THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 115 



In all the daily tossing about by boys of mil- 

 lions of gold in bags and checks, often without 

 registry, I do not recall that we ever lost a dol- 

 lar. Sometimes at the close of business we had 

 a surplus of gold or were short of it, but except- 

 ing in two instances the error was corrected be- 

 fore the end of the day. One Saturday when 

 transactions had been heavy, $55,000 gold was 

 missing. We analyzed deliveries and accounts 

 in vain, working over them well into Sunday. 

 Then we telegraphed questions to the boys who 

 had made deliveries, and from one who lived in 

 Morristown came the reply: 



"Deposited fifty-five in Bank of New York 

 and forgot to enter it." 



The other instance was peculiar, involving a 

 curious coincidence. A shortage of $25,000 was 

 discovered in our gold account in the Bank of 

 New York arising from an error in the footings 

 of three days before. The mistake was not dis- 

 covered on the day it was made because on that 

 day it was balanced by the disappearance of that 

 exact amount of gold. What had become of 



