s 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 neces