Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1898 — CONSCIENCE’S PROMPTINGS. [ARTICLE]

CONSCIENCE’S PROMPTINGS.

Those Who Have Defriyided the Government Have Sent Back 9300,000. So strong is the influence wielded by conscience, and so frequently does it cause the wrong-doer to atone for his sin, that for the past 85 years the conscience fund has been officially recognized as one of the regular sources of revenue for the United States government, writes Clifford Howard in Ladies’ Home Journal. During this time the consciences of the American people have added to Uncle Sam’s resources at the rate of about S3OO a month, or a total sum up to the present, year of something over $300,000 —the amounts of the individual contributions varying from a few cents to several thousand dollars. The smallest contribution ever made to the conscience fund was received in May, 1896, and consisted of a two-cent stamp, which was inclosed in the following letter of explanation: “I once sent a letter in with a photograph (unsealed), which 1 have since learned was not lawful. 1 inclose stamp to make it right.” By a curious coincidence the largest sum ever contributed, reached the treasury department about the same time that the stamp was received. This was a bill of exchange for $14,225.15, which had been sent to the secretary of state by the consul-general at London, to whom the money had been given by a clergyman on behalf of a person unknown, no name being given.