The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21
Dogs EXPENSIVE MEAL
SWALLOWED ~ BILL AND STOMACH
WENT TO REDEMPTION BUREAU.
Queer Experience of Omcia1s of that
Important Department-Few
Cases Of Fraud.
Washington Post.

to see on the desk OF an Orlclal OF the
United States treasury, but that was the
object which Mr.. f.. E. Schreiner recently
spread out before him. Mr.. Schreiner Is
chief Of the division OF redemption Of the
treasury, and has become accustomed to
receiving money under peculiar conditions.
Even ne, however. admitted the originality
OF the case in question.
'Dea SIR ran the letter which accompa-
MED the stomach. az send under separate
cover stomach of my dog Fritz. 1 was play
ing with him to-day. holding a so bill UP
for him to jump at, when he suddenly
leaped higher than / had anticipated.
grabbed the bill between his teeth and ran
under the house, where he chewed the
money up and swallowed 1t.
at thought more OF the twenty than I did
OF Fritz-he was always chasing chickens
so / shot him and cut out his stomach.
Please see If you can't paste the bill to-
gether and redeem it."
1.-The unique feature of this case" said
Mr.. schreiner. lis that we found the bill.
slightly chewed up, but sufficiently whole
TO Identify and redeem. The man has re-
ceiyed a check for so by this time"
Mr.. Schreiner has been chief OF the divi-
sion of redemption OF the controllers ofice
OF the Treasury Department for thirty
years Speaking of the work connected with
the redemption of money, he said:
w receive from Sl0O.0 TO $4,000 a day
in old or mutilated money for redemption,
yet in all time / don't think the govern
ment has lost more than $500 by oVerre-
demption of the notes by fraud or by mis-
take. Since / have been here We have re-
deemed but one too many SO bank notes OF
all the notes of that denomination issued.
There have been two or three cases In
which we lave redeemed more hfties than
a particular bank issued, but these were
cases of fraud, every one OF which was dis
covered before the loss amounted 10 mucn.
TOOK CANCELLED NOTES.
one of the cases of overredemption Of
ffties was interesting. Every bank has a
representative in Washington who comes
up here and counts the money redeemed
for his institution. He does not get it until
it has been counted by four people in my
office and by the treasurer's Office. Nothing
in the world Is to prevent him, if he is dis
honest, from extracting a fifty or two
from a bundle of cancelled notes. as the
money is not counted after he counts it
and prOnounces ii correct.
I'm the case in question a bank's repre-
sentative stole five $50 notes from the pack
ages Of Cancelled notes as he was counting
them. At that time We cancelled notes by
punching holes in the notes. He took pieces
of old notes. plugged UP the holes. and
money, and in a few days came back to us
for redemption. We detected the cancella-
ton marks, suspected now the notes got
out Of the office, watched the fellow and
caught him red-handed. He had stolen only
$3.50 nyway
I'VE have a great many peculiar cases,
and have to be very careful to prevent
fraud, but at the same time We must exer-
else considerable leniency in order to re-
are justly entitled. The regulations provide
that we must redeem three-ffths of a bill
for its face value. Less than three-ffths
and one-half or more We must redeem for
one-half the face value. If We have enough
of a bill TO identify ii, and can secure sat
isfactory, certified afidavits that the re-
mainder Of the bill has been destroyed, we
must redeem 1t at face value.
Recently a dressmaker in New York.
who was also matron at a police station.
sent In half Of a $40 bill, accompanied by an
affidavit certified by two responsible per-
sons that the other half of the bill had
been destroyed. We redeemed 1t at face
value. A few lays later we received a half
OF a so bill from another New York wom-
an, accompanied merely by the statement
that she had found II. We sent her a check
by the merest chance-because of the
two halves coming In within a day or two
OF each other-we discovered that they
were parts of the same bill. 1 said to my
self: Here, the government can't make
any money by redeeming $40 bills for $780,
and had payment on both checks stopped
by wire Then 1 made an Investigation, and
this is what / found
THOUGHT SHE HAD BURNED 1T.
1.-The dressmaker had drawn her salary
from the police station In a $50 bill. and. re-
turning home, had laid it on her table. A
customer had come TO have a pattern cut
out. Paper had been spread upon the table
and the pattern cut. The customer departed
sitter having the pattern wrapped Up. The
dressmaker gathered up the fragments of
paper and threw them into the fire. Then
she looked for her $40 bill, and found half
of 1t on the table. She Immediately Jumped
10 the conclusion that the other half she
had thrown into the fire with the scraps of
paper, and made an affidavit so stating.
Later in the day the customer found
half of a so bill on the floor of her room,
not knowing il had dropped from the pack
age containing the pattern when the latter
was undone at her home. She didn't know
where the piece of bill came from. and
simply wanted what it representative.
The other woman was perfectly honest.
too, as she supposed she had burned up
the remainder of the note. OF course, we
sent the d~ressmaker the $40 and the Gus
And this reminds me-" continued Mr..
Schreiner, why Ii is so difficult for any
one to cheat the government through the
redemption division. There is nothing in the
world TO prevent a person taking ten bills
OF any denomination and by clipping one
tenth out of exactly the right place in
EACH make a whole bill, or by clipping one
NTH out or i've bills, TO make a new, or a
whole bill. But a practice of this character
Is almost sure TO be detected within a few
days, for this reason: If a person has done
such clipping he will. OF course, want to be
rid OF the mutilated bills as soon as possf-
bic. Suppose he Is In New York, and starts
out TO get rid of ten $50 bills.
Let him dispose of them he
wants TO between Harlem ard the BATTERY.
and Ill wager a new hat they will be in
this office in less than a week. And If they
come In in a bunch. we are sure 10 notice
that here's a certain piece gone from one,
here's a certain piece gone from another.
here's a certain piece from still another.
and II isn't long until we see we've
stumbled onto an ttempte fraud. The
only thing to do then is to trace the bills
back. In almost every case We are certain
TO land the culprit.
SWALLOWED BY A GOAT.
Although the dogs was the first stom-
ach We ever had sent to the office. We have
several times redeemed money which had
beer swallowed. One case was quite funny,
although the old man was badly frightened
for awhile-until We sent him a check FOR
the money he supposed he had foolishly
lost. He was a miser, in a way. and be-
sides loving to have his money about him
had a horror OF banks. Accordingly, he
buried his money in a tomato can. as he
thought securely fastened at the top. Well,
his goat didn't do a thing but nose around,
unearth that tomato can. and dig out the
money. which he chewed up and swallowed
with considerable relish. The miser killed
the goat and took out the notes before d.
gestion began to get in it's work on them,