Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-04-11
IN A SAFETY VAULT.
The Place Where People Keep Bonds,
Jewels and Valuable Papers.

Jewels and Valuable Papers.
What looks like the iron rallied door Of
a cell may be seen Just beyond the en-
trance 10 the Lincoln bank. II is the
passage way 10 the vault for money and
valuables The cell door is always
locked, and in the daytime a man is al
ways in the vault. Beside the open iron
railing door, there is a set of others Of
steel plates, which close in the passage
way. The vault is lighted by gas, and
except for small desk, there is nothing
TO he seen IN it besides steel and iron and
copper. The floors and walls and cell
ing are Of steel four and half inches
thick. The vault is on the ground floor,
and it is believed that if the building
should fall or he burned down by fire,
the vault room would remain u'harmed
and intact. Debris as thick as tie layers
at Pompcii might fall upon it, Tut the
vault would still be there all right And
the bank people think tina, with a little
defense by guns the place would d. mob
proof. too.
The room Is not much more than
twenty feet square, and tall man can
touch its ceiling with his hand. There
are $500 large and small safes built in
its walls. They rent for from IS TO
$1,000 a year. People keep bonds,
stocks mortgages. deeds, other valuable
papers and jewels and money in them.
When a man calls to cut OF his coupons
or look at his papers, he is identified by
the keeper Of the vault, who stands by
him while he unlocks his compartment.
The man takes out the tin box, and is
uShered into one Of series Of little
rooms off the vault. They are about as
big as Turkish bath disrobing closet,
and contain a desk and one or more
chairs. The minute Of the arrival Of the
man, his name. the box number he
/ opened, and few other things are re-
corded in n book kept by the vault
keeper. The little closet he is shown to
is examined TO see that there is nothing
in it except the desk and writing mate
rials and chairs. When the man las
clipped his coupons and brings back his
tin box to put it in his safe, the time Of
his departure is recorded, and the closet
he occupied is inspected 20 see that he
left nothing valuable behind.
Some If the rich men come TO look at
their papers only ono" in month orr two.
Others go there once in the morning,
when they are going down town to their
offices, and then stop there again in the
afternoon. when returning home. These
are the men who leave there whatever
extra actual money they have from day
10 day. But gold and silver and treasury
notes are not largely left in the vault.
The contents of the boxes are chiefly the
papers representing money. However,
at the time Of the Grant & Ward failure
plenty Of people got frightened and
brought big rolls Of bills from down
town banks and stuffed them into their
compartments. Lots Of men who don't
rent boxes permanently did hire them
then for short periods.
Many Of tht safes are used by trustees
Of estates. these safes cannot be opened
by one person. For rs many trustees as
there are there are rs many keys, and
whenever the safe has 10 be unlocked all
the trustees have 10 come. Each key
T performs different service in opening
4 the lock. Tie keeper will insert his key,
;, twist it aud thus prepare the lock for the
insertion cf Trustee As key. Trustee
, A. kgy is put in by him and turned, and
Z this make, the lock ready for the key of
D Trustee b. At last the bolts are turned
and The door may be opened. This
, mechuriCUl device has TO b. rcsorted 70
: in order that no single trustee may SET
j acce9 by hImself alone 10 the papers Of
> the estate. New York Sun.