STRANGE HISTORY OF A £100-NOTE.

Evening Star, Issue 4208, 22 August 1876, Page 4

STRANGE HISTORY OF A £IOO-NOTE.

(From the Melbourne Age J The history of the temporary ownership.of bank notes of large value is not unfrequently of a romantic and even a "tragic character, but few of such histories can compare with the piesent one for variety of strange incidents. Mr ; Mark Marks, of this city, was carrying on business as a money broker in Liver pool prior to coming, out to Victoria, and in December, 1852, negotiated some heavy exchanges of foreign money with a gentleman who had just arrived in England from the United States.. Ihe transaction took place in his private office, with closed doors, the only persons present being Mr Marks's , confidential clerk and the American gentleman referred to. A bundle of : LIOO-notes of the Bank of England ytire lying on the table within hand grasp, and out of this Mr Marks propo3ed to pay for the equivalent foreign currency he had accepted for exchange. From the time he placed these notes on the table till he ran them over befoie paying them away his eye never lot sight of them, save for one iustan*, "when he had occasion to turn round fqyr ; some papers. That instant's iu- 1 attention, however, was pregnant of

evil consequences, for upon counting the notes a few minutes later,'lie found, to his great dismay, that one of them had been stolen. A detective was at ouce sent for, and'wheu he arrived Mr M arks accused the American of the theft, never for a moment suspecting that his tried and confidential clerk would attempt such a barefaced robbery:- The officer, however, after hearing all the circumstances, unhesitatingly fixed upon the clerk as the guilty person ; but Mr Marks disagreed with this view, and »o a«tion was therefore taken beyond stopping payment of the note at the bank. Seven years passed away without anything being heard respecting the matter, and then Mr Marks emigrated to this Colony, leaving behind him a power of attorney in the hands of his agent to receive this particular money whenever) the bank 1 would consent to refund it. A few mouths subsequent to Mr -Marks'B departure the clerk, who had been in his employ, presented the identical note at the Bank of England for exchange, but on reference being made to the stopped payment list it was detected as one ot the number, and consequently impounded. The clerk protested that he was the rightful owner, and it was discovered that his name was really recorded on the boohs as owner, with Mr Marks's name appended. The agent of the latter was then communicated with by the bank, and meanwhile the clerk disappeared mysteriously. Mr Marks's power of attorney was produced, and formal application for restitution made in virtue of it, but the agent was now informed that unless the clerk's authority were given conjointly with Mr Marks's the Bank could not accede to the application before a period of twenty years had elapsed from the time of stopping payment! A diligent, though fruitless, search was then made for the clerk; and not until September of last year,, when a relative of Mr Marks casually met him in a street at Southampton, was there anything seen or heard of him. Mr Marks's friend immediately communicated his discovery to the agent, and the result was that the clerk was induced to sign the necessary document. And now, after the lapse of nearly a quarter of a century, Mr Marks finds liimsel £ in a fair way of recovering his LIOO.