San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-12-27
STORED In A SAFE PLACE.
SAFE DEPOSIT VAULTS AND THE
THINGS PLACED IN THEM.

Among the Patrons-Oueer Freaks OF
Odd Characters-Details of the System.
The Safe Deposit company is feature Of
metropolitan life that has not even a partial
counterpart in small communities 1t had
its origin in the popular demand for absolute
security such as even the stiffest and most
conservative banks cannot always offer.
Drawing patronage from every class of in
dividuals, its income is guaranteed by every
line of industry, and tho solid institutions of
the country are assured of dividends as long
as thrifty merchants, manufacturers, shop
keepers and artisans are found who cultivate
thrifty habits.
For safety they as nearly approximate
what their names indicate as anything mum
dane can. The public has not been slow to
realize this.
The drawers. vaults and storage rooms in
the safe deposit vaults are utilized for every
conceivable purpose For an annual consid-
GRAFTON, which may be as low as s. or as
high as $3.50, one becomes the absolute pro-
prietor of a place in which to put away valu-
ables, where moth and rust does not corrupt
and where thieves do not break through and
steal.
ALL KINDS OF PERSONS.
The character of people who fit in and out
of the vaults where treasures that would
awaken the envy Of a Montezuma are hid, is
as varied as can be conceived, and the nature
of their business is as divergent as their cir
cumstances are different and their ideas of
values vary.
The business man, to whom running ac-
counts and a check book are convenience, is
the greatest patron of banks; not so with the
safe deposit customer. He may be, and often
is, the proud possessor of a bank account, but
not necessarily. Indeed, there are doubtless
those who rent apartments in the safe deposit
vaults who, so far from being able to draw
money from banks at will, often have to
hustle to raise the S. annual rent.
Coin collectors rent the boxes; stamp
cranks are among the customers, and if the
interior of every drawer could be exposed to
view tomorrow many package of faded
letters, held together with blue ribbons tied
in little love nots, would undoubtedly mutely
testify to romances too tender to trust from
under lock and key. How many Of them
are read, reread, folded up again with sigh
and again pushed in their gloomy recesses,
not forgotten by their owner as he crowds
you into the busy streets and sees the busy
world hustle by in hanson cabs and cable
cars2 All! who can say: how manyl
Danes of high degree and young ladies
with liberal allowances who have had their
bread buttered for theHn all their lives, hire
the boxes and their incomings and outgoings
give the place an air of refinement that is i'll
spring.
As the safe deposit grows older and its adj
UanteUpC bacpma mora m nifaSt anptbar oil
of customers may be expected to materialize
and they viii be a bore to the business.
Hangers on TO the flag end of commerce will
doubtless, in time, hire boxes for the sole
reason of gaining quasi standing in the
vaults that they may be seee;;i there Dy the
well to do business world. Tie Tie HAL ~h5se
capital is his mother wit and his place OF
business the club will not be slow to catch on
to the fact that S. paid for safe deposit is
an excellent outlay, and he will so invest,
provided, of course, he can raise the flyer
THE SYSTEM.
The system Is simple enough. but the eau
ton exercised to protect customers so hedg-
ed about that instead of the danger of loss
being reduced to minimum it is absolutely
eradicated.
The renter of a box Is given key to it and
another key to the same box is held by the
company. These are the only two made, and
if they are lost the services of locksmith
must be called in and the lock broken.
The doors To the vaults are massive iron
concerns which are secured by time locks, and
even the officers of the company cannot OBJ
tain admission outside of hours. Suppose,
however, that they could, and, by stretch
L., A.
possible, suppose an Inside combination were
formed to rob the depositors, it could not be
done, for the reason that not an officer of the
company knows which boxes contain valua-
bles and which do not. A drawer that rents
for S. a year has capacity to hold $4,000
in government bonds of the denomination of
81 900 each; one that rents for $50 year
might contain papers Of no value whatever
except to the owner.
The depositor cannot enter the outside door
except by means Of a password and identi6-
cation. The name is of no use to the COM
pany and they try to forget it as soon as a
man has rented his box, as they do not care to
know whose valuables are consigned to their
keeping.
Many of the drawers that had not been let
were taken out and shown the reporter and
their system of double locks explained, and
then the utility of two keys first presented
itself.
Cut off from the vault where the smaller
drawers are, one above the other sunk into
the walls of solid rock, and running along
the corridor nearly the entire length of the
building, are the coupon rooms, little secluded
hooks, not unlike the stalls in an oyster
saloon, where the delightful pastime of "clip
ping" can be INDUCED in safely and without
intrusion.