tored package would be opened and the shortage would be found.
However, the Government has never had to meet this situation.

There have been only two men engaged in packing and sealing currency
since the Treasury Department was organized.

John T. Barnes began the work. He was a delegate to the Chicago
Convention which nominated Lincoln and he received his appointment
on the recommendation of Montgomery Blair in 1861. In 1862 he was
assigned to making up the currency packages and fulfilled that duty
until his death, in 1894. No mistake was ever discovered in his work,
though he handled every cent of currency issued by the government for
thirty-two years--so many millions of dollars that it would take a
week to figure them up.

Mr. Barnes' duties were filled temporarily until November 1, when John
R. Brown was appointed to the place.

Barnes at the time of his death was receiving only $1,400 a year and
Brown draws only $1,200.

Ordinarily the Bureau of Engraving and Printing delivers to the Issue
Division about fifty-six packages of paper money of 1,000 sheets each,
four notes on a sheet, making, when separated, 224,000 notes. These
notes range in value from $1 to $20, and their aggregate is usually
about $1,000,000. The government, however, issues currency in
denominations of $50, $100, $500, $1,000. The largest are not printed
often, because the amount issued is small.

If it could happen that 224,000 notes of $1,000 each were received
from the bureau in one day, the aggregate of value in the fifty-six
packages would be $224,000,000. As it is, a little more than 10 per
cent, of this sum represents the largest amount handled in one day.

That is, the packer has handled $25,000,000 in a single day, and not
one dollar has gone astray.

John R. Brown is a hereditary office-holder. His father was a trusted
employee of the Treasurer's office for ten year prior to his death, in
1874. The son was appointed assistant messenger in 1872. He became a
clerk through competitive examination and was gradually promoted.

[Illustration: GEN. PIO PILAR, In charge of the Insurgent forces
which attacked the American troops.]

The man who has the largest interest in John Brown's integrity and
care probably does not know Brown's name. Yet, if a thousand dollars
was missing from one of the packages in the storage vault, Ellis H.
Roberts, Treasurer of the United States, would have to make it good.
Mr. Roberts has given a bond to t