Connecticut western news., 1916-03-16

and Teller E. l.. Roberts, and called ir
 the President, E. l.. Roberts, and il
 was decided that inasmuch as this was
 the first time such a contingency had
 arisen during the five years that the
 Bank had been in business, it would be
 advisable to have the Board of Di.
 rectors sit on it. Accordingly a hurry
 call was sent out, and in a few
 moments Directors E. L. Roberts, E.
 l.. Roberts, E. l.. Roberts and E. L.
 Roberts appeared, the only absentee
 directors being E. l.. Roberts and E. L.
 Roberts.
 The Board went into executive ses-
 sion, which was interrupted couple
 of times-once by a woman who nego-
 tiated with Postmaster E. l.. Roberts
 for the purchase of a two cent stamp
 and postcard, and again by a strand
 ed whiskey drummer who wanted to
 know what time the next trolley left
 for Great Harrington.
 After a while Bank Messenger E. L.
 Roberts came out with a series of consisting of release, waiver, power of attorney, alibi, proxy, breach of the peace, habeas corpus and quit claim, all which, he explained, were a part of the regular formalities prescribed and in such case made and provided, by the Third Assistant Postmaster General of the United States Postotfice Department, the parent organization of the Canaan Bank. These documents being duly autographed, the messenger withdrew, but came back minute later with slate and pencil. and hand ing them to the depositor, commanded him to write down the story of his life, his age, creed, color and previous con- dition of servitude, and a truthful &C., count of how he came to put his dollar into the Canaan Postal Savings Bank; place, and what he wanted to take it out for. All of which being faithfully transcribed, the depositor was told to wait with patience until the United States Government was informed of his request and it's answer returned. Then the meeting of the Board of Directors broke up.
 A week or more of watchful waiting during which daily inquiry at the general delivery window-which became more frequent as the "pay-up week" tracts multiplied in the de- positor' letter box-elicited delight full variety of enlightening information concerning circumlocution in Uncle Sam's banking methods. It appears that the Postal Bank funds are trans ferred to the government "depositories" in the larger cities, and this Canaan dollar had been originally sent to the in Bridgeport. Postmaster Roberts informed the depositor that he had put a tracer on the trail of the dollar and followed it to Bridgeport, but it developed that the money had some time before been transferred to the Norwich depository. The tracer made haste to Norwich, only to> find that the money had back-tracked to and eluded it's pursuer some where between two cities. By the time the tracer could pick up the trail again, which seemed to lead toward Waterbury, a promising clue came to hand from the New Haven depository, which sent the tracer flying back to that city. where it was learned that the Canaan dollar had been there few days previous, but left just before the arrival of the tracer, and it was sus. pected that it had got tangled up with B Belgian Relief Fund, in which case it might be necessary to enlist the of the State Department and interrupt the friendly exchange of war between Secretary Lansing, Count Bernstorff, ct als, and possibly add further to the perplexiries of the government at this critical juncture of it's strained relations with Germany.
 Fortunately, by an inspired impulse of Postmaster Roberts, the hunt was brought to a satisfactory if not speedy MT. Roberts sent out a general alarm to all the government Postal Bank Repositories embraced in the territory between the equator and the Arctic zone; and this general a arm bore fruit. The lost dollar was dis covered in the depository at Hartford. and after the exchange of a series of notes between the Canaan and Hartford postmasters, and the signing of another batch of vital statistics by the anxious depositor, the was effected. And one day, to his incredulous amazement and un- bounded delight, the depositor was in- vited to the postmaster's private desk where he signed another document that looked like blanket insurance policy, and was handed his long-lost dollar. with eight cents additional, represent ing the accumulated interest for the four full years it had been separated from him.