Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-10-15
STORED IN A SAFE PLACE.
GAZE DEPOSIT VAULTS AND THE
THINGS PLACED IN THEM.

Old Love Letters Tied with Bits Of Bfue
Ribbon = Coin and Stamp Collector
Among tho Patrons-Queer 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 It had
its origin in the popular demand for absolute
security such as even the stifest 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 the 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 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 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 50 with the
| safe deposit customer. He may be, and often
| is, the proud possessor of bank account, but
| not necessarily. Indeed, there are doubtless
those who rent apartments in the safe deposit
vaults, who, 30 far from being able to draw
money from banks at will, often have to
hustle to raise the SIS 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
arc 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
carss Ali who can say: how many?
Danes Of high degree and young ladies
with liberal allowances who have had their
bread buttered for them all their lives, hire
the boxes and their incomings and outgoings
give the place an air of refinement that is in
spring.
As the safe deposit grows older and its ad-
vantages become more manifest another class
of customers may be expected to materiahze
and they will be bore to the business
Hangers on to the flag end Of commerce will
doubtless, in time, hire boxes for the sole
reason Of gaining a quasi standing in the
vaults that they may be seen there by the
well to do business world The man whose
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 a 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
of the imagination, beyond the horizon of the
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 5000
In government bonds Of the denomination of
81 900 each; one that rents for $3.50 a year
might contain papers of no value whatever
except to the owner
The depositor cannot enter the outside door
except by means of password and identif-
cation. The name is of no use to the COM
pany and they try TO forget it soon as
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 tie stalls in an oyster
saloon, where the delightful pastime of .'clip-
ping" can be INDUCED in safely and without
intrusion
The reportorial mind received here and in
up stair vaults an impression OF the solidity
and security of the place, but it was not till
the underground vaults and storage rooms
We're visited that its impregnability was
fully realized. Here stock of valuables, box
ed, wrapped and in trunks were to be seen,
and the thorough ventilation to prevent mold
or mlidew was not the least interesting
feature.
1t is impossible for any one TO learn what
particular depositor may have In his box,
but nevertheless the safe deposit is not bad
place TO so TO study human nature for there
as elsewhere, eccentricitieS Of character will
come to the surface.-St Louis Republic
VILLAIN S. Rossetti has written book on
his famous brother, entitled Dante Gabriel
Rossetti as Designer and Writer" which will
be sure of sympathetic audience 1t in
cludes prose paraphrase Of The House OF
Life"
PEARLS or THOUGHT,