The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-21

ance of the sky.
One of the best experts on bills and
silver counterfeits in the country, no
doubt, has his little cage in the cashiers
Office. He cannot always explain why
he does not like bill or silver piece,
but he knows he does not choose any of
it, and q test shows that he is correct
Long after had left this department Col.
Jones showed me $50 bill, and asked
me if | saw anything peculiar about it.
l said no, l did not, aside from the fact
that a $50 bill always did have novel
appearance to me.
"Well," said he, sthat is a counter
felt. 1t was detected just after you
went out"
convinced him after while that
did not do it, though.
The bill had been dimly photographed,
and then all the work, back and front,
carefully done over with pen. It was
pretty good looking bill. Mr.. Urban
detected it while a nervous person would
be engaged in calculating the words
Jack Robinson. Mr.. Urban is one of
the men who holds his Office by right of
eternal fitness, and nobody ever vent
ures to ask him what his politics may
be or used to be. 1t is q secret between
him and high heaven. That is the way
it should be.
If a man could make himself absolute
II necessary to his employer or his gov
erllment, and then remain there at his
post instead of having to go out for
three months every year to yell for his
party till the rich. ripe rum mantled to
his luscious bugle, there would be a net
saving to the world in 200 years that
would buy some man nice little farm.
! The cashiers Office has a system of
three checks, whereby the counter, the
bookkeeper and the teller are guarding
against each others mistakes, and so ac-
curate is this matter that III a days
work ranging from $500 900 to 81, 800, 600
the footings of the three are alike to a
! cent.
The certified check, in the ordinary
sense of the term, does not go at the
custom house. The bank may be ever so
good; its certificate must be to the effect
that so much money is on deposit to its
credit at the sub-treasury, and when
ataccount is overdrawn, if only for five
cents, that check waits till the account
is made good again.
When you pay duties the fact that you
are the president of bank or the head
CT family does not count. Ready
money or the certificate of the sub-treas-
ury alone goes.
, In one corner Of the cashiers depart
ment is a headsman's block, near it a
stcllated punch and sledge hammer.
When a coin is found 70 be worthless it
is carefully laid on this block, the pink
ing iron is placed upon it and then a
strong man hits it welt with the
sledge.
After knocking the essential tar out
of the coin, as one may say, it is politely
returned to the owner. who has to make
it good. The idea, as the bright eyed
reader has already discovered, no doubt,
is to prevent its circulation, and that is
almost invariably the result.
Civil service has its odd and rather
amusing features to one, at least, who
sees the ridiculous readily For in,
stance, there is position under the
government in the customs which re
quires that man who fills it shall, tx
the best of his ability, knock off the lids
of boxes by means of d cold chisel ans
hammer.
The knowledge of Eticlid or the binor
: NAL theoreIn is not absolutely necessary
the principal thing being to avoid pull
ing out the thumb nail while pulling thu
: other nails. But the civil service re
quires that he shall know certain things
whether he can knock of the lid of tn,
box or not. One of these men has t.
stand upon a set of cyclopedias in orde
to reach the top OF a big box.
In the language of a friend, che is VI
on books, but he is short on stature
The civil service does not ask him how
tall he is, but whether a given line, hi
secting the base of an isosceles triangl
and running due east toward givel
point, will also bisect the circumference
of given circle whose radius is perpen
dicular to the base of the isosceles tri
angle.
Take also the case Of man who's
:. duty it is to pack and unpack valuabl
+. bric-a-brac. Those who have put in
: year or two packing and unpaclzin!
without breakage costly china, marble
: glass and other truck will agree wit
me that this is extremely important, al
though civil service examination doe
not touch the question. OF course it
: well for man who drives a team fo
the custom house to know that "evolr