The Portland daily press., 1898-02-24
SteaIings Had Been Going On Over
a Year.
HIS BONDSMEN HAVE MADE GOOD
AMOUNT OF SHORTAGE

The News Comes As Great Shock to Bus
mess Men of Portland-Dead Cashier
Had Been Employee of Office for Near
Iy Forty Years-was Trusted and High
ly Observation-Disclosures were
Concealed by Alterations and Erasures
Discovered But Made Good.
The news which came yesterday that
the late William Chenery, for many years
cashier in the Portland post office, was at
the time of his death short in his ac-
counts to the extent of nearly $4,000 was a
great shock to Portland business men,
many being at first inclined to discredit
the report The statement of Postmaster
SWEET and Post Office Inspectors Brown
and Snow, however, verified the news of
the shortage. Mr.. Chenery died last Fri
day and at that time Mr.. SWEET took
charge of the cash of the late cashier.
When the postmaster attempted to balance
the accounts he found what appeared to
be q shortage. Mr.. SWEET said yesterday
that Immediately upon the discovery of
the discrepancy in the books he notified
the inspectors office in Boston and asked
for an Investigation. In response Inspec-
and made thorough examination of the
books and stock of the Office. Their labors
soon convinced them that the fears of
Postmaster SWEET were only too we'll
grounded. The inspectors reached Port
land on Monday and began their work
Immediately. Tuesday being holiday
when only the holiday hours were OBJ
served gave the inspectors an opportunity
for an exhaustive overhauling of affairs.
They learned as the results Of this that
the amount of the shortage was 1850. 6S.
All of this was taken from the'postal ao-
COUNT which includes all the funds.and
property of the government in the charge
of the cashier, except that in the money
order department The money order bust
ness is conducted in special department,
and resembles banking business. So far
as this department in the Portland office
is concerned the inspectors say that every
thing is all right. To reporter of the
PRESS, Messrs. Snow and Brown told
how the business of first GLASS post
office is conducted and indicated the way
in which Mr.. Chenery covered up the fact
of the shortage. The Portland post office
is an Office of deposit for a number of the
smaller offices in Western Maine and in
New Hampshire. These small offices do
not send their funds directly to the sub
treasury. Instead they make their re-
mittances to the Portland office and all
this money is handled by the cashier here
in addition to the receipts of his own
Office. Once in two weeks the cashier has
to make remittances to the sub-treasury
in Boston and once in three months he is
required to send his accounts to Washing
ton where they are audited. If the &C
counts do not appear correct when they
are audited in Washington they are re-
turned to the office from which they
come for correction. OF course if there
was anything suspicious about the ac-
counts the Washington authorities would
institute an investigation. MIR. SWEET
said yesterday that SO far as he knew no
corrections had been called for in Mr..
Chenery's returns. From Mr.. Swett's
statement it is evident that Mr.. Chenery
#.