Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1898-12-23
yllE SAM.
Cancelled ReveI Stamps Washed
iHE SCHEM UNEARTHED.
street Me senger Boys Well
""pp'ied With Money Arouse In
'ector'" sust icion, and One
Confessed His Guilt.

New York, Dec 33.-Colonel William.
chier OF the internal revenue inspectors
office, has set on foot an investigation
10 get at the bottom of a fraudulent
practlce by which the government has
oeen robbed Of revenue receipts. Colo
mel Williams Is satisfied that by the
washing" of cancellation marks and
oy other fraudulent methods document
ary stamps, such as are used by bro
Kers. brewers and distillers, have been
sold for several weeks on Wall street
and IN other parts of the down town
business district at large discount
he believes, from certain facts which
his deputies have learned this week,
that there Is collision in the fraud.
deputy Thompson, who has been in
! strumental In probing into the practice
and who was the first to learn of its
| operations, Is on the case. If he Is as
successful as he has been recently,
some startling disclosures may result.
HOW widespread have been the opera
lions and by what persons the govern
ment has been robbed are expected to
come to light through him. Some OBJ
stacles may prevent all the facts being
reached in short time, but with the
evidence that has already been collect
ed by Deputy Thompson Colonel Will
liams Is confident that the breaking up
Of the practice Is matter of short
time.
Deputy Thompson has in his possess
sion sworn confession of guilt from n
messenger boy, but it did not implicate
| Thn I,Ox,
that the practice is so extensive that it
could not have been carried on with
success for several weeks merely by
messenger boys. When the details of
the fraud are cleared up, it may be that
brokers will be found to have acted in
collision with the messenger boy and
his confederates.
When Fraud Was Suspected.
The existence of the fraud was first
suspected by Deputy Thompson two
months ago. He noticed that the mes
senger boys who came to the bucket
shops and brokers' offices in and about
Wall street seemed well supplied witt
money. The same circumstance was
also commented on by many of the bro
kers. A falling off in revenue receipts
which was noticeable about this time
made Thompson suspicious, and he con.
nected the two facts.
The case worked itself out by degrees
and Wednesday one Of the messenger
boys was taken into custody by Colone
Williams order. The boy at first stout
ly denied all wrongdoing, but finally
broke down and confessed. He told the
revenue officers that he and other boys
had kept the stamps given them by bro
kers for sales tickets and had substi-
tuted for them Cancelled stamps which
had been used on other sales tickets
The day of the month is not necessa-
rily included in the cancellation marks,
and by reBumming she old stamps they
could be easily used. They were sold
at discounts of from rs to so per cent.
The boy may ultimately be taken before
a United States commissioner, but no
action of that sort will be taken pend
ing the present investigation.
C,lonel Williams believes that not
only were the stamps sold by some bro
kers with a knowledge of the fraud
practiced, but that Cancelled stamps
| were sold after the marks had been
washed from them. If his suspicion of
the latter case are true, the conse-
quences can be made serious to those
involved. The mere casual purchase by
persons of new stamps at reduced
price is not in any way criminal.