Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-15
ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.
Inspecting a Carefully Guarded Work
shop.
from Tie PhlIadelp1ia Record.

From the PHILADELPHIA Record.
WASHINGTON, June 12.-I went
over to the Bureau Of Engraving and
Printing the other day. 1 had been up at
the White House, and walking down
with a real ex-COnfederate Colonel, /
remarked that the flag flying over the
smoky roof of the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing was as black as fort nag
after bombardment. This reminded us
that we had not yet congratulated h. y.
Graves, the new Chief of the bureau,
upon his promotion. So we got into
the little bob-tail car that runs be-
tween Pennsylvania avenue and the bu-
reau, half a dozen blocks down Four
teenth street, past the Washington monu-
ment and through the Washington mall
and up the hill on the other side-fare ,
cents. We soon found Chief Graves in
his large, light and airy room, chastely
decorated, as are all the offices OF the
bureau, with specimens of its engraving.
He is not the sickly-lOOking little man
that the partisan editors and the wood
cuts without regard to party would have
you believe. He is a well-built man
of about the medium height, with
fine, bright face, black hair and
black English beard, streaked with
silver. lie stands easily and talks pleas
antly. He is one of the best story tellers
in the government service. lie Is
genuine success, too, as a practical civil
service reformer. Usually l find my
self for reform but against the re-
formers, but here is a reformer who
does credit to reform. He is an excellent
business man, man of unusual execu-
tive ability, and skillful and well-in-
formed public officer He will improve
the bureau in many particulars. His APP
pOintment is one of the things upon which
Secretary Manning prides himself. He
may well do so. Leaving Mr..
Graves, we committed ourselves
to very intelligent guide,
who showed US through the building ana
explained the processes of the bureau
very lucidly. We started in where the
employees start in in the morning, at the
material room, where the paper, ink and
other necessaries are served out, each
emplOye giving receipt for what he gets
and accounting for it or for the product
from it at night. The 1,200 employees are
prisoners from the time the wheels begin
to turn in the morning at until the great
gong in the basement rings in the alter
noon at l. Not one of them is allowed to
leave the building without pass
stating that he or she has accounted for
the material furnished in the morning. If
anything is missing and unacc0unted for,
from an engraved plate TO sheet of pa
per. the entire force VIII be kept in the
building until the lost article is found.
Up stairs we visited the great strong rooms
with their triplicate steel doors, where
the paper and the unfnished work are
kept at night. The yault-keeper, pic
turesque old man, formerly a Judge in
Nebraska, told us the same story he has
told 10000 other visitors in the same
words and in the same tone. There were
some very tough statements in it, but we
swallowed them all with cOmpOsure.
Among other things, he said that the bu-
reau was held responsible for every sheet
of paper received from the Secretary of the
Treasury, under whose supervision it was
all made, and that this responsibility was
so strict that If sheet of paper was OBJ
tanned and a $50, 900 bond was partly
printed on it and 1t was lost, the bureau
would be accountable for $50, 900 in good,
hard money. We saw the combination
lock on the innermost door and the
combination lock on the outermost door,
and the time lock which Is guard
over both. We listened respectfully while
we were being told that nothing could
open that outer door while the clock of
the time-lOck was running. "Every night
it is wound up to run 16 hours, which is
! Just the period of time that elapses be-
tween O'Clock in the afternoon and 8
O'Clock in the morning, during which we
are absent from the bureau, and it is in
the custody Of the Waterman" We saw
all the processes through which bank
note. a silver certificate or an internal
revenue stamp must pass from the
time it comes into the bureau as a
/ piece of blank paper until it is carried up
to the Treasury Department to be issued
| in the iron-clad, bOmb-proOf wagon which
/ slowly rolls between the bureau and the
! department throughout the day, drawn
! by two gigantic Normandy horses and
guarded by armed men. Down in the
/ basement we saw the engraVers at work ,
among them the golden-haired,
/ golden-bearded young man who is con-
sidered the best portrait engraver in the
! bureau, and who has done all the fine
work of this sort for years. Opening out
of this great room are the vaults where
the plates are kept by the thousands.
Out by the front door we found steel
| keyboard, with holes for a dozen keys.
. Opposite each key was the name of the
Superintendent Of some one of the depart
ments of the bureau. These departments
close at different hours, beginning at
/ O'clock, so that all may be closed by
O'clock AS each department closes, its
superintendent, if everything in his room
has been properly accounted for, puts his
key in its place in the keyboard. Above
| all the others IS one hole marked for the
custodian of the building. At 4 O'Clock
he comes out Of his den and looks at the
keyboard. IL all the other keys are in
place he puts his key in the top hole.
This makes an electric circuit, and this
rings the great gong. Then everybody is
free to go, and the employees swarm down
the broad stairways and into the 2-cent
cars. | saw them do it.