Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-06-12
THE BANK OF ENGLAND.
Down In the Money Vaults Amid Almost
Countless wealth.


Countless wealth.
The automatic bodyguard now shows
some animation. Producing a hand
lantern from another mysterious recess
be turns and bids us follow. We walk
in narrow alleys formed OF piles OF
boxes. where not "a ray OF light pene-
lrates, and find ourselves making a
rapid descent, with the lantern ahead,
like some guardian angel We de-
scend a sleeper incline than the others,
with the defunct bank notes in their
sarcophagi all around us, when chill
air striking up proves that we are well
underground.
Then the figure in front turns and
announces TO us in tone, calculated
to strike terror into nervous persons,
1--WE are now in the labyrinth. be-
gin to feel like4nother Guy Fawkes
going TO blow up the whole place. But
the sudden twists and turns we take
always in that bewildering maze OF
piled-up cases are becoming most try
ing 10 the banker, who is not ac-
customed to lodging u will-o-the-wisp
in catacomb.
| begin TO entertain fears that ne is
leading us to some dungeon fastness
when he turns again and solemnly re-
marks, with wave of his hand. "All
bank notes" Some idea can be gained
OF the quantity when it is said that
they are 77,745. 900 in number, and
that they fill -, 400 boxes, which, if
placed side by side, would reach two
and IA half miles. II the notes were
placed in a pile they would reach
height of five and a half miles, or, if
Joined end to end would form a ribbon
II, 455 miles long. Their superficial
extent is little less than that Of Hyde
Park; their original value was over
l. 750. 600, 600 pounds sterling, and
their weight over 90l tons.
Along another passage we enter a
large room-really vault-which is
surrounded from floor to ceiling by
iron doors of safes which at their open
ing might be five feet high by five feet
wide. One of these is opened and
shows rows upon rows Of gold coins in
bags of two thousand pounds sterling
each.
One is handed to me to hold, and
after doing 50 for moment | decide
will not carry it home. The dead
weight is enormous. Yet these officials
handle the slipping. sliding mass as
though it were a book. Another door
is opened and we observe "a stack of
bank notes. / remark that | have
seen lot already For answer the
manager takes out parcel of one
thousand one thousand pound sterling
notes and says:
Take hold" do so, and am told
am holding one million pounds sterl-
ing / should have wished to hold it
longer, but they want il, so | put it
! back
This small safe contains eight mil
! lion pounds sterling" continues the
polite manager, land you are in the
richest vault OF the Bank of England
and of the world. This small room at
present holds eighty million pounds
sterling"
BY this time my appetite for wealth
! is nearly gone. ! am nauseated with
the atmosphere of bank notes. Ny
senses are dulled with the expressing
spectacle and | hail with delight the
merry FLASHING fountain in the court
yard Here are the quarters of the
thirty-four guardsmen who nightly
patrol the establishment. A double
sentry is posted at each gate. and as
they load with ball cartridges it is not
a safe place for an enterprising burg
lar TO tackle. The officer of the guard
has bed room in the bank, and is
provided with a dinner and bottle of
the finest old port and understand
that the guards are also literally
| treated