The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-08-17
RoBBING THE TREASURY.
1t Could Be Done, Perhaps, but 1t Would
Nnf PAY.

1t Could Be Done, Perhaps, but 1t Would
Not Pay.
Washington special to the Glo0e-Dem-
ocrat says: According to the statement Of
a high Treasury official, made to your cor
respondent the other day, vast sum might
be stolen from the Treasury in just one
way.
1t would merely be necessary for him to
suborn the guard of the vault for the first
step. OF course he would not choose the
silver vault: that metal is too heavy to be
worth stealing. He would hardly select the
gold vault--for his object would be big
strike, and less than cool million would
hardly satisfy him. But 100000 in gold
weighs little over two tons, and he would
find difficulty in getting away with load
like that, even II ne nau wagon outside
ON Fifteenth street.
Bank notes are much more easy to han
die: therefore he would make the vault
containing them his objective point. Ihls
vault is on the first floor, much more coz
venent than the gold and silver in the cell
lar, anyway. Overhead is q reserve vault
containing S150,0O0.000 in greenbaeks
mostly; but it may be assumed that the
thiefsWould not want to be hog and that
he would content himself with leave to
grab in the frst-story treasure chamber,
which always has at least $4,000 600 in It,
he would hide himself during the day In
the building somewhere. which would not
be difficult. 1t is never known in advance
what guard will be on duty at given time,
but the thief would have to wait patiently
| NAV be he would have to hide for two or
three nights before things were propi-
| thousand the guard could notify him
when all was well. The guard has the key
| of the outer vault door at his disposal, and
that door he would open, thus giving the
| robber a chance to tackle the inner door:
A skillfnl cracksman could open this lat
| ter in a short time, and then the millions
| have only to be picked Oft the shelves
| around the inside of the vault. lie has his
| choice among the packages, which are
| plainly marked with big red letters show
ing the sums they contain. ii the notes are
| SO ones the parcel, about a to0t square.
| contains $4,000; il twentles, $50 OOOi II
| fifties, $500, if hundreds, 100000. A
| few of these last he probably selects
| $4,000, 600 perhaps makes suf1eient arm
| ful-and with this haul he t9ddles away
content. There are single bundles contain
ing $40, COO Geo i'll $4,000 gold certlncates IN
| the vault upstairs. but he would not care
| about those, because they would DO ulnl-
cult to get rid of.
Just such robbery OF the treasury as
! this might unauestionably be accomplished
at any time, but the point is. would 1t be-
| profitable TO the thief? No sooner would
| this greatest burglary OF history be re-
| ported than pretty nearly every person IN
the civilized world would be looking out for
500 United States notes Of the numbers
advertised as stolen. The robber--suppos-
ing that he got away without leaving a
clew-could not safely dispose of dollar
of his ilLgot millions. If he deposited any
of the cash in banks the bills would be i'm
mediately Identified; in case he paid them
to individuals he would be quickly be-
trayed. His money is useless to him. Too
bad that he did not take gold instead.