Page:The woman in battle .djvu/536

478 itentiary, induced me to conclude that I had best have nothing to do with them; and, accordingly, I severed my business relations with the printing bureau, after giving those interested a hint to beware of the colonel.

This hint was disregarded, for the reason that the scamps knew that he could not commence an investigation into the affairs of the treasury department without the consent of Secretary Chase, and this consent, for reasons which to them were good and sufficient, they did not believe would ever be given. It so happened, however, that Mr. Chase, of his own motion, called Baker in to assist him in discovering some suspected wrong-doing in the department, and that individual, having then obtained the requisite authority, immediately went to work with even more than his accustomed zeal to find out what was wrong in the printing bureau.

Baker, however, was either somewhat obtuse, or else the person to whom I have alluded as at the head of the ring, and his confederates, were successful in getting him on the wrong track, for the first man he laid his hands on was Dr. Stewart Gwynn. This old gentleman was an eccentric inventor, who had a lot of queer, original ideas about proper methods of printing the currency and bonds. Mr. Chase believed that he was a great genius, and it is possible he may have been. I regarded him, however, as a mere catspaw for the others, and have never thought that he was guilty of any intentional wrong doing. Dr. Gwynn was arrested by Baker, and was lodged for a number of months in the old capitol prison. Nothing criminal, however, was proved against him, although it was shown very conclusively that some of his schemes were not very profit able to the government. Much sympathy was felt for this old man; and I, among others, went to Mr. Chase to beg for his release.

I had quite a long talk with Mr. Chase on this occasion, and he was very emphatic in stating that the method in vogue in the treasury department for printing notes and bonds was an effectual check on counterfeiting. I, of course, knew very well what a serious delusion he was laboring under, and it