Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-11-21

j. J
Always Ready.
| sits down under the incandescent light to
| put in his eight hours, most of which are
| passed in Buddhe-like contemplation of the
| walls nd the shadowy. silent corridors.
| The watch Is not permitted to smoke.
read or write while on duty. His business
| IS solely to watch. If he goes to sleep and
| Is discovered by the watch patrol he
is certain to be discharged upon be-
ing reported the next days. Only a
| very few such cases have occurred and
in each case the sleeper has confessed that
his drowsiness was caused by flask drink
| ing after having gone on watch, which did
not improve his situation SO far as regain
ing his job was concerned. Rigid sobriety
| is required of treasury watchmen, both on
| and off duty. 1t is considered that the
Waterman who makes a practice of nib
| bling at liquor during his hours of recrea-
ton cannot be in shape to perform guard
| duty when it comes his turn to go on
| watch.
| The watchmen confess that within the
compass Of an eight-hour night watch they
| have plenty Of time to array before them
| In orderly mental fashion the mistakes of
their past lives. and they are unit in ex-
| pressing the belief that the strain of sit
ting still and doing nothing for exactly
one-third of each day, year-in and year-out,
would drive them mad were not the time
broken by the complete round Of their
| beats, which they are required TO make
| every thirty minutes.
The Watch PATROL
At the end Of each Of these rounds the
Waterman touches his electrical button,
| which informs the lieutenant Of the watch
| at his desk at the main door that every
thing Is well with him. The watch patrol
| consisting OF four men detailed for this
duty every night in each watch, and whose
| duties are similar to those of police rounds
| men. are on tour through the corridors all
ho fYoa n~tl, r.
| that the watchmen are alive and alert and
| partly to attend to the system of electrical
button registering. which they in turn are
obliged to carry on to indicate to the lieu
tenant their own wide-awakeness. hc
| The two most important posts are those
which include within they limits the gold
and silver vaults, which are Side by side at
right angles in the sub-basement, and the
cash room vault. which is built in gal
| lery above the main floor. The Waterman
who looks after the cash room vault is
locked In the cash room when he goes on
post. and patrols the gallery at frequent
Intervals, registering each visit to the door
| of the vault he passes the electrical
button. Thus. II a robber contrived to get
into the cash room and overcame the
Waterman, the cessation of registering re-
ports would inform the lieutenant of the
watch that something had gone wrong on
| that post.
Giving the Alarm.
Then. by means Of the electrical signals,
| the lieutenant would quickly assemble a
| force OF watchmen of whatever size he
considered necessary. These watchmen
| would go to the room Of the captain of the
| watch, to the left Of the main entrance-in
| which ROOM by the way, is hung. framed.
| the SILK American flag in which Booths
| spur caught when he jumped from the
tord's Theater box after having shot Pres
| ident Lincoin-take each Springfield rifle
| from the rifle rack. strap on one of the
army campaign belts crowded full of
cartridges. and proceed in body to the
cash room, whence the electrical reports
| mad ceased to come. The burglars If any
happened to be there, would receive short
shrift at such hands,
The Waterman who stands guard over
the gold and silver vaults Is locked in an
ante-room, the hall end of which is formed
| OF heavy wire, leading to the vaults He
remains thus locked up during the entire
! eight hours of his guard tour. and is seated
| beside the vault doors. He touches off his
registering apparatus at regular intervals
AT the present time the watch Imam guard
i ing these vaults has the responsibility of
| slOoooo In silver coin and s3o0OOOO in
| gold coin on his hands The bulk of the
United States gold bullion and coin is kept
| at the subtreasury in New York The sill
| yer is packed in oblong boxes, ten bags to
box, one thousand dollars to bag The
| silence of the tomb reigns in the ante-room
where the vault Waterman puts in his
eight hours.
Apt to Stir the Imagination.
The Waterman on duty when The Star
| reporter made his visit said that he often
| felt as II he were dead and buried, and oc-
casionally pinched himself to get rid of the
| Authorization. By pressing the ear against
| the vault doors, the faint clicking of the
time locks, penetrating the six tons of
Steel may be heard. The patrol passes the
| cage very frequently, and somehow 1t is
| hard to throw off the impression that this
"a tohn {c
| the chief of death watch, keeping his
| eye upon the warder, who, in his turn, in
cessantly embraces within his view a
criminal passing his last night upon earth.
The sub-basement of the treasury at mid
| night Is calculated to render the most pro-
| sale and phlegmatic man into morbdly
| imaginative person.
Two or three times month, on an aver
age, treasury employees in charge of safes
| In their respective divisions forget to lock
them up at the close Of the days business
1t Is the duty of the watch patrol not only
to see that none Of the safes are open but
| to try them to see that they are locked
When one of these patromen happens
| upon an unlocked safe, he Immediately in
forms the Lieutenant Of the watch, who
| without making any attempt to lock the
sare, places his seal over point covering
| the door and the frame, and stations a
special watchman to see that 1t is not tam
| negligently left the safe open reaches his
| division the next morning he must stand
by for squalls, for an elaborate report is
made OF every case of the kind.
| A Slight Scare.
Not long ago. sensational New York
newspaper published an account of the al
legged discovery of a plot engineered by no
torious burglars. to penetrate into the
treasury building by means Of the under
ground electrical conduits running along
10th street. Once in the building these
| robbers were to crack the safes, remove
their contents and place them in inflated
rubber bags, and to float these bags along
| the conduits, which were to be flooded for
the purpose to their pals in waiting at the
conduit openings. This extraordinary yarn
was laughed at by the watchmen when
| they read 1t.
About week after the story was pub
| lished, however, at the witching hour Of 2
in the morning. the iron coverings of the
electrical conduit right outside the main