to the Treasury
Department. Luckily all of the bills were
satisfactorily identified, not having under
gone much digestion, and the dealer will get
his $500 back.
good deal of money Is destroyed every
year in drunken quarrels, and intoxicated
men often set fire to greenbacl1s for the pur-
pose of exhibiting their Indifference to
wealth. When they get sober they are sorry
and send in the charred remains, if there
are any, for redemption, with some made
UP story to account for the accident. One of
the most hopeless cases considered by the
redemption division lately was that of a
wallet filed with money which was dropped
into well near Taos, Va The pocketbook
is now in the hands of the experts at the
Treasury, with its contents, but the latter
are reduced to the condition of unrecogniz-
able pulp. No ordinary person would
imagine that the pulp had once been cash.
1t seems that the wallet lay for number
of days at the bottom of the well, and was
only recovered on drawing off the water.
The owner will not get back one cent.
There are plenty of people whose con-
sciences do not restrain them from trying to
cheat Uncle Sam, and the redemption divis-
ion is favorite mark. Undoubtedly they
sometimes succeed, but they mnst be pretty
clever to do it. Only a few days ago letter
arrived from young woman in Ohio, who
was visiting friends at a distance from her
home. According to her account she re-
ce1ved communication from home enclos-
ing 500 bill. After reading her letter she
absent-mindedly threw both it and the
money into the CRATE, where they We're
nearly consumed. She forwarded the ashes
of the letter and bill to Washington, where
the money was found to be only so, and the
letter nothing but newspaper scraps. She
will be lucky to escape prosecution.
RENE BACHE.