58 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK
without number pasted together, balances not
brought forward . . . original entries do not
conform to the meaning of the transaction when
carried to the ledger—credits posted as debits,”
and so on.” Once when the headquarters office
had several of the volumes rebound, the binders
in trimming the edges cut off lines of figures.
The Douglas Committee in 1876 called the
attention of Congress to the condition of the
books. “Their condition,” the committee report
stated, “indicates a settled purpose, running
through a series of years, to muddle and confuse
accounts so as to make them unintelligible. But
whether through design or not, such is the result.
If nothing more than an occasional mistake or
slight irregularity occurred, it might be set down,
perhaps, to the inexperience of the bookkeepers
or the want of clerical force to write up the books
properly, without imputing very great harm to
anyone. But it is far otherwise. The books are
mutilated and defaced—leaves cut out in some
places and firmly pasted together in others—
without proper indexes to guide and direct the
searcher into the hidden mysteries—abounding
in false entries and forced balances, altogether
exhibiting a labyrinth of winding and neverending
 perplexities and contradictions that defy
the scrutiny of the sharpest experts.”
INCOMPETENT CASHIERS
Serious troubles were due also to the inexperi-7
 Bruce Report, pp. 31, 163, 164, 230-233, 243, 244, 246, 250, 256,
269 (Testimony of A. M. Sperry, O. O. Howard, Stickney, C. A. Fleetwood,
 Tomkins, Augusta); Reports of Experts, March 7, 1876; Douglass,
Life and Times, p. 487.
“8 Ho. Repoe* bo 502, 44 Cong., 1 Sess.