The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-08
upon its glittering boards has just been dis
20 DANCER FROM a TUNNFL..

approach TO the hoard OF the treasury has
Just been realized by Secretary Foster and
Treasurer Nebeker.
The treasury vaults may be old-fashioned
aud weak; but access to them within the
building itself is guarded zealously. as
Treasurer Huston learned by night as well
as by day. But there is another path of
attacll-a tunnel. Many a visitor to Wash
lngton who has gazed upon the imposing
exterior of the treasury-one Of the most
consistent and impressive examples of archi-
lecture in this country-has admired its
granite facade, its monollthIc columns, aud
Its command by Tadiating avenues Of every
superficial approach. But the thought has
occurred also to many visitor. "Why not
rent shop and cellar near the treasury
and dig tunnel to tap all those gathered
millionsp
There are many answers to this. In the
first place, the treasury is so surrounded as
to afford almost no available basis Of under
ground attack. On the west, it is bounded
by the public grounds surrounding the
White House; on the south, 1t fronts a vast
open park; on the north, there are the de-
partment Of justice and its grounds, leaving
only few narrow lots that are private
property aud safely held. Only on the east
would there seem TO be a chance to establish
the beginning of q tunnel.
The eastern boundary Of the treasury Is
Fifteenth street, which, directly across from
the government building, is lined with shops
of all kinds. That Is, they seem to be OF all
kinds, but, though it may not be generally
known, the lessees of all these places,
whether banks, dairy lunch rooms, book
stores or saloons, are all constantly under
the eye of Federal officers, and their cellars
are practically as open to the gaze of these
guardians as Is the street.
THE SEWER THE AVENUE.
On every side, then, the treasury would
appear invulnerable to subterranean attack.
Aud yet, 1t is most vulnerable There is a was
leadil g near TO its rich vaults-a way dark
and nolsome, but open and free to any ad-
venturer whose greed may tempt him to
dare its exploration.
Within fifty yards Of the great vaults
where are stored in the aggregate about
$4,000 600 of silver currency and S26, 0O0,-
QUO In gold coin, there runs sewer beneath
Fifteenth street right past the. treasury.
This sewer Is six and One-half feet high as
1t passes the treasury-high enough for a
man TO walk upright in and to work in.
Two blocks south of the treasury, this sewer
empties into another and larger, eight and
| ore half feet high, which in turn debouches
| directly into canal branching into the Po-
tomac.
Now, here is hint to the enterprising
| burglars OF the world who happen inst now
to be out Of Jail and who have Intelligence
enough, or whose pals have intelligence
enough to read the newspapers. The hint
| is this:
What is there to prevent choice band of
thieves getting together capital enough to
charter small sloop, sailing up the Poto-
| mac, anchoring off the canal which empties
into that river near the carp ponds. not far
| from the shadow Of the Washington monu-
ment, and at night rowing a small boat up
the canal through the eight and one-haif
foot sewer and up the six and one-half foot
sewer to point under Fifteenth street, OPP
posite the treasury Department. That
point reached, what is there 10 prevent these
thieves from digging tunnel TO the bottom
of the great silver vault aud lootlng 1t Of its
coin at their leisurei
1t is serious statement of fact that there
is absolutely nothing to prevent such On as
sault upon the treasury. The canal leading
from the Potomac 10 the mouth of the
sewer is lonely and desolate at night, and
the mouth Of the sewer itself is unguarded.
A JOURNEY UP THE SEWER.
Once up the sewer, opposite the treasury
department-and there would be no diff
Guilty to the thieves In selecting the exact
point of attack-the side of the sewer would
be broken and a tunnel dug straight to the
floor OF the great silver vault. That floor
is composed Of foot of concrete-nothing
more, If you except a light oast-iron carpet,
Of disjointed plates, which make no obsta-
Gle whatever.
The under surface Of this floor once
reached it would be the simplest matter in
the world to cut it through. All the dirt
dug out of the tunnel would be swept away
into the Potomac by the current in the
sewer. There would be no such problem of
disposing of debris as confronts a prisoner
in penitentiary cell. The process Of re-
moval of all traces of toll is already pro-
vided by the stream which drains through
this underground channel, itself large
enough to accommodate boat and working
crow.
The floor of the vault once pierced, what
then2 Silver by the ton might be taken
away. Silver is piled there literally in
stacks as high and as deep as barn. The
bottom of these stacks could all be under
mined, ton by ton. A million silver dollars
only weigh about forty-fve tons, and the
total weight Of the coin, gold included, in
these vaults is in the neighborhood OF five
thousand tons.
The absence of few millions or of many
millions of this precious metal, carefully
excaVated from the bottom, would not be
detected until one of the periodical count
ings, occurring sometimes not for years,
of the contents of the treasury vaults.
In glittering hundred weights, silver and
kOIu COu4u 10 OOeANo1 hAShS aAICA hAkuO
for that matter, in broad day light, down
the sewer through the canal, and unloaded
into the waiting sloop. One cargo aboard,
the sloop might sail away to Philadel-
phia or New York, and there eject her
burden, by discreet methods, into the
ordinary channels OF currency. Then the
slcop could return to the Potomac for an
other cargo, drawn from the bottom of the
treasury.
NOT AN IMAGINARY DANGER.
This is no imaginary hypothesis. It is
real danger, and the attention of treasury
authorities has been aroused 10 it by Capt.
Cobaugh, the stalwaTt Pepnsylvanian who
is in command of the treasury watch. As
yet, neither Secretary Foster nor the new
United States treasury, Col. Nebeker, has
been able TO devise an effective method to
meet the danger.
The fact that this hitherto unsupported
avenue of assault upon the millions in the
treasury exists is still guarded as a dread
secret. Such employees of the department
as have of necessity learned Of the approach
by the sewer are under the most rigid in
structions to keep their knowledge to them
selves 1t was only through accident that
this ready though noisome road TO wealth
became known, and this publication of its
existence is certain TO cause prompt meas
ures TO be taken to thwart any such raid,
imaginary, but just now quite possible, as
has been suggested above.
The treasury watch is an interesting and
important element OF the life that daily
surges i'll and out of the great building which
n IL a A.