The San Francisco call., 1905-06-11

!
Government officials will make no at
tempt to resurrect his past, and there
is no doubt whatever that his own
conscience will reward him for doing
the square thing.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
If you ask treasury official for the
office of the conscience fund" he will
smile and say: Go to the public mon
| eys division" At the public moneys
division you will be told that there is
no such thing as the conscience fund, ;"
but that the money received from the
owners of troublesome consciences is
turned into the general treasury under
| the head of miscellaneous receipts"
For the. sake Of accuracy and also to
help along the wholesome fiction, a rec
ord is kept of every cent thus received,
and as long as the Treasury Depart
ment keeps a set OF books entries will
| be made of such contributions under
| the conscience fund" caption. Presi-
dent Madison received in 1911 sum
of money from some repentant sinner
who wished to make restitution of stol-
en- money. Then and there the fund
was started and 1t has been in myth
cal existence ever since. No sum is
too large or too small for entry in the
record Just as much pains are taken
with the three stamps that some
schoolboy sends to make peace with
his inner self as with the fat roll Of
bank notes some wealthy importer
sends to silence the still small voice"
| within his portly breast.
| AS soon as money for the conscience
| fund" is received at the Treasury De-
partment Secretary Shaw orders a lit
tie item placed upon the bulletin board
In his outer Office. The newspaper cor
respondents, who go the rounds of the
various offices in the treasury build
| ing, invariably make note of the case
and thus the news of a good example
! is sent broadcast to the world.
| On February 26 last Secretary Shaw
found In his mornings mail a letter
containing Is cents. 1t read as follows
Enclosed you will find Is cents, which
send to pay for two slate pencils
which I believe / took from an Indian
agency located at that time at Cotton,
| Cal This was done when / was a small
boy about is years old, or something
near it. 1t probably was mere than
that / sent the money to the Indian
agency at San Jacinto Cal. but it was
sent back to me. / do this because
believe it is Gods will. / hope you
will DISPOSE of the amount so that it
Will go to the proper place
A SINNERS REFUND.
! A few days after the receipt of this
! letter, or, to be accurate, on March Ia,
a somewhat larger contribution to the
conscience fund came in the mail to
the Secretary. The missiye which ac-
companied the cash did not tell how
the money was taken originally from
| the Government, but it was just as
eloquent of a desire to make amends,
| as the following copy will show;
Il am sending you herewith inclosed
$12 600. which is to go to the use of the
United States Government. Years ago
1 defrauded the Government, but have
returned it all, and now am paying
fou-foid in accordance with the Script
ures. The way OF the transgressor Is
| hard, and no one but God knows how /
have suffered the consequences and
| would ask to do bountiful restora-
! ton. May God pardon while the
United States is benefited
"A SINNER"
The postmark upon the package con-
tanning the $4,000 was very badly
blurred. Some OF the clerks in the
! Secretary's Office were Of the opinion
that it had been postmarked New
York. while others believed that it
came from Newark N. j., but there
| was no doubt about the amount of
money nor of the quality of the bills.
which were mostly of $50 and 500 de-
nominations. The $4,000 contribution
1 was the largest ever IecelNeQ With one
exception.
The record was made in 1896 when
United States Consul General Patrick
Collins of London transmitted to the
| Secretary of the Treasury $14,225 To-.
which had been given to him by Rev.
Prebendary Barff, vicar of ST. Giles
Church, in one of the suburbs of the
English metropolis. The vicar inform
ed Consul General Collins that one of
his parishioners had handed him the
money with the simple request that it
be sent to the United States Govern
nent. Although the papers at the
time were filled with speculations by
various authorities who advanced di-
yers theories to account for the CON
| science contribution" nothing definite
was ever learned either of the con-
science-snitten person or of the theft
or fraud that he had committed It
was generally supposed that the sender
Of the money had at some time de-
frauded the Government through the
customs bureau, and the same explain
alton is now held in regard to the
| S12 900 package that came to the de-
partment on March IA.
REVIVALS INCITE