Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-29

explained. 1t may be that he had in mind
notion that he might obtain a pardon by max.
ing conditional offer to reveal the hiding
place of this great amount of treasure. If SO,
| he did not carry out the plan, but weakened
| and confessed everything His private melting
plant at home was raided by the secret service
| dollars which had been converted into money
was never recovered.
Wanted to Pay His Debts
ONE of the most remarkable thefts per-
petrated at the expense of the United
States treasury occurred in February, 1877,
when money envelop consigned to the First
National Bank of Chicago, purporting to con-
tain eleven thousand nine hundred dollars in
| hundred-dollar notes, was found, being
opened to contain nothing but tissue paper,
cut to the size of greenbacks. Most remarkable
of all, the envelop, when it arrived, bore the
seals of the treasury, in wax, intact 1t was
out of the question to suppose that these seals
had been counterfeited.
Such being the case, there seemed to be no
doubt that the theft had been committed in
the Treasury Department at Washington.
The most skilful detectives of the secret service
were put on the job, and every man through
| whose hands the missing money had passed
was subjected to rigid examination. One
employee, the counter, had reckoned the notes;
| second, the proven, had checked the count:
| third, the sealer, had put the money in the
envelop; and a fourth had addressed it to the
it would seem that one of these four must be
the thief.
One of the four men, while undergoing ex-
animation turned pale and trembled. His
knees shook visibly. The symptoms he ex-
hibited were such as might have convinced al
most anybody that he was the guilty person.
Nevertheless-to show how little reliance is
to be placed in such signs-he had nothing
whatever to do with the crime, as was proved
by subsequent events. He was simply fright
| ened lest the investigators might suspect him
uniustly.
that the thief was the man who addressed the
envelop. His name was Winslow. Being in
debt and anxious about ways and means, he
| was an easy prey to the money bug. One
| night he woke up and sat up in bed with the
idea fully formed in his mind. Next day. fol-
lowing it out, he prepared an envelop resem-
| bling as closely as possible one of the official
treasury envelopes This he filled with pieces
of paper, and afterward, taking advantage of
| convenient opportunity when nobody was
| looking, he sealed the envelop with the Office
seals. While engaged in his work it was easy
enough to substitute the dummy package for
the real one intended for the Chicago bank,
and to put the latter into the inside pocket of
his coat.
When a man is suspected of stealing a large
sum of money. the first thing the detectives do
is to keep quiet watch on his habits, and
especially on the money he spends 1t is a
rare and exceptional thief who under such cir
cumstances, after making big haul, so
control himself to restrict his expenditures
within limits proportionate to his ordinary and
proper income
A watch of this kind was kept on all four of
the men under surveillance, and pretty soon it
was ascertained that Winslow was paving
some of his debts, invariably in hundred-dollar
notes When it was found that these notes, as
indicated by their numbers, were part of the
missing eleven thousand nine hundred dollars,
there was no longer any doubt of his guilt.
Accordingly, preparations were made to arrest
him.
Before he could be arrested, however, an odd
thing happened. The door bell of Chief Wy
man, of the secret service, was rung one even
ing. and the servant, going to the door. found
nobody there, but only package On opening
the package, it proved to contain eleven thou
sand two hundred dollars of the missing cash.
Winslow had become frightened. and had taken
this means to dispose of evidence against him.
He had learned that the detectives were close
on his trail. and it no surprise to him when
he was taken into custody by them on the
following day.
Made Nine Bills Out of Eight
THE story of the crime of Ernestine Becker
in its way the most remarkable in the
history of the treasury-has been told in
great variety of versions, but never perhaps
with strict correctness in regard to the details.
1t obtains additional interest from the cir
hot o,,I