The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-10-16
THE U. S. TREASURY.

A Great Structure Where Hundreds oil
Millions of Bonds, Bank Notes and Gold
Are Kept-A Hard Days Work.
At New York we took the Baltimore
81 Ohio railroad, and so one night
found ourselves in the depot at Wash
ington, the capital of our country.
While the baggage was being attended
to, we took time to look at the room
where President Garfield was shot.
There is gilt star in the marble floor,
and above it an eagle, with the state
ment that the President stood there
when he was shot. But by this time
our carriage is ready, and we must go.
am sure we are very glad to get into
more comfortable beds than the rail
road furnishes, and sleep soundly till
morning.
AS we have but short time to stay,
our chief business must be sightseeing.
There is the Capitol, the White House,
the Treasury, the War and Navy De-
partments, the place where paper
money and stamps are printed, Wash
ington monument and many other
things. But this morning we will 90
to the treasury, where all the United
States money and bonds are kept.
MY! what a great building it is!'
you say And indeed it looks pretty
large and strong, with its stone walls,
and great pillars, and heavy doors.
Fortunately for us, we have a friend
who will introduce us to one of the
officers of the building, and he will
give us pass that will admit us to
many interesting places.
The first thing we notice is the i'm
possibility of the building burning iron
and stone walls and floors. How many
clerks there are too! women running
their fingers through bills as fast as
you could draw stick along picket
fence. Suppose one of those women
should make even little mistake in
counting while she is going so fast?
She would lose her position, and her
salary, | am afraid. They have to be
very careful, with so much money to
attend to. Here is a little room no
bigger than a good-sized clothespress,
and with just as many shelves. They
are filled with papers-United States
bonds.
GLOW many dollars worth are there
here?" you ask of the man who is show
ing us through.
''About a hundred Million" he says.
Now don't open your eyes too wide,
or you will hurt them. 1t is a great
amount for such a small place, ism t
it? Don't you wish you had as much
in your clothespress?
Now we will go into another clothes
press, or money-press, as we might
say, where instead of bonds, these are
real bills. with figures on them show
ing the amount they are worth. These
are done up in packages of half mil
lion dollars apiece, and as the gentle
man who was showing us through put
two of these packages into my arms, 1
have been millionaire, for about fif-
teen seconds, and have experienced
great losses. In this room there are
many millions of dollars, too. But we
must go to the next. Here there are
bags on the floor tied up and labeled.
1t is where the gold is kept Here is a
bag marked ten thousand dollars, and
L am going to try to lift it, but it
weighs too much. | am inclined to
think no thief would carry off one of
those bags, if he got chance.
Now we are in a long hail, and on
either side the walls are of heavy iron.
These are safes, and have, many of
them, 'time-locks," which will open
only so many hours after they are set.
Once one of these locks was set good
way ahead, and they were anxious to
open it, so they got a man to drill
through the iron, and it is so thick that
it took him considerably over day to get
through, doing his best. So even if a
thief had the right tools, could not get
through in night.-Pansy