Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-08-16
A Look Int the Bank Of England.


Special arrangements were made at the
Bank OF England Emancipation of visit
from the Shah, but he was too tired out
on the appointed day to go there. Had
he gone, says the London Neios, he would
have found all the Bank officials at their
daily duties-every man sitting, so to
speak. at the receipt of custom; and the
iron rule by which doors are kept day
and night well barred would have been in
force. At a ring of the bell, however.
the doors of the bank-note printing offices
would have flown open, and six machines
would have been seen in full work. Each
machine, with a good deal of necessary
clatter, turns out 1850 notes an hour. a
clever self-registering apparatus prevents
any chance OF stray note falling. let us
say, through the machinery. or blowing
accidentally up a chimney. English notes
were, as we passed through half an hour
before the Shah's expected visit, being
thrown of as if they were mere playbills,
and also number of India currency or
rupee notes. In another chamber there
were pile upon pile of crisp, delicious
bank notes of all varieties to be seen, and
even handled, but not carried away. Ten
machines were in operation, and sudden
entrance into the cashiers room adjoining
somewhat resembled, to the ear, the diff
ference between a smithy and cloister
The polite, well-dressed gentlemen who
occupied the room were forming bundles
OF 800 notes each, and neatly tying them
up with green ribbon, each bundle worth
e., 800. Through their hands there
passes an average of $1,000 notes day
fifties, twentics, tens and fives-with the
of hn 1acf low of a
when the early closing movement reduces
the number to $4,000.
Returning down the stairs, the Shah,
and the few persons who were to have ac-
companied him, would have next visited
the gold-weighing room, all musical with
the chink, chink, of never-ending sover-
eigns.
The work of the machines by which
the sovereigns are weighed, twelve in
humber, are delicate as lady's watch !;
should coin be the Tooth part of grain
below the standard, the machine tips i
over into a receptacle different from that
in which the true gold is shot. Twenty
eight sOvercigns minute are disposed of
by each machine, or 100000 day. 1t
seemed-so nicely adjusted was this Won
derful machine, as if it paused a moment
to think, and trembled as it rejected the
unworthy coin from its honester fellows.
This mass of treasure, called indifferently
:" dross" or filthy lucre," was to be seen
by scuttlesftl, shoveled about as the farm.
er's man shovels horse-beans. A rich,
glittering, tempting heap of 10000 sover-
eigns lay on the carefully Gagged table,
and we were, of course, not surprised to
be informed that within our reach there
were nearly 400, 900 of these bits of shining
gold, so hard to earn. so easy to spend.
A bushel or so of half sovereigns were,
after what had gone before, quite beneath
notice, but they looked pretty, and winked
appeaiingiy, as we gave them casual
glance. Sometimes as many as 10000 light
coins were detected in a day. The pay
hall is public room, but leading out of
it is a chamber particularly private, and
bearing the name of the Treasury. 1t is
dark and coOl-toO rich, in fact, to have
its repose ruffied by common storms or
vulgar passions. There are i'm it 135 mas
sive safes, crammed with wealth; the
Treasury is, in fact, gigantic reservoir, at
present containing thirty-five millions of
money. One safe holds "garbled six
pences :" another is full of threepenny
bits; one is sacred to old sOvereigns its
neighbor takes care of the new. The SUI
perintendent of this department showed
us two parcels of notes which child
might toss into the air; they represented
1000 600 in thousand pound notes. The
doors of another safe were opened and
we stood silent before seventy bags of
81, 900 each, each weighing 81 lbs. 1t was
mercifully arranged that after this the
Shah should be taken into the open air,
the route next lying through the gardens,
once a city cnurchyard, into the dividend
and Government debt offices. and acress
the bullion yard to the bullion room.
Around the sides of this prison-like vault
stood trucks laden with gold bars worth
Ell 800 each, one truck-load of which
not worth not a farthing less than
ESQ, 600. Besides these there were trifiing
bags of gold coin running up the total
amount to $4,000, 900, to say nothing of
row of bags put like naughty children
into corner, because they held "a, 900 of
gold sovereigns.