The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-15
ROMANCEs OF BANKNoTEs.
Tales of the Peculiar Bills Issued b
 the Rank of Eyp0Iond

lsales of the Peculiar Bills Issued by the Bank of England.
 An elderly couple living in Paris have recently met with sad misfor- tune. Inside dilapidated old hatbox, the most experienced burglar might have ignored, they had placed their entire fortunes-a sheaf of banknotes amounting to over e5,OOO. Periodically either the husband or wife opened the box and counted the notes to see that their wealth was still intact
 Imagine their surprise when, on go- ing to it the other day, not a single note was to be found-only a little ] heap of dust.
 Rats had entered the box and de- voured every scrap of the precious pa- per.
 i More fortunate was an old Belgian peasant woman, although at first she was thrown into just as hopeless des- pair. She had laid on the grass jacket containing banknotes worth e4S alto- gether and then set about her work in the fields, accompanied by pet goat.
 To her horror she suddenly caught sight of the goat munching some- thing that looked like her precious for tune.
 Examination proved her surmise to be true. The goat had been browsing on her banknotes.
 l That same evening the pet goat was killed and the chewed paper removed from it's stomach. It looked a sorry mass, but the old woman lost no time in submitting it to the national bank at Belgium after verifying the facts and proving by chemical analysis that the paper had been notes issued by them, paid the woman the e4S. | On one occasion the Bank of England had presented to them for payment a hard ball of paper.
 | It was a e5 note which had been given by prominent artist to his sister for payment of a bill. The young lady had placed it in the pocket of her dress and promptly for got it till the same dress made it's re- turn from the laundry.
 Washing, starching and ironing had ,IlU ance, but when the ball of paper was carefully unrolled there was sufficient to see that it had been banknote, and the bank paid the money without hesitation.
 1 More than once the Bank of England has paid twice for one note, On one occasion it lost in this way e20,O00.
 It happened that one of the direc- tors, desirous of purchasing an estate, drew from the bank single note for the amount mentioned. This, on re- turning home, he placed on the mantel- piece, when immediately on doing so, he was called from the room.
 A few moments later he came into the room again, but alas! the note had mysteriously disappared. To the di- rectors mind there seemed little doubt but that the valuable piece of paper had fallen into the fire. Robbery was out Of the question, for no one had en- tered the room.
 His colleagues at the bank, believ- this story gave him a second note on the understanding that the first, if found, should be returned.
 Thirty years afterward, when the di- rector had been dead considerable time, a stranger presented the missing note. Being payable to bearer, the bank could not avoid it's obligation and had to be the losers of the sum. It was learned afterward that a builder had bought the bankers house, and in the course of the demolition had discovered the note hidden in cre- vice of the chimney.
 How a banknote once saved a mans life is most romantic story.
 In the ordinary course of business many years ago a Bank of England note-11ow in possession. of famous collector-Was paid into Liverpool merchants office.
 On coming into the hands of the cashier, he found while examining it to discover it's genuineness that there were faint traces of red writing upon it. The note had been in circulation years, and it was only by dint of ex- traordinary pains that the partly obli- terated characters were finally deciph- tered.
 This was the message it bore: "If this note should fall into the hands of John Dean, of Longhill, near Carlisle he will learn thereby that his brother is prisoner in AIgiers."
 MT. Dean was communicated with, and he appealed to the government to endeavor to obtain his brothers re- leas from captivity.
 Interesting themselves warmly in the matter, the Prime Minister and the Joint Foreign Secretaries, after the most arduous and determined inquir- ies, learned that the unhappy prisoner, Iwho had traced the above sentence with a splinter dipped in his own blood had been a slave to the Dey of Algiers for 8 about eleven years.
 Eventually the government succeed ed in ransoming MT. Deaan from the lDey, but the poor fellow had endured so much privation and hardship while working in the galleys that he lived but a short while after his freedom Pearson's Weekly.