Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1884 — Novel Use of Greenbacks. [ARTICLE]

Novel Use of Greenbacks.

“What becomes of all the greenbacks and bank-notes after they have served their few years of usefulness ?” is a frequent query. A bank-note has its life just the same as all other things useful. What an interesting story the travels of a greenback, from the moment it leaves the press, until it returns to the macerating macliine, would make! The average life of a bank-note is about three years, perhaps a little ' longer. After serving its purpose as currency, it is metamorphosed into rabbits, birds, and other figures. The process of the destruction of the notes is an interesting one. The readers will often see in the daily papers a paragraph something like this: “National bank notes received for redemption to-day, $500,000.” The next day these notes are carried to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and placed in a machine containing immense knives, which chop the notes into fragments. This operation is conducted under the supervision of three officers of the Treasury Department, especially detailed for this business. No one is allowed to be present at this daily maceration of the notes except the officials and the men who run the machine. They are compelled to remain in the room until each separate note is destroyed. They must account in detail afterward to the redemption bureau of each note; and, should one become lost or mislaid, and afterward find its way into circulation, the result would be the immediate discharge of the three gentlemen who daily have in their custody from $500,000. to $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 of notes and bonds. The shreds are reduced to pulp, and then, by a patented process, this mass is molded into figures of birds and animals and sold as mementos to visitors. Oftentimes it will happen that one little object will be composed of what once was SIOO,000,000 worth of money.— Hartford Globe. ‘ Rabbits have been born with one ear and stags with one horn; the rattlesnake has but one lung; both eyes of the flounder and halibut are on the same side; the claws of the lobster differ, and the valves of the oyster are unequal, yet all the animals and their organs are perfectly symmetrical in the embryo state. A grief, a disappointment, a success is a new lens to the eye, changing the entire aspect of nature.