The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-12-17

space between the whirling and the
stationary grooves, Then the milling
machine began scattering the disks
from slit in its circular side. The
disks. when they came out, had raised
edge oneach side. They began to look
like dollars. Very dull and zinc-like
looking dollars they were, however.
The visitors followed them into an ad-
joining room, where they were plunged
into an acid bath and then placed into
a revolving wire cradle with quantity
of hot sawdust. There they were left,
turning brighter and more dollar-ike
every moment.
The adjusting room, where the tour
next led, looked not unlike meeting
of a Dorcas society, for at least score
OF women-matronly looking for the
most part, sat and stitched in knots of
three and four, talking meantime in low
They are sewing coin bags, "'.said
Colonel Maurice in explanation. But
of all the flying fingers in the busy
room the most sentient and human
seemed the steel digits of the coin
press. = 1t seemed satire of humanity
to one watching the workings of this
machine that it should do so much and
the mortal who ruled it should do Sc
little. All the share the quiet ladYlike
looking woman who sat before the press
had in its operation was in placing pile
after pile of bright silver moons in its
tube. Then at every three-euartersa oi
second the two steel fingers of the
oh xxynalA natah khz hAE
of the pile, pilot it on its course te
its place between the dies and leaveri
there. Then, with a pressure OF. sixty
tons exerted, every threesquarters of q
second the head of Liberty came doWr
on the eagle beneath and the silver moons
between received theirimpress.
The silver moons which drop from
the coin press are dollars now. Before
they reached the coin press the con
science of the Treasury Department haC
to decide upon their claim to- be dollars
The conscience of the Treasury Depart
ment is the weighing machine. T'ft
visitors saw this thing draw into its re-
/ cesses a coin. They saw it hold it there
for seven seconds while it weighed ii
and then slide it into one of the two
middle troughs of row of four. If the
conscience had found the coin too light
1t would have left it rebttkingly in the
| trough at the left end Of the row. If il
had found it too heavy it would have
LETT it in the right hand trough. The
conscience with its tin tubes does this
four hundred times a minute all day
long. when it is running full tilt. The
conscience was made in Austria. Mercy
towards an improperly constituted dol
lar enters into its composition to the
extent of just one grain and d half-tht
amount by which the law allows dollar
to vary. More than this it is impossible
to describe the conscience.
| The topping machine was british
the fingers of the coin press human. A
! pantheist would have to ascribe very
large share of the universal essence oi
divinity to the workings of the weigh.
! ing machine, passing unerring iudg.
ment. as it does, on the labors of all the
| workers in the Mint. Humanity il
still relied upon, however, for the count
ing of the coins which the conscience
weighs. Piled on table at the far end
of the room the visitors saw heaps OF
dollars waiting to be marshaled forth in
| weighty columns to their tremendous
work in the world. Four ordinary
mortals--a man and three women
stood there with mechanical fingers busy
among those dormant forces
They gcan count the output oi
$1O0,0o0 day." said Colonel Maurice.
mo, it doesn't require a special knack,
only experience.
One hundred thousand dollars! One
hundred thousand devils rather one
hundred thousand angels, one hundred
thousand levers in short of human
action. Little need was there for Irving
to disclaim impious intent in calling
them Almighty" Still, as so many
plain, round, undressing coins they
are drawn by the. cashier from tn.
.coinerss department and slowed in the
| cellar for shipment to Washington, ana
so ends their history at the Philadelphis
Mint. philadelphia Press.
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