The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-11-03
HANDLING MILLIONS A DAY.
SCENES AfTHE NEW YORK CUSTOM HOUSE
HOW DUTIES ON IMPORTS ARE
PAID, ETC.

the Custom House and occupying the
southwest corner of it, the cashier, with
a force of fifteen clerks, receives all the
money for duties levied by the Govern
ment on imports, excepting the small
amount assessed on passengers baggage,
which is collected on the wharf.
Some idea OF the amount of business
done in this Office may be gained when
it is stated that the money received in
single day has several times lately
amounted to 81 100000, and the number
Of entries made has exceeded 1,000.-
The manner in which this large amount
of money is handled is as follows:
The merchant or brokers' clerk, after
first making out his entry in the rotunda
OF the building where the amount of duty
is calculated on the entry by the entry
clerks, takes his place in the line before
ona of the receiving clerks, and deposits
the amount of his entry in small box,
and with it ticket on which he has en-
tered the merchants name, with the date
and the sum inclosed, whether in gold,
silver, notes or certificates.
Gutta-percha boxes are used to prevent
unnecessary noise from the clinking of
the coin. The receiving clerk takes the
box of money and hands il to teller to
count from the entry in blotter. The
teller does not look at the cash ticket
until he has counted the money and
marked ii on the back Of the ticket. He
then turns it over and if the count is COR
rect he checks it and returns it to the
receiving clerk, who then signs permit
for the delivery of the goods. The en-
tries then go to the book k-Aeepers who
enter the amount on ''sheets," and at the
close Of the day the money is counted
and compared with this record OF the
book keepers.
So carefully is this system carried out
that there is rarely variation Of cent
between the money and the accounts,
and the Office has thereby gained the
reputation of being more exact than any
other similar institution in the country
which handles such an amount of money
coming in so many different payments,
from s. to $4,000.
Should any discrepancy occur, the
clerks carefully compare both sides of
the tickets with the clerks blotter; and
then the blotter is checked of with the
bQ.4k. keepers sheets. BY some of these
Methods the error is certain to be dis
covered. AS account is kept of each
kind of money separately, the tellers
can see at a glance if q mistake is made
in the gold, silver certificates or notes.
When the coin has been counted and
put into small canvas bags it is placed
in boxes holding $4,000 in gold. These
boxes are put in hand cart outside the
building and wheeled to the sub-treasary
which gives receipt to the Custom
House for each deposit.
Nearly ton of coin has to be trans
ferred daily in this manner. An officer
fully armed accompanies the porters. and
there are also armed men in the cashiers
Office. The cashier, clerks and tellers
are men of efficiency, and the response
bility of the Office makes their position
more permanent than that Of the average
Custom House officer. The tellers ac-
quire great skill in detecting counterfeits
as well as in rapid counting. Some Of
the ways of counterfeiting which come
under their notice are curious.
The Chinese in San Francisco are ex-
perte nough to split a 80 gold piece,
cut out the center, fill it with base metal
and join it together SO nicely that only
an expert could detect the fraud. The
patient Chinaman also finds it profitable
to ''sweat' gold by shaking the coin in
a bag and gathering the gold dust which
accumulates from the abrasion of the
metal.
Another device is to file gold coin
across the edge, thus destroying the rails
ed milling. All the silver and nickel
coins are .counterfeited, from the 3.cent
piece to the legal tender dollar. They
are first stamped from base metal and
then plated with silver. Even this the
counterfeiters do not buy, but obtain by
immersing silver coin in acid, which re-
moves from the coin enough silver for
the oounterfeiters use, while the s'sweat-
ed" silver can still be passedat par.
The cashiers Office performs only a
small portion of the work of the Custom
House in all its branches, but, as it is
one of the main resources of the public
purse, it is perhaps the most interesting.
As one passes along the dingy corridor,
he catches sight of the three lines of men
cramped and crooked around in the lit
tie room, boys and gray-headed men,
with their little gutta-percha boxes full
of gold ready to be emptied into the ca
pacious pockets Of Uncle Sam.
New YORK, Oct 27.-Edward Sutton,
a trackman, was seen to be dead this
| morning when his horse turned from
Broadway into Liberty street, as it was
accustomed to every morning at about
the same time, and Sutton's body,
thrown from its balance by the turn, fell
| TO the street. The body was cold and
Sutton must have been dead from the
item he took his seat in the wagon at the
stable at Horatio street. The horse took
his accustomed course, and had gone
with the throng down Broadway, the
dead man sitting in the seat with the
reins in his hands, unnoticed, over dis
tance of two miles.
A CANADIAN has picked up 1S5 smal
diamonds from the banks of the Gatinear