"I suppose you will bow to the will of the people," said the friend.
"Of course I will," answered Senator Sorghum; "I'll bow and take off my
hat all they want me to. As long as there's no chance of their having
their own way it's as little as I can do to be polite."--_Washington
Evening Star._
The Nation's Conscience Fund.
For Ninety-five Years Persons Who Have Succeeded in Defrauding the
Government Have Coined Remorse into Gold and Sent It to Uncle
Sam, Who Has Received $400,000 in This Manner.
_An original article written for_ THE SCRAP BOOK.
For ninety-five years contributions from penitent people throughout
America have been flowing into the government's Conscience Fund at
Washington. The first contribution of this nature was received in 1811,
during the administration of Madison. At the first of this year the sums
received from thousands of men and women who confessed that they had
defrauded the government amounted to four hundred thousand dollars.
There is a great deal of variety in the character of transgressions, and
also in the sums of money turned in to the Conscience Fund. One woman, a
few years ago, sent a single one-cent stamp to the Secretary of the
Treasury, explaining that she had defrauded the government of that amount
of postage. In marked contrast to this contribution was a draft for
fourteen thousand dollars, sent to the Conscience Fund by an American
living in England.
One peculiarity that is revealed by the letters of repentant citizens is
the effort to disguise the identity of the writers. They frequently write
in a cramped, unnatural style, or they "print" the letters as children do,
or purposely mis-spell words, as is evident when wretched orthography is
done in handwriting that is itself indicative of culture.
All these efforts are unnecessary, for the United States government does
not divulge the names even when, occasionally, they are frankly signed by
the conscience-stricken. To enable the sender to know that his
contribution has reached the Conscience Fund, announcement of the amount
sent and the nature of the confession is made in the newspapers of the
city or town whence the letter was mailed. But no effort is made to
discover the identity of the contributor.
Many of the writers are women, but they do not send so much money to the
Conscience Fund as the men. Their transgressions, as a rule, involve small
transactions. The largest contributions come from smugglers. The remainder
is received from persons who have used canceled stamps, or who have sent
first-class mail under third-class rates, or persons who have actually
stolen articles from Government buildings, forts, or reservations.
Faith in Fellowmen Awakened.
A curious fact in regard to the action of many of these penitents is that,
having become awakened to a sense of high ethics, their distrust of others
vanishes. This is not a universal trait among the contributors to the
Conscience Fund, but there have been many conspicuous examples of it.
The Treasury Department receives daily about ten thousand letters. One
morning, in 1905, there was received in the mail at this department a
package in manila paper, folded to resemble an ordinary official-size
envelope. It bore several two-cent stamps, but no more than was necessary
to carry it, and nothing whatever to indicate its contents. It was the
sort of package which might be expected to contain the vouchers of some
claimant or subordinate official.
When the contents were shaken out, twelve thousand dollars in paper money
lay on the desk of the astonished clerk. The letter accompanying this
contribution to the Conscience Fund read as follows:
HON. L.M. SHAW, Secretary of the
Treasury,