The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-02-21
strong suspicion against him.
A CHARWOMAN GUARDS THOUSANDS OF
DOLLARS.

DOLLARS.
The most notable exhibition of hon
esty within the history of the Treas.
ury Department was made by Sophie
Holmes, a colored woman first en-
ployed forty years ago by General
| Spinner-then the Treasurer of the
United States-as temporary char
woman. One afternoon in April, 1862,
while sweeping and scrubbing the
floor of the issue division she found a
package full of crisp thousand-dollar
notes, which some careless clerk had
neglected to return to the safe. She
determined to stand guard over the
treasure and to confide her secret to
no one but General Spinner himself,
who slept in the Treasury Building
during those troublesome times. She
swept the dust of the room into one
pile, then another; scattered it about
and swept it UP again and again, doing
this to keep up the appearance of in
dustry and to make the atmosphere OF
the room as uninviting as possible to
the intruding guards who now and
then sauntered in. From sheer weak
ness she finally fell asleep until past
midnight. when, imagining she dis
cerned figure moving in the room,
she groped her way to the valuable
bundle, secreted it between two desks,
sat upon it, and while continuing her
vigil TINS fell asleep again. About
four o'clock in the morning she was
awakened by General Spinner's foot
steps. Although she gave the Treas
urer a great fright he rewarded her
with life appointment as matron in
the issue division And he did justly.
When the package was examined it
was found to contain, some say thirty
| thousand dollars; others, seven hun
dred thousand.
| TEMPTATION TO STEAL TOO STRONG FOR
The temptation TO steal has been too
great for several trusted Treasury
clerks. In the early seventies the in
| terest teller of the cash-room took 10
himself something like sixty thousand
dollars. He was implicitly trusted.
He was never called upon to show a
balance until after the theft had been
suspected. He took little at time
during long interval. He served a
short time in prison, being pardoned
out on some pretense. His crime
wrought reform in the system Of
keeping check on the Treasury en-
ployees. TO day they never know
when they will be called upon 20 show
balance.
In 1915 another employee OF the
cash-room stole forty seven thousand
five hundred dollars, mostly in old
Treasury notes. He deliberately took
the small package containing them out
of the vault, slipped the notes hastily
into his pocket, went out to luncheon
| and gave them to a confederate who
kept a restaurant. Suspicion escaped
him for some days owing to the fact
that an innocent employee had selected
the same day of the theft to visit Bal
timore. The thief was finally de-
tected. He turned states evidence
and testified against his accomplices-
the rcstaurateur and another man.
Uncle Sam never recovered cent
Had this thief stolen new notes it
would have been an easy matter to
identity them.
EMPLOYEES HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR
MISTAKES.
Many attempts to steal from the
Treasury have been made through its
Redemption Bureau, whose junction it
is to exchange brand-new money for
that which is old, worn and torn. A
corps of women counters, with dc(t
| fingers, ard another corps Of women
inspe ctors with ca.'le eyes, scru.)ulous-
| ly examine each old coin or note before
certifying how much new money shall
! be given for it in exchange. They are
| trained to throw out counterfeit on
sight. If they pass one or make a
mistake in enumeration they are held
responsible for the loss entailed by the
Treasury. After the counting occurs
each pile of old paper money is sent to
a little guillotine which cuts it in two
lengthwisc. One stack Of halves is
then sent to one division Of the Treas
u,y to be counted; the other, to another
division for the same treatment.
Worn coin exchanged for new is sent
to the m ting pot. AL this counting
is, Of course, done to insure against the
| :he.t of even worn-Out money.
Thousands of dollars are lieved to
have been stolen some years ayo by
one of these women counters who had
worked for Uncle Sam quarter of a
century. She would take ten worn
paper no.es home with her and there
cut and tear nine of them into pieces
which, when pasted together, would
make ten ragged or undersized notes,
sufficiently complete to pass muster.
The latter she would return to the
Treasury, keeping the note which she
had left untouched. 1t was detected
! that within three days she stole nine