The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-09
SOME PENITENTIAL SoPS.
TO U. $. TREASURY
CONSCIENCE FUND.

- biggest Payment $14,225.
go 1911 "A Total of $2S9,a13 Has
IN Put to the Account of Con-
science.
.--,,rgton Correspondence Boston
a' Transcript.
,,.a smallest contribution to Uncle
- conscience fund received up to date
delivered at the treasury in Washing
an Saturday, April II. It's amount was
o.nt and accompanying it was brief
ri saving: This morning I pur-
,a..5 a package of newspaper wrappers
= 5icb overran one, and enclose a penny
h,lance account" This communica-
\ ~, VAS signed Honesty" and it is easy
imagine the feeling or virtue which
...t have puffed up the sender after per
ming this noble deed. The treasury,
lever would have liked it better if he
"a l,ent the money, because the receipt
+ rendered necessary the making out
- voucher transferring it formally to
ri The national funds. This had to be signed
dua form by the assistant treasurer of
~ 1rnitad States, after which the docu-
,,,+s we're filed. Record of the item was
I-o made in the book in which the ac-
counts of the conscience fund are kept.
& ,rb,s fund was opened by the register of
II .,a treasury in the year 1911, in order ito
shaw from time to time the receipts of
.,oreys nv the government from unknown
Il a-sone, All contributions to it are COW
II ored into the national funds as a ''miscel-
1aneous receipt and, according to law.
II NAV he used like any other assets. Remit
I .anoos "on account of conscience are re-
| lived very frequently; sometimes, indeed,
| ae often as two or three times week.
i As q rule the letters accompanying them
ora not signed. Often they are illiterate,
"a disguised hand is apt to be employ
|8 "a In some cases it is evident that the
"a iUi+eracv is assumed to help the disguise.
IA MOI seldom the money is forwarded by
clergvmen at the request of penitents.
N Usually there Is no clew TO the latter eX-
cept a postmark.
II might be imagined that such contri-
hutton would not be of sufficient moment
IN nav for the trouble they give. This is
1erv far from being the case, however.
From 1911 up to the first day of last jan
nary the total of remittances to the fund
had amounted to $3.50 al3-quite a tidy little
sum from the point of view of poor old
gentleman like Uncle Sam, who is living
the largest amount thus far recorded was
received. 1t was S14225, and was forward
ed from London by our consul general
there The consul general had it from
Rev Prebendary Barff, vicar of st. Giles
church, Cripplegate, London. The clergy-
man declined to say where 1t came from
and gave no other information except that
the cash was rightly due to the United
States treasury from one of his own par
ishioners.
It must be a remarkable severe stroke
Of conscience that obliges a person to give
up 81 225. Nearly all the contributions of
a the kind are very SMALL most OF them
& being only a few pennies. 1t was an US
ually frank though long-delinQuent debtor
who walked in the office of the Secretary
of the Treasury on the 21st day of last
January and handed him personally $3.50 in
bills, requesting that his name should not
n be mentioned. Much more typical is the
case of a woman residing in Lamar, Tex,
who not long ago wrote, saying: "Inclos-
4 elS ind cents, which l wish to refund,
as used a cancelled stamp when it took
Scents to send a letter." Possibly the eX-
Il ira 2 cents was for interest. Most contri-
butors are satisfied with repaying the
principal of what they owe, but now and
then the self-accusing monitor demands
the addition of the legal usury.
a remittance of 5 cents is signed by zone
VINO Wishes to lead a Christian Life"
4 Fifty dollars represents an overpayment
made years ago by the government, is
from lone Who Has Striven to Do Right
81 IN another case the sender of 81 is inspir-
Cd to act by the fact that "he has become
g Christian man." This last is for unpaid
customs duties. Most people do not hest
tate to evade the payment of such duties,
but now and then somebody is seized
With a stroke of conscience afterward.
Probably from a foreigner is contribu-
81 ton of s., accompanied by a slip of paper
on which the words, ITO the chonshin-
sons fund" are written. Somebody resid-
ing in Baltimore forwards $50, with a
scrawl which reads: Internal revenue;
fruit distllery; of long standing"
In June last a Connecticut eX-Soldier
cent 30 cents worth of postage stamps to
g pay for sugar stolen by him during his
service as guard over certain commissary
stores during the war. He stated that the
sum RENTED represented principal and
compound interest. Inasmuch as sugar
was then worth about II cents a pound,
the officials have been somewhat puzzled
10 imagine Just what quantity of the sac
charlne luxury was taken. Ninety-five
cents IN postage stamps comes evidently
4 from woman, II has to be converted into
currency before 1t can be transferred to
the fund. Printed in pencil on an envel-
ope' winch contained $S2, is the inscrip-
uon' May be due u. s.; don't wish any
oouot so enclose this" From New York
SIy not long ago arrived the sum of
5000 accompanied by a statement to the
enect that the money was due on dia-
nlonds which had been smuggled through
the custom house there.
me biggest conscience contribution. up
~ me GATE Of the receipt of the 81, 225 al
Ieduy mentioned, was $1,000 This was for
warued in very strange fashion, the
halVes OF eight $1,000 United States notes
oeHig sent with the letter saying that the
Iemltter would furnish the other halves
as soon as the first ones were acknowl-
sused IN the prices. Remittances to the
Iqnu are always acknowledged in the
newspapers OF the city of Washington
anu no exception being made IN this case
Sue complementary halves came along in
uue tihe' 1t is believed that a good many
VI lhe sums received in this way are from
persons IN a morbid state of mind. Not
ICany owing the government anything at
a." they Imagine that they do so. or that
possibly something may be due from them
~ Nhleh they are not exactly aware. Then
sleie ls an occasional lunatic whose con-
"Htous feelings are merely phenomena
o. a dlsordered mind.
On one Oecaefap q 0aE ro..kna ~. 49,.