A Deal in “Slugs”
At this time the $50 slugs were in circulation. He counted out the $400 in a pile and took hold of the bottom one and set the pile over to my side of the counter, as much as to say, “There is your money.” I said to him “There is five dollars coming to you for the deposit of the dust.” He picked the five dollars out of the change on the counter. I picked up the balance of the change and put it into my pocket. I also picked up the pile of slugs by the bottom one in the same way that he handed them to me and dropped them into an outside pocket of my coat without counting them, and started for the four o’clock boat for Stockton. On my way to the wharf I thought that pile of slugs looked large and I took them out and counted them. I found that I had twelve instead of eight. I turned around and went back to the office, to the same counter and clerk, and said to him, “Do you rectify mistakes here?” He said, “Not after a man leaves the office.” I said, “All right,” and left the office and made the Stockton boat all right. But there were no insane asylums there at that time.