St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1865-10-12
THE ASSISTANT TREAKURY.
el nphic Description OF the Treasure OF
the Nation.

From Harper's Weekly.
The leading financial institution in The
United States, is the United States Assis-
tanl Treasury at New York. Though it is
only an assistant treasury, and the Treas
ury proper is at Washington, yet the trans
actions of the former are so vastly greater
in volume than those Of the latter, that the
chief work Of the Washington oticeis Keep
ing the record Of the business done by its
New York branch. Ninet, en-twentieths Of
the public creditors are paid here; nearly
all the public loans are disposed of here; by
far the greater part Of the revenue from
customs and taxes is received here; and
here is paid on the days fixed by law, the
interest on $2,C"r, ,OOu, 600 Of United States
securities. a bus ness Of from $3.WO, 600
to $1o,0Oo,o00 daily is done here done
quickly, quietly and without errors or dis
putes. No institution in tho ci y is better
worth inspection than the SubT:casury !;
and be it said, in simple justice, no man is
more willing to have it inspected than Mr..
Van Dyck, the Sub-Treasurer.
The vaults are sight thst cannot be wit
messed elsewhere in this country. There
are two Of them, but one CT them is COM
paratively empty, as it only holds some
100000. The other contains over
$50, coo, 900, one half in coin and the other
half in paper. How many readers have
ever seen 1000, 900 in paper or in gold !?
We remember one of the oldest of our judg-
es, man oflarge experience and profound
wisdom. interrupting party of takers
who were chattering about millions of gold,
with the naive questions:
''How big is a million of gold? Would
it rest on this table Would it 70 under
this chair ? How many men would it take
70 carry it? What does it look like?'
His Honor might have grati6ed his cu,i
osity by visit to the Sub-Treasury.-
There $50, 100000 Of gold lie dormant
awaiting the resurrection: of specie pay
ments. They are put up in bags contain
ing SIS, 900 each, and weighing soy forty
five pounds. These bags are piled one up
on another in closets which line the inner
wall Of the vault; hundred bags filling q
closet. When filled the door is closed,
locked, ana sealed with the cashiers seal i;
a ticket attached specifies that III that dark
and narrow hole $500, 900 in gold lie hid
den. Fifty or more such closets may be
seen, duly closed, locked and sealed. But
in that vault, whose wealth far outshines
the widest fables Of Oriental story, bags Of
gold lie around in every corner. You kick
one O. you enter. Others rest on trucks
waiting sepulture in the closets. They are
so plentiful, and SO seemingly despised by
the officials who handle them, that insensi-
bly, the spectator loses his respect for them,
and forgets that the possession of few
such bags would realize his lifelong dream
Of material prosperity. " ~.
These bags are the product of custom du-
ties. Every day between three and four
o'clock, little hand cart, ark-shaped,
painted red, covered ever and locked, may
be seen travelling up Wall street, propelled
by two stout men, and vending it's way
from the Custom House to the Sub Treas
ury. There are but two men ostensibly en-
gagged in pushing the little red cart, but .
careful observer may discover two other
men, likewise stout and very wat,hful, whe
lounge up the sidewalk on parallel line.
They look as if they carried revolvers. In
these days, when the custom duties are
heavy, the little red ark sometimes con
tains $3.50, ,OOO-a prize worth the atten-
tion of robbers, but it is never attacked.
When it reaches the Sub Treasury it is un-
locked and the bags handed in. Each bag
IL then handed in BY The Sub. .Trssmrer's