Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1869-02-04
THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

One never has any peace until he gets nd Of it
Here now this great bank can hardly sleep night
for fear somebody viii be thieving its treasures
Il has company Of soldiers come down from tht
Tower of London every night to stand guard with
in its walls And as for the daylight hours, wh,
it has its whole force Of workpeople ZOO strong
ready to fly to arms in any emergency, they being
organised and disciplined as military. force, ant
every man knowing bis exact place should an alarm
be raised. And you may go clear around that foul
acres of granite and you cannot find single out
side window. 1t is all wall and nothing else. Ant
all the way around are stones 50 arranged tha
they can be suddenly displaced for the protzusief
of rifles And when you are visiting the interior
as you pass from room to room, bells ring ant
guards fly about until you might think they had
taken you for king and were paying you honor
but that ism it bit. It is because you are pro
baby thisf, and viii be pecketng Thousand
pound notes or great bars Of gold, if you have &
chance And they never permit you to enter tht
vaults where the bullion is except in the presenct
of a director of the bank.
With us the President himself went, we beinf
more than ordinarily suspicious characters, Isup
pose, for while clergyman, by virtue Of his ofct
and pretensions, is under special pledges not Il
steal, by virtue of his poverty he is under uncom
mon temptation to do it. When We went into tht
room where the coin and bank notes are gathered
in almest fabulous sums, the treasury, four mel
watched u.s. with I do not know how many more
hidden behind screens and doors. And when they
put into my hand package worth $4,000, 600 il
gold, 1 wondered that the entire building did moi
quake. They expected me to quake, I presume
but I didn't half as much as do when draw m,
monthly salary at home. Now, what is the use d
being immensely rich and living in perpetual con
sternation like that great bank2 I would moi
change places with it for the world. The Prea
dent of the concern has great salary, was tole
Il was about to put down here how much, but
dare not trust my memory on the, subject, but
name any figure you please and it is more thar
that-but what is that to peace Of mind?
They have wonderful balances in this bank, ba
lances that do more than men do, for in weighing
coin, if any are of under-weight, the machine de
tecs it forthwith, and discharges the under-weight
into receptacle all by themselves while the full
weights are sent in another direction.
The bank does its own printing, too, and does il
splendidly, using machines for numbering and re
gistering that can do everything except speak.
Some 100000 persons go annually to the coun
ters of this bank to receive dividends thinl
they ought to rotate and give us all one opportu
nifty before we die. But England is rather feu
da country, and once in seems to be the rule from
the Queen down.
When they had told me their big storiestill the!
saw was in receptive state of mind, and wid'
open to anything they said that they used to have
there, in their employ, man seven feet high, ant
that he was in such fear the anatomists would b
after him as curiosity, after his death, that ht
begged to be buried in the court yard Of the bank
and was, which teaches US that much height, like
much money, or excess in any direction, is curse
as I said before.
I left the vast building in perfectly dazed con
dition, confused by the enormous and nnaccus
toned figures and facts which they had dispensed
to me, perfectly turned round by the many rooms
halls and staircases through which I had been led
wondering how any one in England could be poor
with such mighty affair as that making money
in full run all the time, speculating as to whal
rank among human occupations ought in fact tc
be assigned to this handling of money, and SURE
that my pockets were just as empty as when ]
went .-Correspondsnt Springfield Republican.