The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-09-19

tunnel and thus pillagc Uncle Sam !
Golfers by a sort of rat hole method
but even were this accomplished it i
difficult to imagine how it woul,
be practicable to remove much Of thu
coin.
There was quite a scare few years
ago, when Gilfllon was Treasurer, be
cause the vault in the cash room
where the ready money is kept, re
fused to open. 1t is always set fol
$50 a. m. with a time lock, but on
this occasion something seemed to bt
wrong with the mechanism, and the
steel doors remained obstinatcly
closed. Nine o'clock arrived and still
the money was locked Up. For once
Uncle Sans bank was obliged to sus.
pend payments. Experts were sent
for and came with their tools to break
open the vault, but before they got
there the big safe had opened Of its
own accord. 1t turned out that the
tihe-lock had been set by an accident
for $50.
In this vault not only gold and sill
yer, but many millions in paper
money, arc always kept. If thieves
could obtain access to it they might
easily walk away with an enormous
sum, the notes and certificates being
done up in packages and neatly labell-
ed with the sums they contain in large
red figures. Each parcel holds 4. 900
notes and is in size just about foot
cube. Ii the denomination is $500, a
single such package represents s2,-
oOo,OOO. However, If anybody did
succeed in getting away with cash in
this shape he could hardly fail to be
caught, inasmuch as the numbers of
the bills would be advertised imme-
diately and every bank in the country
would be on the lookout FOR them.
Burglars may be practically ex.
cluded, but the treasury does not
claim to be theft-prooP. On an un-
lucky day in 1870 a visitor came into
the Treasurer room with large
Panama hat in his hand. The Treas
urers attention was distracted bv
some other people who were trying 10
talk to him and the man dropped his
hat carelessly over a package whiob
contained 5000 $40 notes lying on the
desk. It was one Of several such
packages and the loss Of it was not
noticed until some hours later. OF
course the notes were advertised and
some time afterwards part Of them
we're deposited in New Torh bank.
The depositor was arrested, but no
body was punished for the crime.
A singular immunity from punish
nent seemed to have attended thieves
1ho have robbed the treasury in such
ways. In 1876 q clerk named Benia-
min Hallook passed package Of $500.
1otes, representing $Az, goo, out Of q
window in the cash room to o saloon
keeper named Ottman. For some
lime the robbery remained mystery,
but later on one Theodore Brown was
caught betting on the races at Saratoga
With aome Of the missing $500. notes.
He was arrested, and implioated OFT
nan and Hallook, but Brown was
never tried and the othvr swo were not
inally convicted. Of the stolen mon
~ $40, 600 was recovered.
It has been said that no truss oom-
pany would accept the responsibility
II the Treasurer Of the United States
'or the $4,000 year salary which he
gets. He is responsibls Dor all moneys
hat may be stolen, and on more thar
one occasion Congress has been oh.
liged to relieve by aosmal Act an Oh,
,ial in that position, who would other
wise have been Liable for the repay.
ment Of large losses. On one occasion
two men named harden and johnson,
the latter an assistant paying teller,
took $62, 900 by oollusion. The Gov
ernment got back $12,7OA % this
money aud the offenders escaped with
year in prison for each. There
have been good many thefts in the
redemption division. where the temp
tations are exceptionally great, the
most famous OF them being that per-
petrated by woman who invented o
method for making nine notes out o3
eight, incidentally to the process Of
putting together scraps Of torn bills
sent in to be redeemed. Nobody ever
knew how much she stole, though it
was probably q very large amount, but
she gave up portion Of her ill.gotten
eaina and waa mot nenaennseA
In 1885 there was much excitement
over the loss Of $1,000, 900 in pspes
morcy, which had been shipped from