Evening Star Newspaper, September 9, 1893, Page 10

10 THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON. D. ©. SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 9. 1893—SIXTEEN PAGES. BLIND READING. Deciphering Ilegible Addresses at the Post Office Department. WRS. COLLINS AND HER WORK. Puzzle Solving as Performed by a Famous Woman Expert. LETTERS LIVE AND DEAD. OST HUMAN BE- ings are fools, ac- cording to Thon. Car- lyle. Ample confir- mation of his theory will be cheerfully supplied by the Post Office Department. It seems astonishing what idiots people make of themselves in their correspond- ence. Consider the fact that 400,000 let- Pieces of matter are maiied without any addresses whatever, while 500,000 are never for at the post offices to which they and 150,000 im addition are for- Washington by hotel keepers be- intended recipients have gone without leaving any information a3 their prospective whereabouts. Ninety-five per cent of the letters received at the dead letter office are delivered event- ually to the persons for whom they are in- Naturally, the finding of the ad- Greases is often extremely difficult, and ‘the hardest part of the work is the deci- phering of illegible and erronous super- scriptions on envelopes. This business en- wages the exclusive attention of three young women at the Post Office Depart- Ins, has obtained world-wide celebrity as an expert in this kind of puzzle solving, which is technically termed “blind-read- ing.” She has dark hair and brown eyes, | which twinkled yesterday when she said “I will not allow that it is by a facu!ty of {Intuition that I solve such puzales. are always ready to credit women with i met, but with attainments, never. I claim that I do the work by means of ex- pertence and ingenuity. But I admit that tt ts a mistake for persons of my sex to possess attainments or originality. In the ‘Teche district of Louisiana, not far fom Irieans, the women do not know the alphabet. Consequently they are wonderful cooks and have, no wrinkles. When we learn anything our troubles begin. Women have not been so wise as the monkeys, which refuse to talk lest they be put to work. Defection Addresses. “T can best explain the science of blind reading by showing you a few examples at random. To begin with, here is a very simple one—a letter addressed to ‘Lake Harber, N. J." Now, that is plainly Loch Arbor, so I make the correction and it koes. “This is a similar case. You observe that the superscription reads,"No. 24 Quincy Steep. N. Y.' The New York post office could not make it out and sent it over to Brooklyn. Thence it was forwarded to Washington. As quickly as I saw it I reeived that It meant Coenties Slip, New York city. The name Coenties is’ pro- nounced ‘Quincy.’ At the New York post office they rather pride themselves on their skill in supplying defective addresses; yet this one was easy and they missed it. “Here is an envelope with no address on it whatever, save the word ‘Island." Ob- viously, this is a much more difficult speci- men. But I happened to know that part of the city of Wheeling, W. Va.. ts locally known as ‘The Island.’ Accordingly, I sent the letter to Wheeling, which proved to be the destination for which it was intended. I should explain that, whea I think I have succeeded in deciphering an unusually hard superscription, J attach to the letter a of paper requesting the mail carrier to re turn the envelope to this office Im case it is not wanted by the recipient. Thus I set it back and can preserve it as a curiosity I wish. But so many queer specimens ac cumulate that I have to throw them away. You must understand that these letters which I examined are ‘live’ ietters and are not opened. Letters are not opened untii ft has been found impossible to deliver them to the addressees, after which they become ‘dead. “This is an envelope addressed to a _per- gon at No. 5 Borden avenue, New York city. There is no such street on Manhattan Island, nor anywhere else in this country, except in Long Island City. Of course, Long Island City is the proper address. ‘That sort of thing is very easy. Through long experience in this business I have be- come fa with the names of the streets in prett rly alt of the cities and towns fm the United Stat: are constantly mad: Mistakes of this kind and they are readily rectified. Here, fot example, is a letter ad- Greased to ‘South Sth street, between Wooster and Dawson streets.’ No city is mentioned. But I know right away that while there are hundreds of towns in which there are 5th and Wooster and Dawson streets {t is only in Wilmington that there 1s a South 5th. together with a Wooster street and a Dawson street. So the de- fect in the address {s easily supplied. “I have here a more difficult example. It 1s a letter addressed to a° Hungarian, with no direction except the word ‘Allegheny county.” The word ‘Allegheny’ is so queerly spelled that you would be puzzled perhaps to know what it was meant for, but the trouble lies In the circumstance that there 1s an Allegheny county in each of five dif- ferent states. However, I chanced to re- member that there was an Hungarian col- ony at Mansfield Valley, Penn. I forwarded the missive to that pe the right man. long ago ad A letter came here not ssed simply to ‘Sanitarium, Cedir Creek." I recalled the fact that there Was a sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., whieh proved to be the proper direction. ‘The Phonetic System. “People, particularly foreigners, who misspell the addresses on their letters fol- low the phonetic system to a considerable extent. Of this fact I am able to take ad- vantage in deciphering. For instance, here sed to ‘Sarah Garder, Of course, that was evidently meant for Cerro Gordo. Being familiar with the names of all post offices in the l States, I can readily correct such mistakes as that. Among Similar errors which I can recall were “‘Tossy Tanner, T- sicani €o. as,” for Cor- Kornsors, Levynwortch for Kickapoo City, Leavenworth Co., Kan. ‘Lacy Jane, Kansas," for 7 ‘Reikzbier, Stiejt_ Kanedika, y Conn; ‘and ‘On: in a cultivated hesitation I making it ‘S I kne name. 2 directic * It got ther cquaint with the names of all institutions of any importance and with the places in which they are located. If a letter arrives w no more definite superse-tption on tt th: ‘Rialto Butl 1 add ‘Chicago’ a tom of the envelope. In the sam Rote addressed to “Powers Bock" meant for Rochester, N. the bot- raf Various Languages. “Inasmuch as the letters which reach the dead letter office are addressed in a variety of languages, it is necessary for me to have at least a smattering of German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hungarian. Oc- casionally I have to decipher a direction in modern Greek, and now and then one in Arabic. With Chinese letters, oddly enough, We have less trouble than with any others. They are usually very carefully addressed, | beazing the direction in Chinese as well a5 in English. Very rarely does one of them go astray. If the Americans did as well, the business of this office would be much lighter. One trouble that is found in re- turning dead letters to the senders {s that people do not sign their full names. Many persons consider it sufficient to subscribe | themselves ‘Your loving Tom,’ ‘Your de- Voted Julia,’ or simply ‘Mother.’ That sort of thing doesn’t help us very much. “AS many letters are defectively or wrongly addressed from carelessness as from ignorance. English people when they write communications of business or friend- ship nearly always put the street and num- ber of the sender inside. With them it is | @ national custom, and it is very much to be recommended. Confusion of mind {s ac- countable for not a few wrong directions. For example, ‘Goose Bay’ will be put in- stead of Duck Creek, or ‘Mount Pisgah’ for Mount Horeb. At the same time, persons do not hesitate to address abusive notes to the Post Office Department because their | love letters have gone astray. If an epistle | is not delivered, it is usually supposed to have been lost’ through the rascality of | postal officials. Individuals want letters hunted up that were missing as ir back as the beginning of the century, and heirs to imaginary property are continually ap- plying to us for supposttitious communtca- tions from relatives abroad or elsewhere. “Only the other day @ letter came into my hands which was addressed to ‘Mra. P. A. de Lisle, Culling street, Washington, D.C! I saw right away that it was in- tended for myself, being mailed by some- body who wanted to catch me napping. The ‘P. A. de’ is for my first name, Pattl; the ‘Lisle’ is Lyle, and the ‘Culling’ is for Collins. It was an easy puzzle. My prac- tice in this work has been so long that, as a rule, the true reading of a difficult address strikes me like a flash. An ex- ample of the phonetic method was afforded by a letter from Germany which reached this office not long ago. The addressee could not be found, and all that was inside of it was the single word—Wynheldon- yourite.’ That was not a very difficult problem, as you can percetve for yourself. One of the most difficult problems ever solved at the dead letter, office was pre- sented by a letter inclosed in a big envelope which is now on exhibition in a frame at the Post Office Department. Upon it are inscribed a few bars of music, together with the following verses: “There is a young man in Brooklyn, Far away to the sea. B. 0. B., Bob, we call him. ©, carrier, find him for This’ was ail, except the words “St. ‘Mark's ave." in the lower corner. The ex- perts looked up the Brooklyn elite directory and sent a circular to every person named Robert living on the avenue mentioned. In this way the right Rob was found. He received the letter, which was written by the author of “Good-bye, Sweetheart.” Here fs the superscription on an envelope addressed to an Italian named Carmino Catiso, at Morristown, N. J. Observe the highly original rendering of the “New Jer- SOP Dd Cornmirng “Ran ioe “Here ueamaiee ser RAILROAD © SPIES, |seegetarsse™ “mmr ™ MONEY IN CHINA, {Sims staan: eer®0| BIRDS SLAIN BY STORMS partment at Washington some time «go with endorsements by seventeen different carriers, saying that “the person could rot be discovered.” ‘Upon one occasion a letter fell into the hands of Mrs. Collins which was written by an old woman in England to a long-lost son in this country. Its superscription had only the street and number, without men- tioning the town. The expert, by complet- ing the address, reunited the mother and gon. Another time a letter came to the dead letter office from a woman in England who asked for the address of a brother who had gone to Massachusetts fifteen years earlier. She only knew his name, and that his occupation had been that of a weaver. BMrs. Collins found out where the weaving factories in Massachusetts were situated, and obtained information as to which of them employed an Englishman. In this manner she found the man at length, and forwarded his address to England. It was in 1889 that the steamer Oregon sank in the harbor of New York. Divers fetched up from the wreck such valuabl as they could find, together with the sack: of mail. The letters were so badly water soaked that in many instances the ad- dresses were almost obliterated. But Mrs. Collins took them in hand ana deciphered the directions, with the help of powerful magnifying glasses. Nearly all of them were eventually delivered to the addressees. She considers that this was the biggest and cleverest piece of work she ever did. ‘The geographical divisions of the United States are apparently unknown to the ma- jority of the inhabitants of foreign coun- tries. Consequently it is quite usual for them to omit all mention of state or terri- tory on their letters. The uperscription on one curiosity of this sort reads: “Chicago, N. ¥.; dove si trove"—signifying, “where- ever he may be found. Dead Letters. ‘The dead letters are sent to the depurt- ment here from post offices all over the country. On arriving they are receipted for in books and are put up in packages of 100. Then they go to a long table, at which sit ten clerks, who are kept busy opening them all day long, six days in the week and from one year’s end to another. If any of them is found to contain money, & note of the amount is made on the en- velope and the cash is put aside to be tui ed over to the clerk of the money divist Lottery tickets, deeds and mortgages ere transferred to another clerk. Checks and drafts go to @ third clerk. It inust be re- membered that all of these letters before being thus treated as dead are handled by experts who do their best to discover the addressees. When the latter cannot be found, they are returned to the senders if possible. Letters containing valuables of any kind, such as money or checks, are put on file. Not long ago @ young man em- ployed in the dead letter office tried to steal some of the money which he came across in envelopes, but suspicion cf something wrong was excited by sums lost and unac- counted for, and the guilty person was de- tected by means of decoy dead letters with cash enclosures. It ts almost tmpossible to rob Uncle Sam without getting caught, and where depredations of the mails are concerned the decoy letter is the favorite means employed for detection. Another sort of stuff that 1s found in dead letters is classified as “immoral.” It consists of flash books, suggestive docu- ments of @ quasi-medical nature, and photo- graphs of the kind known to amateurs in such things as “fancy.” AN such stuff as this ts laid aside at the opening table, to be afterward done up in bundles and burned in the furnace by the clerk in charge of that division. The queer and out-of-the-way articles found in dead letters and packages are OC: oe What should you tmagine that the direc- tion reproduced below was meant for? How- | ever, you would never guess. Read prop- erly, it is “Anna Vajtila, Sitka, Fayette county, Penn.” Det without number. In fact, one of the most interesting of the exhibits of the Post Office Department at the world’s fair in Chicago is composed of these oddities. It attracts a great deal of attention there, a crowd of sightseers being constantly gathered be- fore it. Included in the assortment are false teeth, gold-headed canes, harmo! cons, banjos, tambourines, horns,carpenters’ tools, boxes of cartridges, percussion caps, kitchen utensils, corn-husking gloves, fire- crackers, torpedoes, bottled specimens of mineral formations thrown up by the Charleston earthquake of a few years ago; also opium pipes, packages of refined opium, wedding cake fifty years old, $10 worth of gold nuggets in a box, a damaged plug hat, star fishes, petrified frogs, atuffed gophers, Toltec idols, sik worm and other cocoons, a human ear, the scalp of an In- dian woman with long black hair, a skull on which @ Philadelphia physician refused to pay letter rates and gloves from the Here is a puzzle. Perhaps you can make out that it ts meant for Miss Molly Lacy. But would it ever occur to you that the balance of the direction is “Pride, Dinwid- die county, Va?" 2s bap, = office and it found | i 1 Once in a while a Chinaman’s letter does | go astray. Probably you can discover for yourself that the person here addressed is | Singh Wah, No. 41 Church street. The | rest of it is “ | 48 | % di The direction below has a distinctly for- eign air. The “New York” is clear enough, | but what is the meaning of “Kontri” and “Sotriver?” Such a problem cannot puzzle Mrs. Collins very long. She argued that the writer had ‘never seen anything of | America outside of New York and its vicin- | ity. He had perhaps visited a place in the | country named South River, not far from | the metropolis. The only place correspond- } ims to that description was South River, | N. J. So she forwarded the letter to that post office, and it found there the person for whom it was intended. Below is the superscription on a missive intended for an Italian named Bartolt Mecatt!. The first word in the line beneath | the name is supposed to be “Ouray.” What looks like “Vercinius Main” ts for Virgin- {us Mine." The state is Colorado. Mecatti got the letter all right. by Sesitey Aietile (Ege At heS Gaon This envelope addressed to Giovanni Ct- relil is only remarkable for the original way of spelling “Baltimore.” | 2 eceese cick Pejeerke Shit CZ 2008 A letter received at Akron, IIL, a while ago bore merely this superscription: “Sal: If you want to hear from your beau, you had better come and get this let- | ter. “There ts $20 in it for Bob, and I send it this way so the postmaster won't steal ft Following was the complete address of another missive “Postmaster, please deliver this to the lady living in the first house beyond the stocking factory, who wears a black dress and sacque, with a white straw hat and brown mistake.” At Christmas times many letters are sent i t> Santa Claus, and asking for presents. ‘They find their way tw the dead letter of- trimming. Now, don't make any | children through the mails, addressed | steamer Oregon, which were in the water 14 days. Other Curiosities. Among other curiosities which have reach- ed the dead letter office in this way is a letter from the assassin Guiteau inclosing @ lock of his hair and asking a lady, who never received the epiatle, for $1,000 to help his defense. There is a six-shooter with every chamber loaded and set at full cock, which was addressed to a lady in Spring- field, Ohio. Perhaps, fcrtunately for her, she was never found and the pistol remain- ed undelivered. Another relic was a female hand cut off at the wrist, evidently that of a lady with plump flesh and fingers long and tapering. Such a grewsome object was it that Capt. Lieb! it, the last superin- tendent, had it destroyed. Not less le in its suggestiveness 1s a raall bag slit and bloody, which was robbed by Apaches after they had murdered the carrier. But the queerest of all the things which are captured in the mails are the living animals which people send by post. In one Package not long ago came seventeen live srakes—one of them a rattler eight feet long with nine rattles. In the excitement of opening the parcel one of the serpents, @ speckled yellow adder, three feet in length, got away unobserved. Three weeks later it made its appearance under the desk of one of the clerks, to the dismay of the office. It 1s now preserved in a bottle of alcohol. Live centipedes, tarantulas, horned toads, Gila monsters and young alligators from Florida are also discovered fn bundles from time to time. Of course, the postal regulations do not permit living ¢reatures to go by mail, though an excep- tion has been made in favor of bees, thanks fo the invention of bexes which are per- fectly safe for the transportation of those Insects. Fointed instruments are forbidden ewise, because they ma; dam: Gated mail matter. = spins ee reserved at the department are seve: great albums filled with photographs whit were sent by mall from the camps during the war. The soldier boys commonly had their pictures taken for sending home, to show the folks how they looked in the field. Many of them miscarried and thousands of such likenesses, nearly all of them tin, types, are still held in readiness for claim. ants. When one of them is identified it Is removed from the album and the signa. ture of the recipient 1s inscribed on the space which it occupied. It is the same way with a large number of corps medals oe sent ae by sofdiers during » Many of them are fo> their owners to turn up. “tl waiting —_—.—— WHY THE ENGLISH ARE DISLIKED, SEressive, tleal, Purse-Proud, Hypocrit From London Truth. The editor of the Times appears to have just discovered that the French detest the English as bitterly, if not :nore so, than they do any other neighboring nation, and in a leading article on Saturday that paper astonished the world with a iabored attempt to account for the cause of this dislike to us. But the reason 1s a very simple one. We English are by no means a lovable race. We have many admirable qualities, We are a hardy, practical, persevering peo- ple; but these are not in themselves sym- pathetic properties. We are aggressive, seif-assertive, purseproud and hypocritical. We are apt to sing psalms and pick bockets: at one and the same time, and our nelgh- bors, not altogether unjustly, therefore, re- sent the overrighteous tone that we adopt in_ criticising them and their concerns. Wherever the Englishman goes he has the fatal influence of spoiling even the most simple of characters. A few British tour- inexperienced province shrewd, suspicious, grasping and dishonest. ‘This is wittin the common knowledge of any who have trav- eled in lttie-visited lands, and a consider- ation of this phenomenon will enable us the better, perhaps, to understand why our neighbors, and more especially the French, 80 heartily detest us. It {s also a curious fact that whenever there are any general elections to be heid in the great republics the most popular pol- icy is to twist the tail of the British lon. It would be instructive, as a subject for the dull season, to discuss the question, “Are we Engtish really much superior ‘to all other nations’ I think we are, but ap- parently our neighbors think otherwise; and it_ might be well, therefore, to discover whether we are mistaken or whether they are stupidly prejudiced. it Claims Aga: it Ch Advices from Chile state that the Secre- tary of State has notified the government of Chile that the United States government has the earnest desire to eradicate any im- pression of disagreeable relations that may exist between the two countries, and that they will not favor any claim in the tri- bunal of arbitration now sitting In the Ze dozen, but stran; innocent sufferer. of watching the conductor, the other em- ists will make the inhabitants of the most | Guarding the Interests of the Big Corporations. A USEFUL DETECTIVE SYSTEM. Tricks by Which Railroads are De- frauded. SCHEMING FOR SALARIES. F THERE IS ONE thing that the rall- road conductor abhors more than the cholera or yellow fever, it is the railroad detective or, in raflroad par- lance, the “spotter.” No matter how close- mouthed a railroad employe is, broach the} subject of “spotters” and you can set him going. He can tell “© you stories by the we to say the conductor, or employe in other positions, is always the While the detective 1s assigned the duty ployes cannot transgress the rules of the road under the detective's eye without being reported. For this reason all the efficient and trustworthy employes endeavor to obey their instructions to the letter and then if they are wrongfully reported fight it out before the tribunal of railroad offl- clals, who are always willing to give them @ hearing. A new conductor 1s the especial game of the detective. He may show characteris: tics in other capacities that have led to his promotion under the idea that he was fully fitted for the advance, but when once in the conductor’s uniform be a rank failure. This is the error of self-importance. The addition of twenty-five or forty dollars to the monthly check should make no one think he is the president of the road and that the transportation of passengers will cease should he send in his resignation. Felt Uncomfortable. Many of the new ticket collectors are af- flicted with stage fright. One of the latter class, speaking to a Star reporter recently on the subject, said: “The first collection I ever made comes back to mind like a horrible nightmare. I knew there were one or two detectives on the train watching me, but being a “green- er” their faces were not familiar, The uni- form was strange to me and I imagined everybody Was looking at me and guying me. I went through the car as in a ‘dream and it is a won- der I didn’t miss half the tickets and get assigned to my old position of baggage- master. I felt like a bubble of air about to float into space, while the passengers ap- peared to be angels holding out their hands to me. 1 finally got over it, and I don’t care now, but really the first trips I made were absolutely painful, resulting from the new uniform, a fear of the detectives and @ desire to perform my duty weil.” One of the hardest tasks that confronts the conductor is the one of remembering which passengers have given up their tick- ets. On through trains this task does not materialize, but on local trains the work 1s fit fer a mind reader. And, of course, it 1s on these trains that the “spotters” can almost invariably be found. The con- ductors have no way in particular to locate @ passenger who desires to beat his way, but just get used to it. While he may not recognize every one who has paid, he can Spot one irom whom he has not received @ ticket at once. Then if he is in doubt, a sharp look usually does the business, Most people would like to have the collector skip but they are so impressed with the idea that the conductors know they have not paid that a sharp look acts like a lode- atone to draw out the cash. The lady detective is far more dangerous than the member of the same profession of the sterner sea. The sweet smile and her pretty brown eyes are only the masks of her occupation. While the one is employed in an effort to bewitch the company's em- ploye, the other would be actively engaged in watching his every movement and taking down an accurate account of everything be did during her stay on his train. Even though the careful conductor may not break the company’s rules in a single respect, it is no sure thing that he will not receive a letter from headquarters at the end of the week calling his attention to the fact that on a certain day ne used bad language in addressing his brakeman, or that he failed to collect the proper fare from some passen- ger, or that he passed a friend free or that he did something or other that he should not have done. He may have been innocent in every re- spect, and the chances are that he was, but he well knows that he is watched at every turn, and that he Is lable to removal at any moment, but this makes little dif- ference to a sirong, decisive disposition. The detective knows that he or she have got to earn their pay, and that if there is nothing to detect their occupation is gone, so, In many cases, they will not hesitate to manufacture a transgression in order to make it a basis for a report. Not a Long Term. The detective system {s about as perfect as any department of a railroad, and hun- dreds of thousands of dollars are annually expended in the “spotting” of employes. The “spotter's” term of usefulness is not a long one, for the railroad men are not long in placing his identity. A conductor de- tects a pair of eyes watching him a Uttle too intently, and his suspicions are at once aroused. He, too, does a little watching, and if there is really a “spotter” on his trail it is almost a sure thing that he will find {t out. ‘The word 1s passed along from one train crew to another, and It ts only a matter of a very few days when that “spotter’s” usefulness is a thing of the past. Another is employed to take his place on that road, and he passes to another, and so the pro- gression continues. Old railroad men_be- come accustomed to this spying of their movements and get so they look upon it as @ matter of course. But a new man, one before whom the opportunity to be dishon- est ts suddenly thrown, is very apt to re- sent the idea, end if he discovers the xpy there is every Ukelihood of trouble. Of course the spying is not always going on, although the company would like to have its employes believe that they are never out of the so-called special agent's sight. As a matter of fact there is very little op- portunity for the employes to steal from thetr employers, on account of the many safeguards having been devised. Most of the cash is handled at the rta- tions, where the agents have to account for every ticket they sell, and they are compelled to make dafly returns of their receipts. Then most of the tickets are punched before the holders are permitted to board a train by the gatemen, and so there is no chance for the conductor to return an. unpunched ticket to the agent to be scld over again. Still there never yet has been devised a system so perfect that it «ould not be beaten in some way or other; and so the fight goes on, the company ever alert to put new checks upon its men, and the latter always on the lookout for ‘a scheme to beat the game. On the trains between Washington ard | Baltimore there ts almost a perfect system of surveillance, as the commutation tickets sold each month by the two roads amount away up in the thousands. Who these “spotters” are is a hard matter to decide, everybody travels on a monthly tcket and for this reason the conductors rever make friends with these regulars, Using Commuters. ‘The usual mode of procedure ia the mat- ter of selecting these special agents is for one of the higher railroad officials to ascer- tain the name of a certain commuter and call upon him with a proposition that bis monthly ticket will be furnished gratis if he will keep his eye open while waveiing backward and forward between the two cits fes. As this will require no apparent labor and but a slight twinge of conscience the | tender Is generally accepted. This is one cheap mode of securing a spy, and works as well as a more expensive plan, for the reason that the railrdad cannot as easily Jocate them. At the end of the month, hardly more than two, a new “com- muter’ is selected, and thia changing also has its advantages. The conductors on the two local roads are very strict with the reg- ular monthly travelers, perhaps on this ac- count, and although they may know to a certainty that a certain traveler has a ticket good for the entire month, should ke forget it in his haste to catch a train or lose it, he will have to pay full fare or get off the train. This forgetting of tickets is « tre- | completion of the run made the regular re- Another cheaj which is adopted by many ratiroade is the reciprocity treaty, so to speak, between them and the Pinkertons. The detectives invariably travel on passes and for these favors ply their avocations while en route between the large cities. This plan ts not £0 effective on account of the pass placing a trade mark on the traveler by which the conductor can easily identify his man, but for that run at least the company secure ali that they are entitled to. As the Pink- ertons are continually on the go the reci- procity idea is not a bad one. Other sys- tems of spying are conducted on the same order, the minor officials of the road keep- ing an eye open to the company’s interest, and almost any recipient of a favor in the shape of a pass by a company official will quickly report any suspicious action on the bart of the conductor he has traveled with. Commercial Travelers. The hardest class of travelers to watch are the commercial drummers. As a class they are proverbially shrewd and always on the lookout to make a dollar at the com- pany’s expense, If the conductor is strand- ed for want of an idea whereby to make @ little extra the drummer will be found al- ways ready to advance one, and seven Umes out of eight it is successful ana the companies suffer, There recently developed a case on one of the western roads that will iustrate very aptly the foregoing paragraph. One of the western “spotters” had been gent out to watch a certain conductor, and at the port to his superior. He said he had taken @ seat in the smoking car beside @ man whose appearance indicated that he wasa commercial traveler. Getting in conversa- tion with him he found that his surmise Was correct; he was traveling for a large Pittsburg firm. A short distance out of Chicago the conductor came along and asked for their tickets. While he was ex- amining and punching the special agent's ticket the commercial traveler was fum- bling in his pocket and finally pulled out two dollars in silver, which he handed to the conductor, with a knowing wink. The conductor asked him where he was going, and he replied over the usual you must have made a mistak to that point Is $3," said the conductor “Oh, to be sure,” replied the drummer,“I should have handed you this up with the money,” and he passed the mileage book. ies “But what do I want with this?” asked the conductor, holding out the two silver dollars. you want me to tear off the full. mileag “Oh, that’s all right. You know what I mean.” But it wasn’t all right in that case, as the conductor was honest and told the drummer he must have made a mistake, and he tore the full mileage out of the book and passed it, with the $2, back to the drummer. The true inwardness of that scheme was rather complicated, but worthy of a great mind. The drummer Wanted to save a dollar on that trip, end to do it he was willing that the conductor should have the 2. The amount that he handed that employe in the first place was intended for the conductor's own pocket, but {t was also intended to pay for the drummer's transportation that trip. The railroad company was to be mulcted out of a clean $3. Of that amount $2 was to go to the conductor and $1 remain in the pocket of the drummer. Tricks like this one are coming up continually, and where one is discovered many go through successfully, hence the necessity of the spotter. - Tricks of the Spotters, That there is a liability of dishonest per- sons to be found in the ranks of the “spot- ters” as well as among railroad employes there can be no question, and, as stated above, the desire to make business is the chief incentive. Instead of attending strictly to business as they are instructed by their superiors, that is ride in the cars and keep their eyes open, the spy will fre- quently go out of his way to trap an un- wary employe, the former claiming that the end justifies the means. Speaking about the corrupt practices of this class of people with a railroad official very recently, a Star reporter was told the following little tale, which illustrates to what straits their wits are sometimes plac- ed to secure a case. The official sald: “We have a conductor on our road that has been working for us for the past twenty year: He is generous to a fault and honest as the day. We all know this and it would take the straight testimony of a dozen ‘spotters’ to change this esti- mation. One day a special agent thought he would do a little private detective work without instructions from his superior. He rode over to Philadelphia and came back on the conductor's train referred to above. It seems that he was a personal friend of the conductor and using this friendship as a blind tried to ruin bim. Some miles out of Philadelphia the conductor came around for tickets and of course came across this supposed friend. He didn’t know that he was in the spying business, but for that matter I think it would have made little difference. “Say, Ned, can't you pass me todayT said the spy in @ pleading voice. “What's up, Frank? replied the con- ductor. ‘Hard luck? “‘Yes, I'm clean busted; not got enough breakfast with.’ , that is tough, old fellow,’ said the conductor. ‘Here's a dollar for some- thing to eat,” and he passed on without referring to the ticket. “At the end of the run the conductor sat down and wrote out a detail of the occur- rence, reciting the fact that he was an old friend, and inclosing the money to pay for the fellow’s passage. The next morning I received that letter and also one from the ‘spotter.’ The latter told of the break in the rules, but gave no details, and had it been a man with less reputation, it might have caused trouble, When the spy came in my office later in the day, I paid him off, told him what I thought ‘of him, and I came mighty near throwing him’ out of my office. I don’t believe in the system, but my superiors do, and that fs all that is necessary. A Dishonest Agent Caught. ‘The untrustworthiness of these special agents cannot be better illustrated than |to recall an incident that occurred on the Baltimore and Ohio road a Uttle over a year ago. This man proved a most consummate villain and in the end met with his just deserts. His name cannot be recalled at “Gash” Used by the Celestials for Exchange, THE OLDEST COINAGE KNOWN. The Mexican Dollar and Its Value the Orient. PEKING BANK NOTE. HE ARRIVAL OF A Chinese minister who 4s connected with the imperial clan in the celestial kingdom, and who is said to bring to Washing- ton society several ladies of equally high birth, will doubtless increase public in- terest in Chinese life and affairs. Connect- ing this statement with the fact that every one’s attention is just now drawn to the subject of money in general, and currency in particular, it is interesting to learn that the Chinese possess in their coin called “tsien,” anglicized into “cash,” the oldest continuous series of coinage in the World. According to trustworthy author- ities, cash were in use at least 4,000 years ago. Specimens of the earliest issues are till extant, and some of them may be seen in the museum of the United States mint at Philadelphia. The “razor coin,” so called from its shape, is probably the oldest in the collection. Previous to the introduc- tion of cash porcelain money and smail sea shells seem to have been used, ten of the latter being equal to one cash; but porcelain money and sea shells cannot be included under coinage—they belong to pre- historic times and have no place in this article. Many of the oldest cash were regarded as charms against fever and evil spirits, and even to this day the Chinese believe in coin charms, and when a Chinaman dies a small coin is placed in his mouth so that his spirit may not be detained in its journey to the unseen world for lack of funds. The Present Coin. A cash today is a circular coin made from an alloy of copper, zinc and lead, about an inch in diameter, with @ small, Square hole in its center for convenience in counting and stringing. No simpler way to manage large quantities of the clumsy cash could be devised than this stringin; Two stout cords are knotted together at one end and 5 cash are threaded on to each side and the cords are tightly knotted together again; then fifty more cash are added to each side with a kaot, and so on until 500 to 1,00 are thus counted and secured. The whole double string of cash, looking remarkably like three or four feet of copper sausages, is either carried over the shoulder, or, as Chinese women do when they go marketing, is flung around the neck, and as the money is needed the knots are successively untied. Many attempts have been made by the Chinese governmen: during the past cet tury to introduce coin of other denomin tons, notably in the province of Fubki and later in the Island of Formosa in the year 1835, and later still at Shanghai in 16, | but all efforts were futile. The people would not circulate the new coins, and the time- honored cash retained their solitary su- premacy, while their would-be rivals went back to the melting pots. Counterfeits. Each provincial capital has its official mint and issues its own cash, bearing the name of the province where minted, and in place of @ date the name of the reigning Chinese Bank Note. emperor and his dynasty. These cash are largely counterfeited—an art at which the Chinese are adepts—and the result is that the rate of exchange between the cash of different provinces—and indeed between those of the same province—varies trom. 1,000 to 1,80 to the dollar. By paying a small premium, however, genuine cash can always be obtained from the money chang- ers, who employ young men and boys to sort from bushels of promiscuous cash the genuine, unadulterated article. While spur- fous cash are used, yet because of the dis- count on them it {s more convenient when traveling from province to province to 0 first to the money changer's office and cb- tain a supply of good coin. One does not have to carry around so much copper if what one has is good. A cash is theoret- {cally worth a mill or the tenth of a cent, and so cheap ts food in China that appre- clable quantities of rice, tea and fruit may be bought with cash. But the Japanese ean go the Chinese one better, for they have a bronze coin called the “ono hun- dredth,” of which, accoriing to the mint authorities, 7,000 make one Spanish doliar— or, in other words, seventy od] are worth a cent of American money. Probably these are the smaliest denominations in coins that the world can at present show. A thousand cash equal a dollar—that ts to say a Mexican dollar, for no other goes in China. American dollars are regarded with suspicion, and the dollars and frac- tional currency minted In 1870, or there- abouts, by the, Hong Kong government never got beyond the shores of the island this time, but his ostensible occupation was to examine the accounts of ‘station agents. | Month after month he made his rounds be- tween Washington and Philadelphia, and strange to relate he never failed to find some discrepancy in the accounts of some unfortunate agent at the end of the trip. The conductors and trainmen also suffered, a complaint generally making its appear- ance after the conclusion of one of the in- specting tours. Not dreaming of the man’s dishonesty the company officials began to think they had at least secured a jewel of @ special agent, who was untiring in his efforts to locate dishonesty among his fel- | low employes. Station agents complained that no mat- ter how careful they were, this man always managed to find a deficiency in thelr cash. This state of things went on for some time, when one of the agents located not a thousand miles from Washington, some- what shrewder than his fellows, decided to lay a trap for the special agent and ascertain if everything was done on the square. This agent got the “tip” that the “spotter” was due on a certain day, and marking a ten dollar bill placed it in the safe and awaited events, The man ar- rived as per schedule and the customary going over of the books followed. He started to count the cash and the agent turned away in an apparent careless fash- fon, but kept his eye on the inspector. He was rewarded by sceing the man slip the bill in his pocket and a moment later he said: “I have found a shortage of $10 in your account and will have to so report.” ‘The agent was fully prepared for this ver- dict and having a constable handy called him in and placed the “spotter” under ar- rest. He was very indignant and made |many threats, but on his way to the town squire’s tried 'to destroy the evidence, but was caught in the act. The case finally came up for trial and the man was con- victed and sent to a Maryland prison for a term of years. The agent received the blessing of his fellow employes and the company thought so much of his shrewd- ness that he was speedily promoted to a more lucrative position. From the Bostoa Herald. ‘A story is going the rounds about a Ittle woman who, the other night, was seated at the theater behind a gorgeously dressed beauty whose balloon sleeves completely hid the stage from the victim in the rear, She sat first on one foot and then the other,but all in vain; not a glimpse of the play could she get. After a whispered conversation with her husband eame the tragedy. Without a word of warning that wee bit of woman quietly rose, gently but firmly laid her hands upon the winged shoulders of her obtrusive neighbor and pressed her green and violet ruffies as far down as they would go. People who saw the operation gasped at the transformation. The vietim | easily accepted the situation and remained in subjugation until the end of the play. United States that is not based on the strictest justice. quent occurrence and to the uninitiated it scems hard that the two alternatives are all Raxor Coin and Copper Cash. as coin, They were melted up by the natives, and any one of the series from the dollar to the mill is now a great curiosity. It was useless to struggle against the na- tional prejudice, so the government sold the mint to the Japanese, who are using It to this day. The history of the Mexican dollar, however, is closely allied to the mer- cantile history of China itself. Three cen- turies ago the Chinese were neither a col- onizing nor an externally commercial na- tion, and previous to the arrival of the Portuguese tn 1580 had no foreign com- merce to speak of. At that time the Portu- guese and Spaniards utilized the silver mines of Mexico, then the greatest silver producing country in the world. ‘This silver the Portuguese used in their trade, coining it both in and out of Mexico into the fa- mous Mexican dollars, which were nearly pure metal. When these dollars were offer- ed to the Chinese, they, immediately rec- ognizing their intrinsic worth, accepted them, and the habit thus formed has be- come impregnably rooted in their business Mfe; and today although Chinese commerce has grown extensively and deals with al- most every civilized nation still the only silver coins that circulate in China are the Mexican dollars. It should be stated that even this circulation {s limit- ed to the treaty ports or to the coast in general. When a Mexican dollar wanders inland it soon finds itself consigned to the fate of all other silver coin in China—the melting pot. Detecting Counterfeits, on the globe, | to be relied on. Plunging his left band into the glittering mass, the shraff picks up a handful of fifty or so, and arranges them in @ solid row along the palm of his hand. Then, with a dexterous movement of his thumb, he pushes the first dollar on to the end of his forefinger, and, balancing it there, clinks against it’a good dollar which he holds in his right hand. If the ring is true and the weight feels satisfactory to his sensitive forefinger that dollar Is tossed to the right. The next one goes through the same manipulation, and as fast as he can do it—and it’s very fast—the dollars fall into three heaps, good ones to the right, doubtful ones in the middie und rejected ones to the left. Then the shraff re-exam- ines the first two heaps, sometimes chang- ing @ dollar from one heap to the other. When this second examination is finished the good dollars are counted and the doubt- ful ones weighed, both going to your credit, after deducting a percentage for the doubt- ful coins, while the rejected pile is re- turned to you to pass off on some one #lse. Such skill do these shraffs acquire that what appeers on paper to be the work of an hour is really accomplished in a few mo- ments. The Hongs. The hongs where shraffs are seen in their element are institutions cotemporary with the existence of foreign trade in China. They are usually butldings of three or more Stories and of palatial appearance. Those of Jardine Matheson at Shanghai and of John Dent at Hong Kong are part of the sights of the two cities. To the opium traf. fic both of these merchant princes ow: their wealth. Dent's hong is a marble pal ace over 30) feet in length and is the larg- est in Hong Kong harbor. Sentries march up and down before it, and at noon and sundown the cannon in front of the central part, where are the dome and flagstaff, is fired and acts the part of a town clock in its service to the port. On the ground floor is the “go-down,” where the oplum, silk, tea and other goods are stored; on the next | | | Ancient Chinese Cash. floor are the offices and dining and recep- tion rooms, while the upper floors contain the bed rooms and other ts. For- merly a whole firm, families included,would live fn the hong, an arrangement no less advantageous to business than to safety in | the early and somewhat perilous years of foreign settlement in China. The Merchant's Stamp. To return, however, to the Mexican dol- jars. When a Chinese merchant has re- ceived your dollars and his shraff has ex- amined them, those that are declared good are laid one by one on a wooden block and recelve a “chop,” inflicted by a hammer and the dollars fall give them his chop, and the poor coins go from hand to hand unt they are stamped out of and Iiterall battered to pieces. But even then is not yet, for these pieces are weight as money. Every shopkeeper, indeed almost every man in China, has small pair of scales,which he carries around with him for weighing broken silver. Most of the small trading is done by means of this money; but sometimes—especialiy in the interior—great quantities of it are melt- ed up into ingots or lumps of vazious sizes called “shoes of sycee.” The largest sycee weigh from twenty-five to fifty ounces, and bear the official stamp of the district mag- istrate under whose supervision they were melted. ‘The common people in the interior keep their silver in this small bullion and pay their taxes with it or with unadulter- atea cash, and there are local banks where they can deposit their sycee, receiving a certificate of deposit, and draw out in cash, which ts exactly our system of banking. The Chinese weigh their silver by a dect- mal system, the largest weight being a “tael” or Chinese ounce, equal to one and a third English ounces. One tael equals ten “mace,” one mace ten “candareen,” one candareen ten “tsien,” or copper cash. ‘There are no coins for the eandarcen, mace and tael; they are merely weights, and used as such in all business transactions, and in trading of precious stones and drugs, pearls, silver, gold, and other valu- able metals, . Gold. Gold in China is largely used for Jewelry, ornaments, and gilding, but never as mon- ey. It is usually found melted into bars worth $10 to $15 each, or else beaten into gold leaf about the thickness of note paper. ‘This heavy leaf goes to Siam and India, to ‘be used for covering idols and altars in the gorgeous temples of Budihista. Several millions of thin gold leaf cre estimated to be burned or otherwise destroyed ennually in the Chinese funeral ceremonies, when sycee, made of paper gtlie? over to look Mke solid metal, are sacrifice’ with the same purpose that coins are placed in the dead man's mouth, 1. e., that the spirit of the departed may not be compelled to re- turn to this wearisome world, but may continue on its road to heaven in peace and plenty. Paper Money. Besides having the oljest continuous series of coinage in the -world China can justly boast of being the first nation to use peper money. It is said to have been introduced during the thirteenth century in the dynasty preceding the Mogul conquest. Marco Polo mentions the fact with great clearness in his book of travels,and Chinese history fully confirms his statement. The Emperor Kublai ordered his people to col- lect the bark of the paper, bearing mulberry and from the thin rind between the bark and the interior wood slips of various sizes to correspond to various values were cut. These were stamped with the emperor's seal and were passed as money. ts in them were legalized, and they gfrculdted through all the provinces over Which he held dominion, and no one them under pain of death. Whene\ey any of this paper became torn or spoiled, the owner simply carried it back to the place whence it was issued and received in re- turn a fresh supply with a deduction of 2 per cent for the favor granted. For many decades this system flourished until a new emperor issued such a vast quantity—about $625,000,000—that the Chinese became sus- picious, then alarmed, and when they dis- covered that these certificates were practl- cally a fraud and worthless inasmuch as the government had no money wherewith to redeem them, a panic ensued, followed by a rebellion, which resulted in the over- throw of the Mogul dynasty. The present dynasty has issued a certain amount of Paper money, but has limited its use to Peking and the neighborhood, so that out- side of Peking paper money is now seldom seen, unless it be as spirit charms and fever cures, A Peking Bank Note. The original of the accompanying cut of a Peking bank note les before me. It is @ piece of flimsy straw paper about five inches by three in size and would not begin to money. It reads up and down instead of across like United States certificates. In the left hand upper corner is the seal of the province, while to the right is part of a seal which is a guard against counter- duplicate the seal as it ix on the note and make {t agree exactly with the other part | which is kept by the bank authorities. ‘The characters between these two seals are the bank's pledge to pay to the bearer the amount named in the right hand bottom corner, and the characters on the left side ial number of the note, while naining seals, the circular one and the oblong, both of which are printed in red, are the bank’s private stamp. The has been indorsed across tts face tn | heavy biack strokes. The face value of | note is about a dollar and a half, but as a curiosity it is worth several times that amount. As these Mexican dollars were of irro- sponsible mintage, it was to be expected in the course of human events that they would be counterfeited. They were, and Mexican dollars from England, India elsewhere began to pour into China. Many of these, while pure silver, were of ct weight, or if of good weight were alloyed. Necessity being the mother of in mn, a class of men arose who were called “shraffs,"”" and who made it their profes- dollars, ston to detect defective Mexican Every “hong” or business ho’ its own shraff. He usually has up to his profession by ser: prenticeship with the money chi fore mentioned, so that the dete spurious coin has become almost second na- ture to him. It is interesting to watch a shraff at work. For instance, suppose 7ou have just handed a bag full of Mextean lars to a merchant in payment for goods. ‘They must be examined before your receipt is given you. The shraff sits down on a low bench, and the bag of shining silver is —-o--—____ Phila. Oyster House. Finest in city.—Advt. poured out on the floor or into baskets be- fore him. These baskets, by the way, the | War-time Shinplasters Just Redeemed | From the Albany Evening Journal. During war times the municipality of Al- | bany issued on its own credit fractional cur- mand at the city tin’s office. Most of t money 3 subse nd of the rebellion, Chamberlain would e @ few coins. It taken up. namberlain Hilts Was Visited by two young ladies, who show- ea him a quantity of the currency tssued in 1882 and asked him what it was worth. To the Chamberlain's questions as how it had j come into their possession the elder repile! that in looking over the effects of a relative, lately deceased, It was found stored away in an old box along with man: | air. Hills pro in good bilis the face value of the mon; between $25 and $20. A singviar coincidence connected with t transaction was that Chamberlain H/te | yesterday to the original owner over t’ ty years ago. stand the wear and tear of American paper | feiting. It would be almost impossible to | war curiog™™ the Tr ptly handed over the counte Teac Tommy. himself paid out the currency redeey TY before the men will Myriads of Sparrows Killed by the Recent BC ‘urricanes. Great Blizzard—The Dead Birds on Many Humble Tables. There is no telling how many millions ot Sparrows were destroyed by the two recent hurricanes, which have swept the Atlantic seaboard. No such destruction of bird life by storms has been recorded since the great blizzard of March, 1880, when vast numbers of feathered victims were picked up in New York, Pennsylvania and elswhere, after the snow had melted. Within the last few days the parks extending from the White House to the Capitol have been thickly strewn with the slain. The vagrant cate of the city have fexsted full on them, and small boys have gathered them in baskets for eating. No table so humble, in fact, &8 not to have had ite quota of game thud obtained for the trouble of picking it up. Reports from many states say that the havoc among sparrows caused by the winds has been enormous. They have perished | by myriads. Not the winds, however, but the rains accompanying them were responsible for the mischief. Atmospheric disturbances often cause widespread disaster to spar ro’ A cold storm comes at night, after the birds are assembled i Ordinarily their feathers, being am excele lent non-conductor, keep ‘them warm. But me peaeese is moist and has jowt tte ye ot early cover the ani. you see, ot ps over a bird. They are arranceh ta mut and patches here amine the be ey are arranged in lines = Gnd there. If you will ex ody of a sparrow, the plumes with your fingers, you wil ‘and that it is actually more than half naked. The wind blowing on the wet teathere gauses the water to evaporate more rapiily Consequently the bird gets chilled and ishes, The cause of its death is simpl: ering of its body temperature. Even human being & lowering of « degres or in temperature is quickly fatal. Thus So Se cannot ane sheer are ‘ely to succumb. Very likely some of them will be found in the morning ing about on the ground, still alive but able to fly. the sunshine revives them later in the day. During the pring, which followed the famous bligard. the scarcity — ter- t ne H i ii 5 sf gt Ey i i H i é i z i . 5 . E 3 f fi | 8 He ale # ie tl i i it Hs g £ t & : i iy i if is EF; f s | i I é i tite i | Bs i i 3 z & i i i & 8 j ft } { it | U iit Fie oy i ERE, § j i 4 Fy Hy é i i A i i or ‘ i : # i iit “ if progeny of a sing couple in would number 273, The sparrow’s wot enemy is bird, a smail shre. which northern cities inwinter. method of capturir small birds mals and impalingem on thorns or times on the sbarpoints of barbed fences has of been described. Many Little screesiowls, too, have taken up their residencén the towns, having learned to fetd omparrows. They attack them at dusk, whe the sparrows have re- tired for the nightnd are not sufficiently wide awake to esce. The common chick- en hawk ts someties seen to dash into a flock of sparrows) the street. Likewise the sparrow hawlkand the sharp-shinned hawk are the foesf the sparrows. Many people have noticehow spar-ows will hop about in the poult yard at feeding time, sharing the grain ith the hens and times driving th latter avenge such ofages occasionally catching the spows and eating them, wetting them inre watering trough te Tender deglutitiontsier and then swallow: ing them whole. ——_— Whathe Wears. From Vorve. It is predictednis year that there will be a complete «4 even violent change | trom the fashic of twelve months ago, | and that half-w! cowns may as well be Jegated to th*aman, as even Indies’ Jnalis and poorlatives will scorn to wear them. ‘Those, again’ * frugal and thoughtful turn of mindfeciare that the financial crisis thro: oo the country has been | passing will Pious) ff alt fe v affect New York's | social season’xt Winter, and that it will | be voted ba®P™, even ‘among the wives 4 daucht, ©f millionaires and 4 falists, to Ke any display of wealth | when so mg Who have hitherto been “in Se quite or nearly ruined. y be surlctly true or not, there TS ae joubt, that economy will be 1 the sratcnfd, and ‘simplicity. the tash> ion next *Bter, and thet milliners and Gresemak, Will have to take their turn at | tre“ownkame, from which ‘so many. of their pat® 4nd customers are suffering. | “Mirena: evolution ts to be seen in hate | ror “evelay wear. Saflors have. given | Place Gets. and an infinite variety ‘of j piece t hats—eome of the: others. 8: hard for wearing with ages = ceedings had " ant ns and wings—all nd another broader white border with ribbon bows, nd dressy. mong travelers on | Suse } Ss lady tike Welt had | a hat known as. the It ts made of the ‘silkient - finely quilted. with a narrow band bee for its only trimming. It ts so that tt will crush tuto ‘the’ wt Set, never looks tumbled or « — U bear a jolt to form hin hae Ivelers and has already 60. ersal @ppea: rel must work ena is the meaning nen has to git money and the £3 work the women ha divide with "em Phila. Oyster House, Finest in city. Adve