Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1882-05-19

Handling Millions a Day.

In small room on the main tioor OF
the New York Custom. House and occu-
plying a southwest corner of it, the cash
Ter, with force of fifteen clerks, receives
all the money for duties levied by tho
Government on imports and exports, ex.
ccpt the small amount assessed on pas
scngcrs' 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 one million dollars, aud the
number of entries made has exceeded
one thousand. The manner in which
this large amount of money is collected
is as follows:
The merchant or brokers' clerk, after
first making out his entry in the rotuuda
of the building, where the amount of
duty is calculated on the entry by tho
entry clerks. takes his place in the line
before any of the receiving clerks, and
deposits the amount of his entry in
small box, and with ticket on which
he has entered 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 blinking of
the coin. The receiving clerk takes the
box of money and hands it to a 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 it on the back of the ticket. He
then turns it over, and if the count is
correct he checks it and returns it to the
receiving clerk, who then signs permit
for the goods The entries then go to
the book-keepers 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-keopers
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 rcputa-
ton Of being more exact than any other
similar institution in the country which
handles such an amount Of money com
ing in so many different payments. from
five dollars to five thousand dollars.
Should any discrepancy occur, the
clerks carefully compare both sides OF the
tickets with the clerks bloiter, and then
the blotter is checked off with the book
keepers sheets BY some Of these meth
DDS the error is certain TO be discovered
AS account is kept Of each kind Of mon
ey separately, the tellers can sec at a
glance il Il mistake is made in gold, sill.
yer certificates or notes.
When the coin has been counted and
put into small canvas bags it is placed in
boxes holding twenty thousand dollars in
gold These boxes are put in hand
cart outside the building and wheeled to
the sub-treasury, which gives receipt
TO the custom house for each deposit
Nearly a 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 tho cashiers
Office The cashier, clerks and tellcrs
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