The Indianapolis journal., 1896-03-23
UNCLE SANS BIG SAFE
THE GOVERNMENT MONEY WAGON
AND ITS PRECIOUS LOADS.
How Bonds, Bills and Stamps Are
Transported-The Complicated sys-
tenn Which Trusts Nobody.

Washington Letter in ST. Louis Globe
These are busy days for the government
money wagon. Around the engraving. print
ing and issuing of the bonds, bank notes.
greenbacks coin certificates and stamps are
put many safeguards. The money wagon is
one of these safeguards and it is also one Of
the sights of Washington" -
At the great Bureau of Printing and En-
craving, down by the washington monu-
ment. the bond. money and stamp makers
work in cages. They sign receipts and they
have tags. The plates or parts of plates.
are handed to them in the morning and
taken from them every evening to be locked
in vaults. The sheets of paper that are
dealt out are counted one by one. The same
number of sheets must be returned, the
spoiled included. Again and again bonds
and bank notes are counted as they pass
through the different stages of mechanical
execution When the bureau has completed
the manufacture the product is loaded into
the money wagon and hauled away half
mile to the treasury for more counting and
checking and initialing and entering before
it is sent into the financial world.
The money wagon might pass before
strange eyes for one of the great covered
a
inches above the ground. 1t might be taken
for a horse ambulance. If the visitor ut the
capital gives the vehicle a second thought,
he may wonder why two able-bodied men are
riding on the front seat with the driver, or
why three other lusty fellows stand idly on
foot-board behind. The men not in
uniform neither are they in overalls or garb
suitable to the theory that they are going
al mi 10 ~ do
ing.
drab 1t appears to be a huge wooden box.
If one should strike the side with an AK he
would discover by the turned edge and the
ringing sound. that the coating of dark
paint conceals a plate of steel. The money
wagon is a safe on wheels. The men who
ride with the driver and stand on the foot
board are picked members of the treasury
guard. Under their coat tails are trusty
weapons. The money wagon has carried as
much of load as 100000 in bright new
currency. 1t has never been held up, and ii
never will be successfully. If robbers should
overpower the armed escort they could
box before the police would be upon the
scene. Top bottom, sides and the front end
are of riveted steel plates. The back door
is OF the same material 1t is locked at one
end OF the route and cannot be opened until
it reaches the other end. If the guard should
be overpowered and the door forced, the rob-
Ders would find themselves foiied by the fact
that the valuable contents placed in
small safes, which are on trucks, and are
rolled IN and out of the wagon by an incline.
With all of the tools and explosives at hand
it would be a half hours work to reach the
bundles of bills or ponds.
SEEKING A SMOOTH ROAD.
The bureau is half mile due south from
the treasury. Out of the windows of one
the windows of the other are to be seen.
But the money wagon does not travel a di-
rect route. 1t goes down Pennsylvania ave-
nue. two blocks east, turns south through
the heart Of the disreputable district known
since war times as the Division, enters the
Agricultural Department grounds, follows
the winding roadway In the shrubbery to
the southwest corner. and emerges just OPP
posite the bureau. The return route is the
reverse of this. The distance Is somewhat
longer than necessary. but by taking it the
ponderous money wagon escapes long
stretch of the old-fashioned cobble stone
smoothly over asphalt roadway. The horses
are of heavy draft breed. They travel at
a slow walk. Time is seemingly object
yet in these busy days, with millions of
new money to be put out and 500. 900 600 of
wagon is often out on its trips long before
the official day at Washington begins. The
money wagon moves slowly, but it keeps
moving.
The prepared paper on which the gov
ernment prints money comes from a mill at
Dalton. Mass. Its manufacture is hedged
any of It from falling into the 20 possesson rsssm,
of others than officers of the government
Every sheet Is registered at the mill. Re-
cently: curing the Brockway counterfeiting
to New Jersey to testify that ne had not
authorized the secret service to put some
OF the prepared % "a paper per- In Mbrockway's M house
the department none of the paper could
have got there legitimateiy. The paper is
over to the bureau onIv when new money
is ordered. Even then the handling OF II in
the transportation by the money wagon is
ATTENDED WITH tn hnd as mucn M & csrs as surrounds nd
reau to the treasury. Thus 1t is the money
wagon does business both ways. II not only
carries the prepared paper from the treas
ury to the bureau, but it also hauls the old
currency sent in for redemption Dirty,
torn, sometimes partially burned. the bills
all parts of the country. The bills are
counted and then cut in halves They are
made up in bundles, loaded into the money
wagon and hauled to the bureau. 1t used to
be the custom to burn this old money in a
furnace. but the strong draft sometimes
carried fragments up through the smoke
stack and little bits of bills were OCCASION
ally picked up on the White lot For the
burning process the government years ago
substituted a plant which takes the con-
demned money, grinds il into pulp. boils
and stews the dirt out of the mass and
leaves IT looking like a great pot of mush
basement of the bureau. and $2.000Oc0 a
day can be reduced to pulp. small part
of the mass is nodded into miniatures of
the Washington monument and into other
forms, to be sold for souvenirs to visitors
But the usual disposition is to press the
pulp into thin slabs and TO sell IL dried in
this form to the paper manufacturers.
A COMPLICATED SYSTEM.
In the making of money each bill Is
counted forty Ntimes by as many different
people from the time 1t goes as pasf of a
clean sheet Of prepared paper to the bureau
until 1t leaves the treasury in a bundle for
shipment by express to the bank or indi-
vidual ordering And bonds go through al
most as many hands and encounter similar
checks and safeguards to make sure there
is no loss There is the same close SUPER
vision over the parts of the bond plate while
1t is being engraved that there is over the
money plate. These pieces go to the engrav-
ers in the morning, and they must be re-
turned every evening to the custodian
When the parts are put together and fin
ished plate Is turned ous In the course OF
number of duplicate plates, for printing
bonds Of denomination from single
plate would be q very slow process. The
blank paper Is dealt out for bonds with the
same care that Is exercised for money. Each
bond must go through the presses three
times to get the different tints, and after
each impression IL must be sent to the dry
ing room and remain over night. After the
third trip through the press the bond Is
pressed to make 1t perfectly smooth. Then