The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-05-20
SUB"TREASURY DEFENCES,
SAFEGUARDS SURROUNDING A
NATIONAL MONEY CHEST,

The Sub-Treasury has walls Of granite,
eight feet thick; it has floors of marble
and steel, wallsyof iron and stone, arches
and ceiling of solid masonry. window
castings sheathed with iron, stairways of
the same material, and a roof of granite
so well made that cannon balls could do
no more than chip it here and there.
Besides, sticking out of the roof at
different points are iron turrets, built to
withstand a storm of bullets or any kind
of an attack, and with little oblong port
holes, where rifle muzzles might be
stuck out, and bigger holes for the ugly
nose of lightning Gatling gun. The
millions of the people are well enough
guarded, and if that big building, with
its Corinthian architecture, had been
built for no other purpose than to hold
wealth it could hardly have been made
more strong or better calculated to resist
an attack.
Once week, and sometimes oftener,
when the weather is damp, a colored
man makes special trip up the granite
steps to the third story. He passes
through two barred gateways, the doors
of which clank with echoing sound very
much like doors in prison, and he en-
ters the arsenal room. In the hours he
is there he cleans, polishes and oils 100
breech.loading forty-five calibre car
bines, 100 forty.five calibre Colts re-
volvers, three fve-bore and one eight
bore Gatling guns, and sweeps the dust
from off $4,000 rounds of ammunition.
On this floor the windows all have re-
cesses two or three feet deep, and the
world can be shut out by double iron
shutters, made of l-inch boiler iron.
The windows are about four feet square,
and as he pointed them out Superinten-
dent Bottger talked in calm, cold
blooded way of defence.
Each window" he said, "has, you
see, an obleng portfolio just big enough
for the muzzle of rife to rest in and
still give one a chance to sightit. Nov,
each window recess will hold two men
who are protected and able to pick off
whom they like. In every other win
dow there is what we call a swinging
bonnet. BY detaching pin this ar.
rangement swings so that it hangs out
side the window. Two men can sit in.
side and either shoot with rifles and re-
volvers out of the portfolios or drop hand
grenades from a round hole in the bot
tom. It's all very simple, you see, but
it would prove very effective in case the
necessity arose."
On the Nassau street side there are ten
portholed windows, and eleven bonneted
windows. But that isn't half, and that
is but child's play compared to the other
arrangements for defence. In the inside
roof of the Pine and Wall street porches
there are several holes, as big around al
most as a baby's head. Any one can see
these holes from the street, and they
look as harmless as possible.
But inside the building, anG clustered
closely around these orifces, are boxes
and boxes of pear shaped hand grena6cs
loaded with shot. Superintendent Bott-
ger went on in his calm way:
"These are boxes of hand grenades of
two, three and five pounds. There are
1900 of them around here. If a mob
were to collect on the stairs down there
all we would have to do would be to drop
a fve.pound hand grenade, and-well,
there is no use speculatiug on the result"
That's for defence, and it's complete
enough, for what mob could stand against
hand grenadesl
Upin the little turrets, where two and
three men can stand and work and feel
as safe as if they were at home, there are
enough portfolios to command any point,
and up in the big turrets, where ten men
can work with rifles and Gatlings, the
houses for blocks around can be COM
manded. Every window is grated, every
skylight is protected, and you see moth
ing but stone, iron and steel, and before
you get through you unconsciously feel
as if you were not in New York, but in
some place so remote from civilizing in
fuence that to live meant to battle con-
stantly against an armed enemy.
The protection which the money
vaults have consists Of four doors to each
vault. The outside doors arc time locked.
Every door has beside its sixteen steel
which holds them shut when the door is
locked. 1t isn't any kind of an inviting
outlook for any thief, for, as Mr.. Hale
said, ga man or a mob of men might bet.
ter begin operations at the outside, for |
honestly believe that if it came to ques-
tion of days, they would get in the vaults
sooner than If they attempted the doors"
Down below, the vaults where the
heavy gold and silver bars are kept, arc
reached by flight of winding iron stairs.
That Is we'll protected by steel doors,
and besides, a man couldn't carry away
a big bar of gold very well without
some attention. The simplest
way to make au attack on the Treasury
would be in broad daylight, when bust
ness was at its height. That would in
volve less labor, but it would probably
be as unsuccessful as any other attempt
would be.
In regard to the inside protection-the
protection of tho money from the men
who handle it. There are two keys to
each of the upper vaults; two men hold
the combinations and each man has a
substitute. When it is Necessary to put
in or take ont any money the two men
go in together. They do not go in to
watch one another it would not be fair
to say, for both are men of integrity and
to be trusted, but they 60 to guard
against mistakes, to prevent possible
errors, and in order that as good care as
possible may be taken of the money in
their keeping.
There are five watchmen roaming about
thp COrinfbia intprior avery nigbt and