The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-21

usually the purser or third officer who
takes charge Of the treasure while it Il at
sea.
All the great Transatlantic liners are now
built with a special treasure room, which is
sometimes placed amidships, as in La Cham
payne, and sometimes far aft. as in the Au-
rama, which / visited in my pursuit Of
knowledge. In any case, the room is an
iron walled vault, about eight or ten feet in
each dimension, and entered only from the
top by batch about yard square. The
iron walls are three or four inches thick
and the bolts and bars and locks which hold
down the hatch would keep an expert
burglar busy for long time.
It was down into such a room, hidden in
the bowels of the vessel. that l went in COM
pany with Capt. War; and Third Officer
Evans. Once inside, the captain playfully
let the heavy hatch fall, closing US In as II
in tomb. What a scene for some blood.
curdling tragedy
1T is here that the bars OF silver and kegs
said the captain. "Then Mr.. Evans watches
over il until ID is delivered on the other
side. We never bad penny lostn
did you ever hear OF the treasure room
or any steamer being robbedF
II did in one case, answered the third Of
hcer, but that was years ago, on the Paci-
fica The long passage from China gave the
men who did the job plenty of time TO drill
through the iron walls from the hold and eff
feet an entrance. When the vault was
opened $4,000 in gold dust was missing,
and the thieves were never caught IL was
believed that some Of the crew were In COL
fusion with the robbers.
NOVEL DIVING BILL.
"At another time 1 knew Of a box con-
tanning s25, 900 in gold bars being lost over
board at Melbourne in the unloading. Il
sank to the bottom Of the river, which was
about twenty feet deep, and all the boats in
the harbor were graphing for it for weeks
after. That was before the days of diving
bells, and the only way the box could be
fished up was by lowering an old smokes
stack pumped full of air into the river and
letting a man down inside it to Rrope about
In the few feet of mud covered by the fun
mel. Then the smokestack had to be lifted
again and lowered in a new place until the
gold was finally found"
This story set me thinking Of the untold
millions which must at one time or an
other In history have gone to the bottom of
rivers and seas and be lying there still
The chances are, however. that in the lapse
Of years these sunken treasures have become
so deeply imbedded in mud as to make their
capture almost impossible. for il must not
be forgotten that gold is nineteen times
heavier than water-a gallon Of liquid gold
Speaking Of what gold weighs suggests
an amusing incident which occurred some
years ago. when the largest gold bar ever
made was brought TO New York from
Helena. Mont. TO be melted and purified at
the assay Office. This bar was placed on
exhibition in September. 1889, by the Chase
National Bank, and wondering crowds
gazed at it as they read the inscriptions
This bar of gold, worth 800, 346 90, will
be given to the man who will carry it
away" The bar was about ten inches
square and two feet long, and weighed over
500 pounds.
About the Same time workman digging
cellar near Myrtle avenue, Brooklyn,
picked up ten bars of gold worth "a, 500,
and. believing them to be old brass, traded
them off for an oil can.
THE SHIPPERS
Among the chief banking houses In New
York who are constantly shipping and re-
csiving millions Of dollars worth OF gold
are Heidelbach. Ichelhelmer & Co. Lazard
Freres. James E. Ward & Co. and Barring.
Magoun g. Co. dropped in at the office OF
the last named fnanciers to ask about their
modus operandi.
"How do we ship golda o. very much
as every one else does, l suppose-pay gold
the treasury and let Barley do the rest"
"Are the bags of gold you receive from
the treasury opened and counted there in
| the presence OF your Representatives"
"No; we simply take the bags by the
weight and do not open them until they
reach our Office. There the gold is carefully
counted before being packed in kegs or
boxes; but believe there is no case on res
cord Of a treasury bag being short Of or In
excess OF the exact amount stamped on the
label"
~ suppose the profits to the banking
houses shipping these large sums of gold are
considerableP'
WELL" was the smiling answer, "you
may be sure we do not ship gold for love.
Yes, indeed, the profits to the exporters on
each Of these large shipments amount to
many thousand of dollars.