St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-23
MONEY NO OBJECT THERE.
Row Seven Hundred Millions Of Dollars
Are Counted.
A RICH NATIONS DOODLE.
Human Machines Who Handle the Gov
ernment's Wealth Without 4
Culver Of Feeling.

of dollars!
That is the amount of money that lies
in the treasury of the United States at
Washington.
One week ago tonight all the vaults
in the treasury were sealed, writes
Washington correspondent. The bal
ance sheet was struck and presented to
the new treasurer of the United States.
j. n. Huston. of Indiana. Enough cash
was left outside in an unsealed vault to
carry on the daily business of the de-
partment. Then the great task began
of counting every one of these hun
dreds of millions of dollars.
The new treasurer is responsible to
the government for every one of these
dollars. He must be sure that he re-
ceives every one of them from his pred
ecessor.
The money in the United States
treasury vaults may be considered as
follows: United States notes. 81. 1885,
1853: gold certificates. s611.16o: silver
certificates. s433, 1872: gold coin, s25. 251,-
125: fractional silver, 1902, 121; cop
per coins, s1O,S36; standard sill
yer dollars. Sl4S,214,5A5; currency GER
tificates, s4sO,OOO; bonds deposited by
national banks and belonging to trust
funds, s211, 600; paper money in re-
serve vaults ready to go into circulation,
but held for seasoning and issued to re-
deem workout money, and silver and
gold certificates ready to issue upon'the
deposit of coin, s3lS, $50, 600: grand
total, s719,027.70O.
Of course. all of this money is not on
the credit side. In other words, large
part of these deposits merely repre-
sents obligations. What is called the
''surplus" out of this vast sum, or what
would be left in the vaults were all the
debts and obligations of the government
to be paid Off at once in cash. would be
only about s56,OOO,000. But for the en-
tire S713, 100000 in the vaults the United
States treasurer is responsible, and 1t
must all be counted.
The operation of the counting of this
vast treasure, which began a few days
ago, will consume about five months. 1t
is all under the charge of committee
composed of two treasury employees,
Chiefs of Division DaScOm and Hunt
ingdon. and a personal representative
of the treasurer, George W. Robertson.
of Indiana. Under the supervision Of
these three men, thirty expert counters
are at work every day, six days in every
week, for five months. Their fingers
must handle every dollar of the treas
ure.
Nothing could be more interesting
than to watch the process and yet it is
very simple. To see it the visitor must
stand under vigilant escort. detailed
for the purpose. in rallied gallery.
overlooking hall.
The gallery is much like one of the
narrow platforms that circle the walls,
half way between floor and ceiling. of
ore of the great banking houses in any
large city. On the floor below is long
row of tables.
At every table sit two women. selected
for Therapeutics in counting big piles
of crisp greenbacks. Their deft fingers
ly to and fro and the Treasury notes
rustic softly and quickly between tens,
twenties, hundreds, thousands.
The notes which are being counted
are all done up into packages of 1000.
and on the outside of each package is
printed the denomination of the notes.
It makes no difference to one of the
counters whether she is handling
package of 81 notes or of $4,000 notes.
The packages are of exactly the same
size and contain exactly the same num-
Der of notes, and yet what difference
in possible value!
A package of 1900 81 notes represents
a value of just $4,000.
A package of 1000 $4,000 notes repre-
sents value of just $40, 900. 600.
But it makes no difference to the girl
who counts these 1000 notes in a pack
age whether their face is stamped with
the figure 81" or with the same figure
followed by four ciphers.
She is human machine-she is there
to count. And she counts the crisp
leaves of engraved paper Just as she
would count the leaves of book. Ihey
are nothing to her.
In time-for all these expert counters
have had years of experience. and none
of them are young or pretty-she has
learned to regard the wealth she handles
without culver of feeling.
At the end of every month she re-
ceives her stipend. She takes it, and it
is hers. She has earned it. The money
that has been flowing through her hands
at the rate, perhaps, of fortune min
ute. leaves no trace behind.
Even if she wished to be dishonest
she could not. There is no trust here.
Every note that passes into her hands
at the beginning of days work must
be out of it at the end before she can
leave the room where she tolls.
Notes, however beautifully engraved
and printed, do not appeal to the imagi-
nation as heaps of coin. In one single
vault in the treasury are piled 1924
5S5 silver dollars. They are deposited
there to secure the silver certificates,
those pieces of paper, worth nothing in
themselves except as they are redeema-
BILE for their face value, which circulate
all over the country.
The vault where this treasure. bigger
than the silver hoard of the meas. is
stored. is an enormous strong box.
wherein several hundred men might
move about. tits about 100 feet square
and dozen feet high. Its ceiling. walls
and floor are mass of granite nine feet
thick. lined with several alternate lay
ers of iron and chilled steel.
These glistening millions are divided
into bags, each bag containing $1,000.
Two bags are put into box, and these
boxes are piled on shelves. Now, one
of these boxes weighs 100 pounds. A
thief couldn't run very far with that
weight, and his plumber would be small
if he could.
OF more profit would it be to steal
some of the packages of gold coin which
make UP the S25, 000, 900 deposited in one
of another vault; $4,000
in god weighs but seventy-tw0 pounds.
TATTOO MARKS.