The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-20
MILLIONS OF MONEY TO BURN.
BELFRY ROOMS OF CUSTOM HOUSE
Uttered WITH BANK NOTES.


Now Worth the Paper Upon which
1t Is Printed-Issued by the state
Banks That Went Down in the Col
lapse of the COnfederacy-Clubs
Used by United states Deputies in
the Days of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ords of Famous Cases-AH Piled
High in the Rubbish Rooms.
The prospective removal Of the records
of me United States Courts and of the
department of justice, that have been
stored for half a century in the custom
house, to the new government building.
has involved The turning over of many Of
the Old dust-covered books and manu-
scripts and a more or less careful inyest,-
CATION into documents and relics that cast
a shaft of light upon more than 100 years
OF the history of Savannah and the state
These records are stored I'm what is
known as the "be.fry" of the custom
house. Just why so called tradition is not
clear for there is not now and never has
been a bell. swung in that part of the
building. The store room is approached
by winding stair that leads up TO the
dome and around ana under the dome are
ranged apartments that look ike the cells
of a dungeon keep Many of these rooms
are piled high with boxes and trunks con
tanning papers and Uttered with the flot-
same and ietsam of a thousand legal and
political battles.
The records of the courts go back TO
1887 and contain the history OF many cases
g. q t-,75 how
were heard and that are often referred TO
in the forums of the country even to-day.
With many of them, slave cases, time has
destroyed their usefulness, as the points
of law that they decided were settled
once and forever by the civil war Others,
admiralty and prize cases, were brought
into renewed prominence by the capture
of Spanish vessels in the late war and
were cited and approved in tribunals where
the ownership of vessels seized upon the
high seas was thus brought in question.
The parties to these suns, the lawyers
who argued them and the judges who de
cided them have passed away, but the de
Cisions themselves are still of interest and
importance.
The records in the case of the Wanderer,
the last slave ship ever brought TO an
American port is filed away somewhere
in the belfry of the custom house. No
case ever decided in America, certainly
none that has been adjudicated in
Southern state. excited more comment.
There are millions of dol ais in paper
currency stored in the rooms in the belfry,
trunks and boxes f.led TO overflOwing and
bursting their lids with the pictured
wealth. The only trouble about it is that
the banks by which this currency was is
sued suspended years ago and it is not
now worth the paper that it is printed on.
The money is everywhere. on the floors
even and piled carclessly on the tops of
tables and chairs The floors Of some Of
the rooms are covered with ID, and Il would
take an expert TO estimate how much this
mass of state bank notes was worth when
il was worth anything at all.
Half a dozen or more banks are repre-
scented in The collection, the Merchants and
Planters. Farmers and Mechanics, Plant
ers Marine Bank of Commerce all Of Sa-
Vannah the Mechanics Bank of Augusta,
and many others, live in their notes that
lttcr the floors Of the rooms In the bestry
of the custom house. The notes were once
as good as gold and are representative of
the wealth Of the cid city Of Savannah. All
OF these banks wee in successful opera
ton up to and during the Confederacy,
but suspended after the collapse of the
government with which they had cast in
their lot and whose downfall brought their
own
The affairs of these banks were admin
istered In bankruptcy, and thus Their
notes came into the possession of the
United States Courts They had become
Vaiuless, and were heaped in the rubbish
room until they could be disposed of in
some convenient manner They have laid
there since. third of century or more
and with the exception of the officials "
the courts and the custom house no one,
scarcely, know Of their presence.
Heaped in corner are two hundred or
more clubs that We're used by the United
States deputy marshals in the time OF re-
construction, when these gentry stood
guard over the polls and determined the
election of a representative in Congress
or an elector for President They were
worthless even then; they are doubly
worthless now, and fit companions for the
mass of old bank notes that represent
nothing.
About the only man who is really con-
Versant with the history Of the documents
that line the rooms is MIR. S. f. 3. Giles
pie deputy clerk of the United States
Circuit and District Courts who has lived
many years of his life in their company
and grown to know ana love even Their
dusty and musty age. The cases that
have been decided, the banks that went up
in the ruin of the Confederate government
the annals of reconstruction and the per
sonal history of the men that passed the
notes over their counters and wrote the
records of the courts and welded the
batons of the deputy marshals are al. at
his fingers ends, and he relates them with
the zeal of the enthusiast ana the fidelity
of historian on his chosen ground.
What to do with all this rubbish is the
problem that now confronts the officers
of the courts and Assistant District At
torney Leaken. by whom the matter win
have to be determined. They don't know
what to do with IL, and as it is, legally at
least, the properly of the government
they 90 not feel that they have the right
20 destroy il without arranging for some
compensation.
The records of the courts will of course,
go to the new building and place for
their reception and care provided there.
For the other stuff there is neither room
nor the disposition to care for ii longer
and the officials of the courts viii be
grateful for some suggestion as to its dis
posal. 1t has been suggested that there be
an auction of the Old curios, and il there
a sufficient lovers of tha bi1 tfr,a .tpl