The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-01
MANY TONS OF GOLD.
HOW PRECIOUS METAL is SHIPPED
IN BULK TO EUROPE.

| Packed IN Bags and Kegs and Carried In
Drays to the Docks-Robbers Have
Little Opportunity to Get Away with
the Heavy BuIIion-The Truckman.
Assuming, gentle reader, that you do or
do not possess profound and comprehen-
sive knowledge of Wall street-if you do
you understand already the why's and
wherefores of this prezzling flow of Amer
lean gold to Europe" if you do not, then
nothing l could say would help you; for
it is true in these matters also that the
blind cannot lead the blind, although
have heard it, whispered they now and then
try to do so.
| So we will take it for granted simply
! that American gold is for good and suffi
cient reasons flowing" across the Allan
tic, and content ourselves with investigat
| ing how it flows" by which / mean the
manner Of its transportation.
| And first, have you any idea how much
! gold has been shipped from New York in
| the past two weeks? No? Well, then,
| listen and wonder-not less than seven tons!
The first place / went to in search of in
! formation was that Aladdin's palace in
| Wall street, which you probably never
even looked at-the assay Office. There l
experienced new and pleasurable SEN
sation when the white haired, kind faced
chief Of the establishment laid in my hand
yellow brick, which looked like nothing
so much as pat of prize butter, and in
formed me that was holding Sc, 900 worth
of gold, 1854 dogs. pure.
as the gold which goes abroad sent in
these bricks and bars?"
mo. 1t wGs formerly sent that way, but
now it is shipped in coin. The silver, how
ever, goes in big bars like these" and the
chief pointed to pile of silver heaped on
the floor in bars, each weighing about sew
enty-five pounds and worth nearly thou
sand dollars. ''If you are about here much
you must have seen truck loads of them
going down to the docks"
what! In open trucks without being
boxed up?"
"Oh, yes. Silver bullion Is usually
shipped just as you see it. Two or three
men go with each load for a safeguard, but
the man who drives those trucks under
stands his business. He is one of the char
acters of the street-John Barley. You
should see him"
Half an hour later l was talking with a
man who had been trusted with gold
enough to build the Tower of Babel; in
fact calculate from what he himself tells
me that during the thirty odd years be
has monOpolized the business John Bark
ley has trucked Sc, 100000, 900 worth of gold,
(which is three times the entire amount es-
timated to be owned by all the nations of
the earth
Barley is a gruff, grizzly, weather
beaten fellow, about sixty, and in spite of
his years it would be hard to find three
men in Wall street whom he could not
handle. Looking at this rough man with
his rough clothes and ways, and rejecting
that his unblemished honesty has given
him alone almost carte blanche in all the |
treasure vaults of the city, to go and come |
and take what he likes, to carry millions |
in coin back and forth on his own sole re-
sponsibility-when / thought of that had |
another sensation.
What do you call fair load of gold." |
| asked
"Oh, from 81, 900, 900 to s., OOo, 900 worth. |
I've carried as much as IS, 000, 900 worth in |
a day"
Glow many of you guard each load?"
Three or four-two of my men and one
OF two representing the owners. We al |
ways go armed, but have never had to do !
any shooting"
inquired about the manner of carting |
the gold, which, it seems, is received from |
the treasury in Wall street in canvas bags
containing $1,000 each, in eagles, double
eagles or half eagles the proportion in
shipment of say $500, 900 being forty bags
of double eagles, forty bags of eagles and
twenty bags of half eagles. These bags,
each of which weighs 26S.f0 troy ounces,
are loaded into Barkley's trucks and driven
by him to the banking house which is
sending them away. There the gold is
counted and packed away in kegs, with ten
OF the 5000 bags to each key These are
hooped up securely, sealed with the firms
private seal and again put upon the trucks
to be carried to the steamer. The entire
amount is first insured for its full value,
the rate being about one-eighth of one per
cent. The steamship companies charge
about the same for carrying the precious
load.
Now let US imagine Barley with his ten
kegs Of gold, each about the size OF an
oyster keg, Weighing nearly a ton, arrived
at the gangplank of the steamer. The
captain and purser are there ready to re-
celve him and give receipts for ten pack
ages, contents supposed to be gold" Bark
ley drives away, his responsibility being
over when that of the purser begins, for it
IS usually the purser or third officer who
takes charge of the treasure while it is at
sen.
All the great transatlantic liners ars
now built with special treasure room,
which Is sometimes placed amidships as in
Ia Champagne, and sometimes far aft, as
n the Aurania, which | visited in my pur-
suit Of knowledge. In any case the room
: an iron walled vault about eight or ten
Get in each dimension and entered only
rom the top by hatch about a yard
square. The iron walls are three or four
inches thick and the bolts and bars and
ocks which hold down the hatch would
leep an expert burglar busy for long
lme.-New York Herald.
The Squire and His Rubens.