The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-11-19
THE SILVER DOLLAR.
How the Bullion Becomes the Gilt
tering Coin.

tering Coin.
There's millions in it. said ColOne
Sellers. looking at the United State
Treasury building in Wash ngton, ''anC
millions after it. " ne concluded. In thu
work of keeping the millions in it
which the millions after it are con
stantly depicting, the Philadelphia Min
is the chief agent. and to this enc
turned out a daily average of 100000 o
those large white coins to which Wash
ington Irving gave the title of "Al
mighty Afterwards disclaiming al
impiOus intent in its manufacture wher
the phrase became as widely circulated
as the token to which he applied it.
Divided only by the length of a shor
corridor of the Chestnut and Juniper
Street Temple of Mammon from the
rotunda ante-room, where the crowd OF
hopeful or hopeless faced people hang
on the favor of the new Superintendent
is a small stOne-paved COURTYARD, open
as courtyards are to the air. All around
the walls of Enclosure are ranged crates
of merchandise. The crates are pad.
locked and made of the StOutest of wire
netting. This, their central position
and the guard by day and night
are the only protection of the
crates of merchandise. From the
action of the elements they have and
need no more defense than piles of pig
iron. Yet in each of the half dozen
crates were piled one day last week,
when a Press artist and reporter saw
seventy-five blocks of dull colored metal
containing each the mighty potentially
S1,o00-that is to say $50 575-1000
ounces of silver. Thus were $50, 900
embryo dollars separated only by wire
netting from an art st and a newspaper
man, and only by that and 4 hallway
from a crowd of office seekers. As the
visitors continued their journey the
eXigencieS of the furnaces called for
more bullion. and the wOrkmen set to
work wheeling it OFF on battered old
trucks rs complacently as if the big
bricks were composed of the stuff that
bricks generally are composed of.
I'VE get it in shipments twice a
week, said Colonel Maurice. who, as
Chief Clerk Hickock said. could tell
more about the Mint than ANYBODY else
in it. Its about 999-lO00 fine when it
comes from Colorado. and enough
copper has to be added to make if 900
1000 fine The copper had been added
by the meters in the hot room to the left
of TIE courtyard, into which the Colonel
led the way. and in white-heated ladies
they were dipping the molten money
out of the furnaces and pouringit into
the ingOt mOulds. Six great furnaces
were i'm operation. Three of these are
normally gold meters, but the call for
silver has kept them busy these last
weeks at producing the much abused
Bland dollars.
We are melting only clippings now,"
said one of the bare-armed artisans
before the row of glowing furnaces.
well be after the bricks later
''how many melts are you running?"
asked Colonel Maurice.
''Fifty-fOur a day. was the answer
Each melt is of 5000 ounces. so that
the fifty four shows a total of 1872. 600
ounces or 1880 pounds of silver day,
taking its start into circulation via the
furnaces. 1t was a curious scene in the
melting room. Like all the rooms in
the Mint, it was low and heavy. The
walls were blackened with SCOT and
Crime and the furnaces looked well
worn and primitive. There is this same
air about all the NJ MT machinery. Des-
pite its perfection there IS an absence
of decoration and jimcrackery about it
which makes. it all look old-fashioned
and in a measure foreign. Yankee no.
tons of gay paint and gliding are every
where absent. Taken with the proven
durability of all the Mint machines this
appearance gives one n certain con-
tempt for the gingerbread work found
on the exterior of machinery in other
and less important establishments. 1t
seems proper that the appliances which
are entrusted with the execution of the
most necessary if not the highest func-
ton of a great Government should have
a sober air about them, and when one
Is told that the great engine which runs
all the works has never needed repairs
since it was built by Kens;ngton arti-
nicer quarter of century ago, one is
inclined to think that the attention
which might have been given to the or
namentat.on of the monster has gone
into the construction which enables it TO
work through the lives OF a generation
of men without hitch or stumble in its
undev ating course.
Assistant Meter Culp. a giant whom
the visitors saw in the meltinr.room
should. by reason of his massive size. be |
assoc ated with the care ofthe bic enpne |
As 1t Is. his duty is to snatch each hot |
as another artisan drops it from its inrot |
mold and tong it into cold wafer |
bath. thereby IA sing a continuous hiss
ing which wraps the giants existence |
IN mystic cloud of sibilation.
The feet of the visitors changed over
iron gratings at every step of their way
from the bullion court into the penetra-
liza OF the Mint. Colonel Maurice ex-
planned, as he saw them looking down.
why the grating was there. The bits
OF silver that fall through there he
said. Ito the cement floor on which the
grating rests amount. when swept up,
TO the sum of $4,000 year. If the
grating wasn't there you'd carry quite |