The Waco Daily Examiner

THE NEW ORLEANS DEFAULTER. Crescent City Papers Scooped--The Amount Now Reaches $60,000--The Defaulter.

New York, June 6.-A special to the Sun from New Orleans says: Investigation made by the government of the defalcation in the United States sub-treasury in this city was so secretly conducted that even the local press had no idea of what was going on. The accounts were examined May 23rd, and found correct, but on Saturday another investigation made by Sample, one of the examining committee, disclosed a shortage in the account of J. H. Rufdemorte, the redemption clerk. Saturday was decoration day and a sort of half holiday. On Monday morning Rufdemorte failed to appear at the office, whereupon the case was put in the hands of detectives and the department at Washington was notified. Everything now shows that Rufdemorte managed his flight very skillfully. It is supposed by officers that he left here for Mexico on Sunday, when therefore on Monday morning the fact of the defalcation became assured Rufdemorte was in the interior of Mexico. When the defalcation first became known it was estimated by sub-treasurer Herwig at $30,000 but it is already shown to be over $60,000 and may be much larger. It will not be possible to determine the exact amount of loss until all the funds in the vault had been counted as it is feared Rufdemorte extracted money from it. Among Rufdemorte's papers were several forged certificates of deposit on local banks which he had used to make good his accounts. It seems that Rufdemorte would have absconded with a much larger sum had not one of the banks in the city refused to cash a check for $30,000 which he presented on Friday last and this fact Mr. Herwig said would have led to the discovery of Rufdemorte's defalcation if the bank had reported the circumstances and he could then have been prevented from leaving the city.