The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-26


OF coins Look, then. TO Asia. where is
found the loftiest summit In the world
the sky-kissing peak of Mount Everset
IN the Himalayas. 1--WE and half miles
ABOVE the sea- 1t is surpassed by the
stack OF gold pieces. In fact. the column
OF double eagles would De six miles high
anu something over. one hundred mill
ION dollars worth OF gold 81 pieces. stuck
81 up IN the same way. would reach "A
hlsnt OF tWenty-eight and "a half miles
III one owned the stack. and spent the
coins az the rate Of 81 a minute he would
not 20 broke until the end OF $50 years
For The storage of Sl00.OO0OO0 in bags OF
Soeo gold, LOO cubic feet would DE re-
CURED The same sum in 81 bills sewed
together would carpet $50 acres. OF more
tnan half OF square mile OF land. A "a
matter of fact. Uncle sam will receive fer
his Sl11oo0Q0o worth 81 bonds-includinc
the last and present issues-about Sis
VO,U1V IN money. thanks to the premium
unfortunately. the gold thus obtained will
soon be drawn out by the banks. and the
treasury will be as poor in the yellow met
al as before. The gold can only be got
back by issuing new bonds and so Il
might be continued indefinitely, like a
dog chasing its own tail
speaking OF Competing lands with dol
lars reminds me Of recent attempt made
oy John Il. Mclean to buy a lot on the
northwest corner of Fourteenth and +
streets in Washington. The lot though
perhaps the most desirable business loca-
ton I'm Washington. is vacant. IL Is owned
/ by old Joe Willard. who is one of the
characters of the capital. lie is extremely
eccentric, carrying parsimony 10 such an
extent that the walls of his office are pa
| pered with newspapers for the sake of
economy. He Quarreled some time ago
with his two brothers. who share with
him the ownership of Wizards Hotel
The three are probably the richest men
/ in Washington. owning whole blocks of
buildings along + street and elsewhere
i'm the central business portion Of the
town. Joseph. though a multimillionaire
lives in a shabby little brick nearly OPP
1 posite the lot mentioned. 1t has not been
painted in the memory of the present
gueration. and the green blinds are al
ways closed tightly.
Mclean has been very anXions to buy
/ the lot for the purpose of erecting upon
! it a great Office building. But his at
/ tempts 10 negotiate on the subject with
| Joe Willard We're for long time entirely
| unsuccessful. He could not get the old
/ man to put a price upon the property.
/ Finally, finding the owner i'm, a good hui
/ NOR one day he said to him:
Il tell you what ! will do. / will clear
/ Off the lot at my own expense. level It
smooth and cover it all over with silver
/ dollars. Then you can pick up the dollars
/ and / will take the lot"
The price thus offered was simply fab
/ ulous and far beyond "A reasonable value.
/ No piece of real estate in Washington
/ was ever sold at half such figure. Eigh-
/ ty-one silver dollars may be laid within
! the space Of one square foot. The lot in
/ question measures about 90 feet by 100.
/ Old Joe Willard by no means jumped at
/ the proposition. He cooked his eye slyly
/ at Mclean, and said;
! 'Will you put the dollars on edge%
| That terminated negotiations. The old
/ man says he wants to keep the lot vacant
/ in order that he may look from his house
/ across to Wizards hall, which used to be
/ a church attended regularly by his pa
rents when they were alive.
Speaking Of persons who are trusted
/ by the treasury, there are several men be-
/ low the grade of clerk in that department
/ who handle millions of dollars every day,
/ and have enormous opportunities for steal
/ ing. one of these Is John Brown, who
! has temporarily succeeded John T. Barnes
as sealer. Barnes. who died few weeks
/ ago. sealed up in packages all the paper
money issued by the government during
/ more than a quarter Of a century. Tho
sealer is the most trusted individual In
/ Uncle Sans employ. The greatest temp
tations are offered to him, and there are
no checks upon him. Three men sue
{ feSSlNtlB count ttttil d'Neit7t " AiiotANs ~
/ fore it is handed over to the sealer. But,
/ supposing they find 1t all right, there is
/ nothing to prevent him from abstractng
| some of the bills before putting on the
! seal. The package is not likely TO be
! opened before many months, and dis
/ covery must be postponed for IA long time.
! 1t is SAID that three-fourths of all thetts
/ in banks are traced to persons who seal
/ up money The three counts, ordinarily
/ considered safeguard are not such at
all At the treasury three clerks A, b,
/ and c, do the counting. If c is dishonest
/ he may take bill for 500 from a pack
! age Then he hands the package over to
/ the sealer who does not count the con-
! tents. but merely puts on the seal The
I sealer might abstract another 800. Thus
/ two thieves could secure dividend out
/ of the same package of notes, and the
| shortage would not be ascertained for a
/ long time. If a bank, on receiving the
/ packag from the treasury, should COM
! plain of the shortage, the trec sury would
| be disposed to claim that the stealing had
! been done by some employe of the bank.
/ Experience in such instances has proved
! that this is more than apt to be the case.
| However owing to the circumstances al
| ready detailed, it would not be possible
| to fix the guilt upon anybody Stealings
! from the treasury are generally detected
| by what are technically called doodle
/ packages"-i. e., decoy parcels of marked
/ money.