[A small slip of paper, a pre-printed "CASH DELIVERY RECEIPT — HUME SHIPPING COMPANY" form. Filled out in ink. Filed by mistake in the May 1922 Office Supplies folder, where it has remained for two years. The folder is in a four-drawer file cabinet in the company's accounts office.]


HUME SHIPPING COMPANY CASH DELIVERY RECEIPT — Monthly Standing Form PC-14.

DATE: 3 May 1922 AMOUNT: $1,100.00 [one thousand one hundred dollars; ONE HUNDRED-DOLLAR BILLS × 11] DRAWN FROM: General Account No. 3, Petty Cash disbursement. PURPOSE: "Standing monthly — Mr. Hume personal — Hume House." AUTHORIZED BY: [signature] E. Hume [initials to the left of the signature also] DELIVERED BY: [signature] F. Byrnes, Sgt., H.P. (per standing arrangement) RECEIVED AT: Hume House, Vanderlin Row. RECEIVED BY: [signature] Adelaide Penn (housekeeper), on behalf of Mr. Hume. COUNTER CLERK: [initials] C.H.

(This receipt is to be destroyed at month-end per standing office instruction. Do not file.)


[stamped in purple ink across the reverse, in a diagonal: "FILED IN ERROR 5/31/22 — CH — sorry"]

[The receipt was never removed from the mis-filing. Hoyle left Hume Shipping's employ in August 1922 — his mother was unwell, he moved to Cleveland — and the clerk who succeeded him did not realize the May 1922 Office Supplies folder contained an item that belonged elsewhere. At the annual archival review in January 1924 the receipt was examined, its purpose noted, and a decision made to leave it in place to avoid drawing attention to the misfiling. That decision was made by Mr. Standard personally.]

[In the margin of the receipt itself, in Mr. Standard's own pencil, a small note dated 1/14/24: "Let it lie. The folder will not be reviewed again in our lifetimes. — R.S."]