Wichita eagle., 1888-01-26
A PEEP AT THE VAULTS
! OF One OF New York's Safe Deposit Conn
panies-The Guarded Millions.

OF One OF New York's Safe Deposit Com.
panies-The Guarded Millions.
They entered by door leading from the
broad and wonderfully arched hallway of the
Equitable building and encountered very
self possessed gentleman, who admitted that
the report about the hundreds of millions was
true, and said that as secretary OF the COM
pany they were for the time being IN his care.
He didn't look like a man who lay aETakt'
nights and worried, and when the reporter
asked him if he did not at times experience
twinge of fear lest some one should wrong
fully appropriate a few of the millions, he
smiled confident smile and said:
Come with me for awhile.
A half dozen sturdy men in uniform saluted
the party before it reached massive door
way formed of alternate layers of steel and
iron This was the entrance to the vaults.
The door was at the time swung open, but a
substantial iron wicket gate, locked and
boited, and behind which were other men In
uniform, barred further progress.
"These are our arrangements at this point
during the day. explained the secretary.
''You hear that ticking pointing to shin
ing glass Enclosed bit of mechanism inserted
into the center Of the great door; that is
time clock When the door is closed at the
end of business hours that clock is set for
s:45 the next morning, and no human being
can get into those vaults until the hour
named. Then certain of these many and
seemingly complicated bolts are mechanical
" released by the clock. But that does net
open the door. There are two combination
locks as WELL and two officers of the company
have to be present to unlock these. There Is
a similar door, similarly guarded, at the
other end of the vault. You Will see
what small chance there is of anybody get
ting in here at night when l tell you that,
besides the walls of the building itself, the
separate walls Of this vault are composed OF
thirty-six inches of solid masonry, re-en-
forced on the inner side by six inches OF steel
and iron. But even if anybody should sue
coed in such an impossibiity as getting in,
his difficulties would only have begun. Look
here" and the secretary led the way into the
electric lighted vaults. you are right IN
the midst of those hundreds OF millions now
but what can you dor
A hasty glance about convinced the re-
porter that his chances of laying hands on
any of the treasure were very slim indeed
There were thousands of double and treble
locked inner vaults before him. Some OF
them were not much larger in front view
than the letter boxes in the postotfice, while
others were of the dimensions of bank vaults.
The small ones rent for SIS year and the
biggest ones for 81 800 year, but burglar
would have about as hard job getting at
the contents of little one as at those Of big
ons 1t is SO utterly hopeless job that no
burglar has ever yet attempted it. Even
though he got in ne couldn't by any chance
have more than minute or two to work in,
because an mfaHible system of burglar
alarms would announce his presence to the
watchmen outside, who are kept wide awake
by the necessity of going from place to place
all night, pressing the electric buttons to an
nouncs the fact that they are on deck.-New
YORK World.