The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-03-18
IN TIE NATIONAL TREASURY.
A Grand Review of the Treasury Broom BrIsu,

A Grand Review Of the Treasury Broom Brigade
Every afternoon at o'clock rs female
scrubbers and sweepers are let loose on
the halls and rooms of the Treasury
building. Prior to this charge of the
broom brigade, they are massed in one
of the lower halls with their brooms,
buckets, brushes, squilgees and swabs.
Their pay is Sl5 per month, and occa-
sionally among them may be found
women who once, came to Washington
in quest of positions more lucrative But
bread is as pressing necessity in Wash
ington as elsewhere, and sCrubbing is
better than starvation.
In company with the mstron, Mrs.
SCidmore, reviewed this broom brigade,
ia the basement, after the hours allotted
to Treasure visitors. Seventy-fve dust.
ers and sWeepers seem to be an imposing
number, but when scattered about the
halls of the vast building at their work
they are few and far between. The
waste paper collected is sorted and placed
in three bins, for there are grades even
in waste paper. Going to the top floor
found myself in lanes, passage and
highways and by-ways of Treasury &C.
counts, registers, letters, big books, little
books and millions of packages in mil
lions of pigeon holes, all red tapped and
tagged. 1t is frightful to contemplate
this avalanche of financial reckoning
from all the States, embracing Custom
House, Army and Navy Affairs, and all
other business since our Government
saw the light There isn't room for it.
Piles of accounts and we'll worn ledgers
cucumber the landings and Railways.
From 1.-THE Treasury gallery was taken
again to the Treasury cellar. Here are
the carpenters and blacksmith shops,
for the Treasury makes all its own desks,
and pigeon holes and paints and var.
nishes them. But the chief anxiety was
to show me the "macerator." The mac
orator was at work. The maCerator is
the mill wherein is ground to a soft
nasty pulp the called in and condemned
greenbacks. 1t grinds to utter paste
and impossibility of recognition 100000
to $500000 daily, The money goes into
huge round cauldron like hopper into
which open three small dials secured by
three separate locks. The obsequies Of
the condemned greenbacks are daily
observed with rigid and precise formal
ity. Three separate United States
Treasury officials, men of known trust
probity and honor, highly respected by
all who know them," carry the con.
demned bills to the sacriical hopper,
unlock the sacred doors, chuck them in,
lock them up and carefully watch each
other to see that none of this Govern
ment paper sticks to their clothing or to
the tar on their heels. Then hot water
is left on, and the Cogs of the Govern
ment coffee mill rend the tens, hundreds
and thousand dollar notes to atoms.
You NAV look through little window
in the top Of the hopper and see this
process Of liquidation going on. The en-.
gineer scOoped up q handful of the
ground up currency from the mass and
put it near my nose and eyes for inspec.
tion. II is anssty muck. Yet, since It
has been money one gazes at 1t with
grief, curiJsity,and even respect. The
Washington people get hold of this f.
nancial filth developed from rage, which,