Show W story of a lost bank bill ji y in the year 1790 one of the directors a very rich machad man had bad occasion for which he was to pay as the price of an estate he bi had just bought to facilitate the matter he carried t the sum with him to the bank banky and obtained I 1 for it a bank bill on his return home he be was suddenly called out on particular particular business n e ss he threw the n ote note carelessly are essly essiy chimney but when he came back a feeg tev minutes afterwards to ook look it up it was not bot I 1 to be found no one had entered the room room he could not therefore suspect any person at last after much ineffectual search be was persuaded that it had fallen from the chimney into the fire the director went to acquaint his bis colleagues with his misfortune and as he be was known to be a perfectly honorable man he was readily believed it was oni only four and twenty hours from the time he bad deposited epos the money they thought therefore ex that it would be hard to refuse his request for a second bill re jile received it upon an obligation 0 to o restore the first bill if it ever shoud be found or to pay the money himself it if presented by a stranger about thirty years afterwards the director having been long iong dead and his heirs in possession of his fortune an unknown person presented the lost bill at the bank and demanded payment it was in vain that he mentioned to this thia individual the transaction by which the bill was annulled he would Y 0 u id riot not listen to it he maintained that it h had ad come to hi hla hia 1 m from abroad and insisted upon its immediate p pay aya ment the note was payable to bearer and the were paid to him the heirs of the director refused restitution and the bank ba k was obliged to sustain the loss it was discovered afterwards that an architect having purchased the directors house and tak enit down in order to build another upon the same spot had bad feind fo ind the thi note in a crevice of the chimney and made his discovery an engine for robbing 0 the bank Q carelessness ire are equal to that here recorded is not at all uncommon and aves gives the bank enormous profit against which the loss of a mere is but a trifle but notes have hive been known to light pipes to wrap up snuff to be used as a curling papers a and nd british tars mad with rum and prize money have not in time of war eaten them as sandwiches between bread and butter inthe in the forty years between the years 1792 and 1832 there were outstanding notes presumed to have been lost or destroyed amounting to one million three hundred a and I 1 nd thirty odd thousand pounds every shilling of which was clear profit to the bank household words |