The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1878-05-30
THE UNITED STATES MINT.

lC was founded very nearly one mud
led years ago, and in it was coined
the first money used in the United
States. Until 1916 all work was done
by hcnd or horse power; the building
was guarded by watch-dogs, and the
artisans were supplied with plentiful
quantities of liquor as fatigue ration
the ancient and imple-minded citi-
Zens looking upon them with especial
favor. The earliest director was ap-
pointed Iy washfnston. Tic .Orlgl-
nal copper cents were made in 1875,
the silver dollars in 1874, and the gold
eagles in 1895. Both the metal and
machinery were imported but in COIN
ing,as in many other things,th Amer
ican has made such progress within
the century that the implements Of
his own construction are now super
ior to the models after which they
were patterned.
The casual visitor is welcomed from
8 A. NJ. until noon,and is taken in hand
by polite and garrulous ushers, who in
common with all the other employees
bear themselves with the dignity that
BELTS persons living in such close con-.
tact with such enormous wealth.
''I've seen FIVE hundred and fifty
million dollars go in and out of this
place." said one of the employees as he
led us into dimly-lighted vault,
where the pale bricks of silver were
piled from floor to ceiling-"tive hum
dred and fifty million dollars in %
years." he repeated with particular
gusto: and at the statement our fancy
Immediately took wild flight among
the enchanting possibilities of such
treasure, for when Mammon mounts
Pegasus no adolescent and varicolor.
ed as this metallic deity, who is wor-
SHIPPED and despised, courted and re.
viled, by the best and worst of men.
The very contemplation of SO immense
a sum was dazzling to the Imagination.
1t was the aggregate fortune of five
hundred millionaires, the income of
scores of thrones and the value of q
state! What a protean influence it
must exercise !-corrupting and sns-
tanning how many lives; paying the
scant wages of the ten-hour laborer,
and suflicing for the extravaganza of
princely spendthrift; carrying happi-
ness with it now, and then capricious.
ly destroying the beneficiary seduc-
ing the virtuous and breeding sedi-
ton among the honest-fOrever doing
good and harm by tickle strokes; for
ever indispensable and forever allur-
ing. In one of his clever essays, Juni-
us Henri Browne says with Emerson
ian sententiousness "Cash is the
cause and consequence of civilization,
the measure of it's breadth, and the
plummet of it's profundity. Every
true ideal must rest on the real, and
the real to-day is the coinage of the
mint" The contents of the little vault
had probably left deeper marks on the
world than all the books written aud
sermons preached during the twenty
eight years of the custodian's service.
In passing through the deposit-room
the metal is carefully weighed. The
largest scale, with a ponderous beam
and huge trays, combines extreme
o1elicacy with its strength, and balan-
ces from six thousand ounces to the
one-hundredth part of an ounce; an
other scale tells three thousand ounces
at time, and third tells three hun
dred ounces. They are adjusted sew
eral times weeks, erected on solid
masonry, and are true to grain.
Having been weighed, the silver is
carried to the melting-room, where it
is mixed with copper, in order to give
it sulIicient hardness to endure the
friction of constant handling, and
melted in stone crucibles, heated to
1,SC0 by charcoal fires. The heat is
go intense that the workmcn must
protect their hands and arms by gloves
and gauntlets. The stone crucible are
placed within others of plumbago, in
order to insure them against breaking.
Reduced to a molten fluid, the metal
is now poured into iron moalds,
whence it emerges in the form of in
gots, which are transferred TO rolling
mills which shape them by rapid
process of attenuation into long. mar
row slips Appleton's Journal.
How WOMEN can manage to sit bolt
upright and not change position,
looking neither to the right nor left,