The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 21, 1865.

made in such a spirit, and so kindly pressed upon
me, I accepted ; and, under the guidance of differ-
ent gentlemen, as I passed from farm to farm, I have
seen the best and the worst of Petrolia—its wealth,
its shams, and swindles, and its real sources of profit-
able investment. As a mere spectacle these regions
are better worth seeing than anything I have ever
met—natural or artificial--during a somewhat long
career of varied travel. The whole machinery of
how oil-wells are sunk, how they yield, how they
fail, how they yield again, how people are cheated,
and how bogus companies are got up, which unex-
pectedly turn out sources of enormous wealth, how
" dry territory " is sold after being covered over
night with oil spilt to give good surface indications,
I have seen daily, and will endeavour to tell by next
mail.

fish, and plenty of dace had been caught in the river
by other persons. That was an additional proof, in
his opinion, of the value of the works carried out by
the Board.

there which contains half a dozen millions. Lying
on the top of a mountain of these notes was a pack-
age which we examined. It could easily have been
put in the coat pocket and carried away without in-
convenience. It contained 1,000 $5OO legal tenders,
and was, therefore, worth just half a million. But
for the contempt for money which the inspection of
these enormous sums is apt for the moment to in-
spire one might have coveted this little package.
How many able and successful men toil for a life-
time in the hope of acquiring just such a parcel !
If you are going to steal, let us recommend cou-
pons as the most convenient articles to " convey."
Seven-Thirty coupons are so small that you can
easily put $50,000 worth in your waistcoat
pocket, and as to Ten-Forty coupons, a
pinch of them, between finger and thumb, is
a small fortune. These little bits of paper,
no bigger than an apothecary's label, or
half the size of a five cent, in fractional currency,
represent sums varying from $25 in gold to $365 in
currency. As interest-day comes round they pour
in from all quarters—from the far West and the
lately rebellious South, from Germany and Holland,
from crowned heads in Europe, and from industri-
ous washerwomen in this country. To examine and
sort these little bits of paper is no slight task. One
of the richest men in New York is said to keep his
daughters, married and single, busy cutting off
coupons for a whole afternoon and evening before
interest-day ; when the cutting is done the eldest
daughter herself sweeps out the room to intercept
waifs and strays. The vaults of the Sub-Treasury
may really be said to defy burglars. In the first
place they are built on 35ft. of solid masonry, so that
digging under them and working by a tunnel to the
floor would be impracticable. Then, they stand in
the main hall of the Treasury building, in which a
watch is always kept, and into which it would re-
quire no small labour to intrude after nightfall. The
vaults themselves are iron chambers, with iron floors,
roofs, and walls. The latter are 2ft. thick and hol-
low, the hollow being filled with musket balls, which
defy the burglar's drill. Four doors of massive iron
close the entrance to the vault ; each door is locked
with two locks, so that eight different keys of pecu-
liar mechanism are required to open sesame. Uncle
Samuel, poor fellow 1 is not likely to be robbed at
this office, however he may fare elsewhere. We re-
member the Sub-Treasury when Mr. Cisco was first
appointed its chief, in two rooms of the assay build-
ing—a quiet, retired establishment, in which nobody
spoke above a whisper, and a few clerks leisurely
counted their gold and demurely paid the salary of
the President and other public functionaries. People
went there to chat with the sub-treasurer, a man of
leisure and considerable information, and twice a
year called to collect their interest. It was so slow
and so old. foggy an institution that even the small
Wall-street bankers used to laugh at it. In these
days the sub-treasurer at New York has his grip on
the throat of nearly all the bankers in the country,
and we notice that none of them are disposed even
to smile when the name of Mr. Van Dyck is men-
tioned.