The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-04-12
SHOWER Of MONEY
People of Leavenworth, Kan.
Find $40 Gold Certificates
Everywhere

Everywhere
LeavenwoTth, Kan, April ia
Thousands of dollars in SEQ gold GER
tidcates, fiuttering from dead weed
stalks. half buried in mud in bitches,
twisted about the limbs in bramble
patches, impaled upon wire fences,
caught in the grass tufts in back yards,
ground by passing feet into cinder
walks, crushed into wheel ruts, crum
pied against stone walls; all of it rain
sJaked, widowed, mud covered and
some Of it with ragged edges and with
holes as if gnawed by the teeth of rats
or squirrels-all those conditions of
money have been found in the last
month scattered over a territory a
mile long in South Leavenworth, Kan.
Ruby Humbert, a negro woman, and
Mrs. Sophie Petit, a white woman,
were standing in front of Mrs. Pet
tits home talking together about the
strange shower of money.
Excuse me-, said Mrs. Petit. and
she stopped over in front of Mrs. Hum
oOlb dhu pluShcu ~ fSO kolu IoIllu-
cate from a limb In a pile of brush.
The news that the money was being
found did not become generally known
in Leavenworth until Monday, and
that afternoon at least a thousand
men, women and children were search
ing the hillsides, roads, fields, ditch.
es and creek bottoms. The search
continued by lantern light all Mon.
day night aud double the number Of
persons were searching all Tuesday in
the rain.
Tuesday morning two p~ostoffice in
spectors, W. A. johnson and j. f. Els
ton, arrived on the scene from Kansas
City. The word soon went around
that government officers had come to
take up the money because it had
been stolen from a mail pouch. and
the majority of those who had boasted
the day before of their finds shut tight
as CLAIMS or denied they had found
money.
"Yes, sir; that colored lady over in
that brown house found a $50 bill. /
told.
The inspectors concluded. after the
days Investigation, that about So, 600
had been picked up in the last month
in Il district a mile long and a half
mile wide.
Where did the money come from
The postofice inspectors had only
one theory, and they held stoutly to it
One night in June, 1908. Charles
Savage, a negro, stole a registered
mail pouch from the Union depot in
Kansas City. 1t contained $50, 900 in
currency going from a bank in Los
Angeles to another bank in New York.
Secret service men trailed Savage over
a good part of the country, finally
caught him, convicted him and had
him sentenced to the federal peniten-
tiary in Fort Leavenworth. He is
there yet, with four years more to
serve.
But never a dollar of The stolen $780,
900 was recovered. The detectives
estimated that Savage had spent $5, 900
of it in riotous living before be was
captured. He spent at least So, 900
more. it is said, for lawyers to de-
fend him. That leaves $50, 900 OF
$40, 900 ~unaccounted for.
Now, Savage's grandmother. Mrs.
Sarah Williams, lives in a cottage in
the very center of the district where
this money is being found. 1t is
Known that Savage visited her a few
days after the robbery. Secret service
operators searched her house, dug up
her yard, hunted the fields all around
there, but found nothing, and all
through it Mrs. Williams, the grand
mother, denied and deied them to find
anything.
Savage had a sweetheart in Kansas
City Since his conviction she has
visited Mrs. Williams often, always
dressed extensively.
Five of the $40 gold certificates were
found at different places within a block
of the Williams house.
The inspectors saw Savage in prison
and told him of the money being found.
He said nothing and grinned. He
has never done more than that since
he was captured.
The people of South Leavenworth
believe that somewhere thereabout the
mother lode of $40. 900 ia hidden, and
they are going to keep up the search