, 1888-03-11
IN A SAFETY VAULT.
Tho Place Where People Keep Bonds
Jewels and Valuable Papers.

The Place Where People Keep Bonds
Jewels and Valuable Papers.
What looks like the iron rallied door Of
q cell may be seen Just beyond the en-
trance to the Lincoln bank. 1t is the
passage way to the vault for money and
valuables. The cell door is always
locked, and in the daytime a man is al
way in the vault. Besides tho 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 n small desk, there is nothing
to be seen in it besides steel and iron and
copper. The floors and walls and cell
ing are of steel four and a half inches
thick. The vault is on the ground floor,
and it is believed that If the building
should fall or be burned down by fire,
the vaul room would remain unframed
and intact. Debris as thick as the layers
Mt Pompeii might fall upon it, but the
vault would still be there all right. And
the bank people think that with a little
defense by guns the place would be mob
proof, too.
The room is not much more than
twenty feet square, and q tall mar can
touch its ceiling with his hand. There
are $500 large and small safes built in
49, "eAS AASy AN"h vi AANbA W "
1000 a year. People keep bonds,
stocks, mortgages, deeds, other valuable
papers and jewels and money in them.
When a man calls to cut off 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 a series of little
rooms off the vault. They are about rs
big as a Turkish bath disrobing closet,
and contain q desk and one or more
chairs. The minute of the arrival of the
man, his name, the box number he
opened, and q few other things are re-
corded in q 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
rails and chairs. When the mar has
clipped his coupons and brings back his
tin o to put it in his safe, the time Of
his departure is recorded, and the closet
he occupied is inspected to see that he
left nothing valuable behind.
Some of the rich men come to look at
their papers only oncein a month or 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 tho men who leave there whatever
extra actual money they have from day
to 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,
Mt the time Of the Grant 81 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 the safes are used by trustees
Of estates. These safes cannot be opened
by n person. For as many trustees as
there are there are us many keys, and
whenever the safe has to be unlocked all
the trustees have to come. Each key
performs a different service in opening
the lock. The keeper will insert his key,
twist it and thus prepare the lock for the
insertion of Trustee AS key. Trustee
AS key is put in by him and turned, and
this makes the lock ready for the key of
Trustee B. At last the bolts are turned
and the door may be opened. This
mechanical device has to be resorted to
in order that no single trustee may get
access by himself alone to the papers of
the estate. New York Sun.