Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-09-18

places to summon assistance by the simple
act of touching a button. Captain Co.
bangh, himself a veteran of many battles,
has under his command a force to be relied
upon in any emergency.
The tunneling project does not offer
much promise. Your average cracksman
does not like the burrowing business. He
has no love for being caught in a trap of
his own making. OF course 1t would be
possible to rent a store or dwelling near
the treasury, from the basement of which
tunneling operations could be carried on,
but that would be a gigantic task, with
such chances Of discovery and capture
that no sane man would be willing to IN
dertake it. Such a tunnel would have to
be at least 200 yards long, and how to dis
pose of the dirt would not be one of the
least of the difficulties in the way. A
sewer might be tapped and the excavated
dirt thrown into that, to be washed
away into the Potomac. In all probability
it would be found necessary to introduce
tubing. An arch of brick or stone or
stays of timber to protect the burrowers
from the disastrous results of a cave-in
would cut off their line of retreat and bury
them like rats in a hole. This could never
be done without exciting suspicion. Even
If a tunnel were dug to the foundation Of
one of the vaults, almost insuperable diff
culties would there be met.
Under each of the vaults is an enormous
mass of concrete, as hard as q rock, to be
pierced only by weeks of hard labor. Be-
tween the concrete and the treasure are
floors of steel beams which would have to
be removed entire or cut, a task which
would require the use Of good tools be-
sides a great deal of time. 1t is scarcely
~supposable that all these operations could
be carried on without discovery.
Odd as it may seem, there are only two
vaults in the treasury which it would profit
the burglar much to enter. These are the
gold vaults. The big silver vaults could
be easily entered were a tunnel once run
under. them, and there is plenty of silver
within them. In all there is now something
like 5000 tons of silver dollars in the great
silver vault built a few years ago and the
corridor surrounding it-nearly $50, 0OO, 900
silver dollars. But a man can carry only
1000 or 1000 silver dollars, and the enter
prising tunnelers would have great diff
Guilty in making away with enough of the
white metal to satisfy their cupidity and
reward them adequately, to say nothing Of
the difficulty of disposing of a large num-
Der of silver dollars.
In the vaults filled with bonds held as
security for national bank circulation,
there is 1920, 000, 900. But the robbers
would be very foolish to enter this, for
though they might run away with a hun
dred millions of the bonds they could never
realize anything on their booty. The num-
Der of every bond is known, and any effort
to negotiate these securities would inev-
itably lead to the capture of the thieves.
This Is true also of the currency vaults.
One of these, known as the reserve
vault" contains $500, 600, 900 in paper
money held as reserve to replace worn and
mutilated notes, but every one of these
notes is numbered, and not one of them
could be put into circulation without great
danger of discovery.