The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-13

can be negotiated anywhere and the sto- res of the unredeemed bonds of the past
 would make book of exciting interest Hundreds of such bonds are lost, ana there is scarcely a government loan which has not records of many such
 bonds still unpaid. To show where the lost bonds go, take, for instance, the case of an old Irish washwoman who
 bought battered bookcase at auction. She intended to use it as a china closet, and when she came to clean it she found in one of the drawers five papers of greenish tint, with figures and pictures upon them. She could not read and she gave the pictures to her children to
 play with. Just at this moment the par ish priest entered and the caildreh showed him their .playthings He told them that they were government bonds worth $1,000 apiece. He then went to the auctioneer and tried to find from whom the desk came The auctioneer said that he had had it in the back or
 his store for a number of years and that
 all trace of the original owner was I>st.
 Thereupon the priest sent the five bonds to Washington and got gack S5,000 for his Irish parishioner.
 i Another remarkable find came from | the deserted cabin of a Sioux Indian. | It was made many years ago by an
 apply officer who entered the cabin and l found the wall covered with clippings
 from illustrated newspapers and-~maga-
 zines, and among them compound interza
 est United States notes to the amount of
 S5, ,00os sThe notes had probably been tak-' en from the person of some white pris- i oner and the redman had valued them i for the pictures alone The officer looked
 up the owner of the cabin and gave him
 other pictures for those he took from
 the wall It is said that he made an l effort to find out to whom they be- longed, but failed and thereupon sent the notes in for redemption.
 Many years ago a Texas widow lIv- ing in reduced circumstances at l Washington found among her husband S
 old papers government securities to the face value of S10,0 She took them to the president of the Riggs Ma tional bank thinking they were receipts for taxes. The president of the bank turned them into the United States treasury and received for her the prin- cipal of $10 00n and $500 in interest.
 The government takes the greatest
 care in protecting the holders of the 1 Liberty Bonds. I have already de- scrbed the safeguards against and one making or stealing the paper, and told how each sheet IS counted again and
 again as it goes through the bureau of l engraving and printing. Every bond and every coupon is numbered and the engraving is done by the most expert
 artists. The scroll work on the bonds is cut by the same geon,etric lathes | which makes the scrolls on the band notes, and every bond bears the sigma 1 ture of the secretary and register Of the United States treasury.
 From this it will be seen that it is almost impossible to counterfeit such securities Many attempts of that kind have been made, but the only one really successful was that of $S00oO
 worth of the coupon bonds known as the seven -thirkies. These counterfeits
 were sold to Jay Cooke x Col They
 were made by the aid of a lead i'm
 pression taken by an ernploye from one
 of the plates in the bureau of engraN-
 ing and printing. It was only when