The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-10
NEW YORK LETTER.
How the Government Transfers It's
Gold Supply-The Late John
a. Cockerill.
[spccial Correspondence.l

Especial Correspondence
The demand for gold for shipment
abroad and for the purchase of bonds al
ways makes q comparatively heavy
movement Of the precious metal from
Philadelphia to New York. Most of the
governments gold is made into coin
and the coinage for the east is done at
the Philadelphia mint. Whenever the
supply of gold at the subtreasury i'll this
city runs low, or notice is received of q
particularly heavy demand for coin,
which will be made i'll day or two,
the assistant treasurer here tclegraphs
the treasurer at Washington asking that
gold be transferred from the Philadel-
phia mint The treasurer makes out u
draft on the Philadelphia mint. which
is countersigned and delivered to +. Il.
Plat, tho agent in charge of the gov
ernment business for tho United States
Express company, Of which ex-senator
Platt is president, which holds the con-
tract The draft may be for n million
dollars or more. Mr.. Platt forwards it
to the express company's agent in Phil
adelphia By him it is presented ut the
mint. This slip of paper containing two
signatures is the only voucher on the
files of the mint to represent possibly
millions of dollars.
The recent shipments Of gold have
been in small quantities. million dol
lars or million and half perhaps mt
one time. In handling gold the express
company prefers to take small lots. OF
silver it will take any quantity without
fear.
A Gigantic Gold Shipment.
In 1893 the government moved its
largest single shipment of gold between
Philadelphia and New York 1t was for
the transfer of 81, 900, 600 in gold i'll one
lot from the mint to the New York sub
treasury. At 9 o'clock one evening seven
express wagons drove up to the mint in
Philadelphia. The superintendent of the
mint had been preparing the coin for
shipment, and he had it i'll kegs like
nails. There were 90 kegs and each of
them weighed nearly 500 pounds. The
express company would rather have had
it in bags, which could have been locked
up in their portable safes, but they had to
take it as it came. So stalwart laborers
of the mint bureau carried the kegs out
and loaded them in the wagons. You
may be quite sure they were checked
again and again, both by the officials of
the express company and by the repre-
sentatives Of the government No one
connected with the express company had
chance to inspect the contents of the
kegs They were accepted OH the good
faith Of the mint officials. But their
weight was pretty good index to their
contents. They ware loaded into seven
of the express cdmpany's wagons. In
addition to the usual guard there was
special armed guard OH each of these
wagons The wagon drivers also were
armed
When the wagons were loaded, they
were driven to the station of the Read
ing road, where the express company
has q steel cage for the storage of arti-
Giles of great value. Into the cage the
kegs were moved, and there they remain
ed for five hours, while six armed men
stood guard over them. Ono of Mr..
Platt's assistants had come from Wash
ington to superintend the shipment, and
he had the millions constantly under his
eye.
The Precious Load.
L e l..