The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1908-07-03

denomination or of the total area OF
the pieces being fully three-ffths that
of the original bill. The fragments
were returned to their envelope, a
clean new dollar bill was taken from
the stock on hand and the messenger
departed.
"Do you suppose that last bill had
been chewed by a dog?" asked the re-
porter.
Its more than likely said Mrs
Brown I'VE receive bills that have
been chewed by every animal, it seems
to me, that walks on four legs! And
occasionally" she added, by some
who walk on two.
dogs are the worst offenders, but
cats, rabbits, swine, sheep, goats and
cattle occasionally figure in our cases.
Farmers lean over pens or stalls in
feeding animals, drop the money from
their pockets and before it can be re-
covered it has been trampled and torn.
I'VE do not have to handle such
bills. In the first place they are thor
oughly cleansed before coming to us.
And even then ! do not touch any sus-
picious looking bill with my fingers.
With the scalpel | can do everything
necessary and do it better than | could
with my hands. So it has become
second nature for me to use it.
when we receive a package of bills
which has suffered from dampness the
only way we can do anything with
them is by using he scalpel. For in
stance if a roll of bills has been buried
for fancied safekeeping, or accidental
ly il sometimes becomes so affected
by mould that the notes stick together
in a damp mass.
when taken out into the light and
air this mass becomes hard and brittle
The only way in which we can separ
ate it is to dampen it again and work
so carefully that instead of saying
inch by inch | might say hairs
breadth by hairs breadth"
"Do you ever receive money from
wrecked vessels?"
Eyes. We often have money that
has been in salt water some time, but
those cases are rarely difficult. The
bills are generally intact when we get
them and can be spread out to dry"
Us most of the money you receive
damaged by fire."
Eyes. After a great fire we always
have particularly heavy receipts of in
iured bills. Now we are getting mon
ey from the Chelsea fire, but we are
also still receiving damaged bills from
California, even though it is two years
since the disaster.
1--WE have received hundreds of thou
sands of dollars from San Francisco
for redemption and 80 per cent. of it
has been made good by the Treasury.
That is an unusual percentage; but
the San Francisco money came to us
in excellent condition.
Gin the first place most of it had
been put away carefully. The bills
had been laid in piles instead of being
crumpled up, as they often are in
small stores or in private houses. The
fire coming on at night, the money
was in safes, which at least prevented
some injury, even when the safes were
not fireproof.
Then, too, our men were on the
ground when the work of recovery be-
gan and told people how to ship the
burned money. The piles of bills must
not he handled more than is absolutely
necessary. They must be packed in
cotton and put into stout boxes which
contain nothing else.
1--WE sometimes receive packages
containing both bills and coin which
have been through a fire. The coin,
no matter how it is wrapped, is so
heavy that it will slide about and as
nothing is much more fragile than
| burned paper, the bills are broken into
little pieces which are entirely useless
| for Identification"
"SuppOse some one had q counter
felt bill and burned it and sent the
fragments for redemption-ha that
| happened?"
'Well, we have had burned counter
felt money, but it may have come with
other bills, you know, and not have
been recognized till it came to us"
"Then you can detect counterfeit
even in these little black scraps?"
ooh, that is one of the most impor-
tant requirements. And it is not so
difficult as you would think The
quality of the paper is as distinguish
able when a good bill and a bad bill
have been charred as they were be-
fore"
do you receive much money from
women?'
Mrs. Brown smiled.
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