Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-15

House and Senate during the present
session. There is no doubt that many OF the
vaults are far behind the times in their
safety appliances and there are hundreds of
cracksmen in the country who could open
them. This may not be so of all the vaults,
but it is certainly SO of a number of them.
Mr.. Huston became alarmed about their
condition sometime ago and he went to New
York, I am told, TO get competent man to
examine them. He visited the big banks,
the loan and sale deposit companies, and
they all recommended him to 60 to the same
man.
He brought this man to Washington and
he went through the Treasury vaults. After
he had examined them, he wrote out his re-
port and then came to Mr. Huston ana said:
81 have prepared my report and YOU can
have it now. The vaults IN the Treasury
are not safe and before you read the report l
want to give you a practical demonstration
to this effect. I will take you into one of
the vaults and will leave my workmen on
the outside. The vaults may then be locked
and / am sure that nv man can open the
doors and let us out inside of an hour"
Practical Demonstration of Insecurity.
Mr.. Huston and tine man then went down
into the basement. They picked out vault
that had SIS, 600, 900 in 1t and this mans
workman, who was. an ordinary safe re-
pairer, had his tools on the outside. The
doors were locked, but | think the time
lock was lett of. In II minutes from the
time at which the Treasury employees had
locked the doors with locks that were sup
posed to be secure this man had opened
them and let Treasurer Huston and the ex-
pert out. He did it without the use OF eI-
plosives of any sort, and merely by driving
three wedges in between the door and the
safe. In company with this man, Treasurer
Huston went to the Committees of Congress
and they promised to attend to the matter
at once. They did try to attend to it, but a
squabble came up between the Honse and
Senate and l understand that this vault is
in the same condition that it was before.
1t would, however, be a very brave man
who would attempt to rob the Treasury. A
tunnel might be dug from somewhere near
the Potomac River under the Treasury
building, but the robbers would have to
drill through a floor of cement and chilled
steel and they would have to have railroad
to carry away the silver in order to make it
pay.
The Dollars Would Tumble.
After they had taken few thousand dol
lars the bags aud boxes containing the re-
mainder would tumble about with such a
their action, and as these guards are on
hand day and night, it would be almost i'm
possible to get anything to speak of without
discovery. There might be q combination
with the guards, and a fortune in green
backs or silver certificates taken; but these
are all numbered and the thieves would be
sure to be identified. There are 80 guards
in the Treasury Department, and these are
divided into different watches. They have
to salute each other from time to time, and
a whistle would bring an army of guards to
any part of the Treasury at any moment
Not long ago the Treasurer attempted to
60 down into the vaults to see whether the
men were on duty. He suddenly found
barrel of cold steel at his head, and the
guard who held the other end of the revol-
yer made him stand still and throw up his
hands. He said that he was the Treasurer
of the United States, but the very. polite
watchman with the revolver said that might
all be, but he did not know the Treasurer,
and he would have to wait until he called
one of the other guards to identify him. He
then gave a whistle. The other guards
rushed up and the Treasurer was released.
1t is by no means q safe thing for even the
Treasurer to 90 around the vaults at mid
night.
Our Money In Greenbacks.
It would seem to be an easy thing to get
away with some of the greenbacks of the
Treasury. Still with millions on hand and
with no apparent guards to speak OF, Uncle
Sam seldom has loss. 1t is almost Incred-
ble that year alter year these 81, 200 and
g, 900 clerks go on handling millions and
still there is no leaking and no stealing. 1
visited the cash vault OF the Treasury the
other day, and saw pile upon pile of green
backs ali practically in charge of one man,
and there were millions OF dollars repre-
sented by them. was shown half dozen
small packages of bills which could have
been crowded into cigar box, and which |
were worth S500,Oc
In the story of Alladin is told how a |
wicked old man made fortune by changing |
Did lamps for new. The people are doing |
his with Uncle Sam all the time. You can
set new greenbacks for old ones at the |
Treasury any day, and there are hundreds
of clerks who do nothing but count old |
bills, do them up into packages, have them |
punched with holes, showing they are not to !
be used again, and then cut in two with a
,ort of meat Ak cleaver to render them per-
fectly worthless.
What Uncle Sam VIII Do.
Ii you have bills chewed up by rats, you
,an bring the pieces here and you willlget |
new ones for them. Ii you hide your money |
in your stove and making fire without |
thinking of it, the crisp remains of the bills |
will be honored, and if you bury it and it
-ots, Uncle Sam will take the rotten pieces |
that are left and hand you out new bills. |
He has to be sure however that you had the
money in the first place and curious frauds
are often attempted.
The sweepings of the bank counter are
ground up aud sent in as chewed money,
couuterleits are burned and attempted to be
passed as genuine, and last week wad of !
buried money was brought in said to belong |
to an old German near St. Louis who had |
buried it in a jug. He said it contained |
5000 and was the price OF his corn crop. |
Upon investigation it was found to contain |
the pieces of nearly 81, 800 and after looking |
into the matter, the Treasurer decided that |
the old man had buried two crops instead of |
one, and gave hin check for IFS full |
amount. FRANK G. CARPENTER.