The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-12-09
nlanitowof pilot.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1880.
INFINITE RICHES.

About this time in each year the
national turkey, represented by the
Sub Treasury, is stuffed. And
brave, fat bird it is-fesh of gran
lite, bones of steel and muscles of
iron. Its principal feeding ground
is the Custom House barn-yard just
across the way. Here it picks up
sometimes 100000 a day and
sometimes more. In the height of
the holiday season, when ships are
groaning with the weight of mer
chandise, their holds ready to burst
with the strain Of their cargoes, the
Custom House has often been known
to yield over 100000 in day.
But there are scores of ways in
which the treasury receives its stuff
ing of gold and silver and fresh,
crisp. cracking bank notes.
A philanthropist once suggested
that the poor people of New York
should be allowed to file through the
Sub-Treasury once a year and feast
their eyes upon the vast treasures
locked up in its dusty, silent vaults.
1t is an unchristian idea, for a more
ingenious method of making them
realize the misery of their own posi-
ton could hardly be devised. Be-
hind those massive steel-studded
doors which lead to the treasure
rooms there lie millions upon mill
ions of dollars that have not been
warmed by the suns rays for years.
Locked up securely, with cobwebs
woven over the seals there is wealth
enough to feed all the hungry chill
dren in America and provide mill
ion naked families with clothing
Next door is the United States As
say Office, another temple of Nam
mon. Within its walls there are
streams of molten gold and silver
vast enough to supply tie wants of
all the ragged urchins in the world
and fill reservoir for the next gen
Grafton.
The latter building was visited
yesterday BY a Herald reporter
Superintendent Acton detailed
watchman to show the visitor all
that was to be seen. At the end of
short corridor a pair of stairs led
into the melting and refining room.
You see that NAH with the ladle in
his hand" said the watchman.-
'He is dipping out melted silver
into moulds. He dips about $3.50
worth each time" The ladle look
ed smaller than the soup ladle in
the Poor House on Blackwelrs ISL
land. ''Now look in this wooden
tub. These shining bricks are re-
fined gold. The tub contains about
$4,000 Each brick weighs abou:
twenty ounces.
All around the room were heaps
of glistening metal, washed up from
the great ocean of commerce. Huge
bars of silver aud gold, TOO heavy to
be lifted; boxes Of ore and tons of
graduated metals. Here kissing
mass of gold trickled out of a glow
ing crucible, and there a newly
moulded bar of silver sent up foun-
tain of sparks. Dozens of round
silver cakes, looking like small chees-
es, filled handcart. "We have in
this room over 100000 worth of
treasure, said the watchman.-
Through a number of other glitter
ing apartments the visitor was led.
At last he was stopped in front of a
barred door, inside of which the
guide said there was over S45, 000,-
600 of gold. The room held nearly
a hundred tons of gold, and yet it
was no larger than one of the little
garnet rooms in which thousands of
sewing girls exc out an existence in
this great city. An adjoining fur
mace shop vas choked up with silver
fresh from the mines. 1t was in
enormous bars, of a dark slate color,
that gave no inkling of their value
1--WE sent over 100000 worth
of gold bars to the Mint at Phila-
delphia this morning" said the
watchman. at will be turned into
gold right away. There are in this
building now about S50,000,000,
over -tenths of which is refined
gold"
The reporter next went into the
Sub Treasury and saw Mr.. Hill
house. who said that according to
the evidence he possessed the nation
had good reason to give thanks this
season. "Since last Thanksgiving
Day." he said, "this Office has re-
deemed over S100,000,000 of the
national debt by purchasing govern
ment bonds. We still have left in
our vaults nearly SS0,00o.000 in
gold and silver currency. Over
S72,O00,000 is in twenty dollar gold
coins" The reporter was shown
into one of the gold vaults by the
chief cashier. In room not more
than twelve feet square were piled
on shelves canvas bags holding in
the aggregate over s5O,OO0,OOO.-
Every square foot of the wall was
worth over $4,000. The cashier
remarked that there we're about a
hundred tons of gold on the shelves
and six hundred tons of silver in the
vaults below.