The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25

of the passer by upon the pavement.
Another vault which 1 visited had
great piles of golden bricks In one
corner of it there was a cord OF golden
cakes, each Of about the size of the or
big enough to fill the largest dry goods
box. 1 lifted one gold brick, which
weighed about forty pounds, and which
the melter and refiner told me was
worth $4,000. It wasTnot bigger than
the4average clay brick used in house
building, and under it there were a
score of boxes filled with bricks of the
same metal, some of which were al
most twice as large. I was taken into
a silver vault, where, great quantities
of silver bullion were stored, the white
metal, it seemed to me, being thrown
about like SO much lead. / walked
through room after room, in which
these two precious metals were being
cut and shaped in various ways. now
boiling like water amid the fire of the
furnaces, now fashioned like steel un-
der the enormous weight of the roll
ing mills, until at last they came forth
In the shape of the wonderfully beau
tiful coins of the United States. And,
with it all, not an atom of gold or sill
yer was lost. These are the processes
we shall see in our trip through the
mint.
HOW UNCLE SAM BUYS GOLD
Our first visit is to the cashiers Office.
We shall go to the deposit or weighing
room, where all the gold and silver first
comes, and where it is weighed and
actually tested before it is paid for
The room is only few steps from the
front door of the mint. We follow an
express messenger, who is carrying a
golden brick from the mines of Mon
tana. There he stands at the door.
He lifts the brick with his two hands
end passes it in through a little win
dow like a teller's window at the
bank. We can see through the grating
~into the room where it goes. The
deposit clerk takes it and lays it on
one side of pair of heavy brass scales
The scales do not seem to be delicate,
hut they will weigh down to the
tbousandth part of an ounce, and the
weight of the brick, to the one-hun-
dredth part of an ounce, is aseertained
The deposit clerk now writes out a
receipt, stating the weight, and hands
this back to the expreSsman. The gold
brick is now in the hands Of the Of
ficials Of the mint. 1t will not be paid
for, however. until it is known Just
how fine is the gold of waich it is
made. Gold is never found pure in
the state of nature; it always contains
more or less silver, and it is sometimes
mixed with copper and lead. Before
Uncle Sam buys it he has to know to
a cent just how fine it is, and the de-
post clerk sends the brick off to be
melted. He puts it into an iron box
and locks the same with two keys, and
Ii is carried to the deposit melting
room. We have letters from the d.
rector Of the mint at Washington to
Maj. Kretz, the superintendent, and
through these the officials admit us.
and we follow the brick We enter a
loom which looks like an immense
kitchen. Into its sides are built four
great ranges, the tops of which slope
upward at the back at an angle of
about forty-five degrees until they
meet the walls. In the center Of each
top there is a square hole. covered by
an iron lid which slides back and forth.
Some of the holes are open and we
see the coal fire blazing below them.
Sunk deep into the Goals Of each range,
is pot as large as a four gallon crock,
and of much the same shape These
are the vessels in which the gold is
melted. They are made of black lead,
but when not In use they are of. the
color Of clay and they look hot unlike
immense flower pots. In the fires they
soon become red and the one in which