Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-06

only Balzac himself could properly de-
~ scribe the Conscience Fund in the Treas
ury Department at Washington 1t consists,
as most people know, of money which has
been stolen from the Government, and after
ward restored to it A Government official
states that conservative estimate of the num-
Der of contributions sent to the fund since its
beginning, less than one hundred years ago,
would place them at upward of five hundred
thousand. Think of it Five hundred thou
sand, and everyone of them evidence that
tortured soul, filled with remorse, was seeking
to quiet an accusing consCienCe.-that, like
the wracked and terrorstricken King Claudius
in Hamlet, they have found that may not
be pardoned and retain the offense. Nor can
the sincerity of their restitution be questioned,
because in each case it is anonymous. One
gains no glory from it, therefore, only the
knowledge that he has done right.
The first contribution which the Conscience
Fund ever received was made in 1871 The
second was sixteen years later. Since that
time year has passed without contribu-
tons. Indeed, there has never been a year
since that at least one thousand dollars has
not been sent to the treasury for the fund,
while in some years the total has reached as
high as sixteen thousand dollars. According
to the last report of the Treasury Department,
dated June 80, 1906 the entire fund amounted
to S3o4,o,o22. This has been turned into the
general fund of the Government; but as the
source of every penny must be properly &C
counted for, it is classified as Conscience, or
Returned Two Cents
G UGH money has been received from every
~ State and Territory in the Union, and from
almost every civilized country. The largest
single contributions was between eight and
nine thousand dollars-came from London,
England; the smallest-two cents-from the
city of New York. The money had been ap
propriated in many different ways: evading the
customs laws, defrauding the post office, fail
70 he IN
tracts, and dozens of others In each case,
has been stated, the contributions have been
anonymous. The Treasury Department. there
fore, is unable to give proper receipt tor them
Nevertheless, every effort is made to notify
the donor-no matter how small the amount
that the money has been properly received
This is done through the great organization of
the Associated Press. Each envelop in which
a contribution is received is carefully sCrutin-
lied by the authorities, and the place where it
was mailed is ascertained. The Associated Press
is then notified, and dispatches are sent to all
the newspapers in the immediate vicinity of
the post Office where the letter was posted
stating that the money has reached its proper
destination. Thus the donor, if he she
| reads the newspapers may know that their
atonement is complete, at least as tar as the
Government is concerned.
study of the letters which accompany the
donations permits many odd g1mpses of the
strange complexities OF human nature. One
thing it seems to prove concluslvey; that is
that deep seated IN every human heart there
is strongly intrenched the desire to do what IS
right. None of the writers ever denies that
they did not know that what they doing
was wrong. Indeed, almost everyone of them
explicitly states that when temptation faced
them they did their utmost to resist 1t. Why
they finally succumbed is explained variously.
Some were carried away by irresistible i'm
pulse others were driven to their crime by
want; a few, oddly enough, seemed to have
been impelled to their wrong doing because of
the excitement which it offered them.
One of the oldest Cases