The San Francisco call., 1897-07-15

who is supposed to represent the great
body polite is glad to get rid of the job
with the aid of big pair of scales.
That is the way the United States
counts the money in the MINT every four
years, and that is the way something more
than $50. 900 600 is being counted now,
for the superintendency of the Mint is
changing hands, and John Daggett is
as anxious that the count should square
with the books as is T. A. Leach. the in
coming guardian of the vast pile of dol
lars, to know that every dollar is present
when the roll is called.
Nor is it an easy job to count this enor-
nous quantity of coin, even when fifty
five men are working and the big scales
click off a thousand dollars every ten Sec
onds. They get rid of but two or three
millions day counting it by the bagful.
Don't you count any of itP
II reply Chief Clerk Ben Day looked at
the questioner half in scorn and half in
pity.
"Count It'll How long do you suppose it
would take man to count the lot of it p
That was q little too hard, but it set the
questioner to figuring, and the result was
that it would lake man, working steadily
six hours every day except Sundays and
holidays, and, providing that he did not
go crazy before he got through. some
thing more than five years to count the
piles upon piles of coin sacked up and
piled away in the vaults of the Mint
The first question that naturally comes
to the mind of the visitor when he sees
the bulk all together is, Where did it come
from ? And then he wants to know why
1t has never been sent out SO that the
world can be using it.
1t all came right from the coming.
rooms upstairs, and some of it has been
there over since the Bland act went into
force, away back in 1873, nearly twenty
years ago. 1t has been accommodating and
piling up year after year, until now the
big vaults are nearly all full of that dollar
for which Bryan shrieks so Ioudiy-the
dollar Of our daddies.
1t is not out in the cold world being
handled by everybody, but is as bright
and clean as 1t was on the day il was born.
But it has its representatives out doing
business. The treasury notes are out and
also the silver certificates, and while the
himsy material Is floating around, getting
torn, and worn and dirty, the clean.
bright, white silver dollars are sleeping in
the dark vaults up on Fifth and Mission
streets.
Not ray of gaslight. much less a raw
of sunlight, has rested upon the bags in
two vaults containing a total of $33. 400 0OC
since four years ago, when the official
seals of the Government were placed upon
the doors. The yearly counts have moth.
ing to do with this sequestered cash. l;
is only when an administration change.
and the incoming authorities want to have
the books overhauled that the seals are
taken off and the heavy steel doors are
swung open. Nor is the big pile of silver
dollars all that is being counted. There
is little pile of gold, and there is little
pile of silver bullion. True, these two
little items 90 not amount to much. Only
a little side issue, as it were. OF sometime
more than seven and half million dollars
worth, but they have 10 be counted ius
the same, in order that the books may
balance.
The first impression one gains upon an.
tering the long corridor between the
vaults is that he has entered grain ele
vator and dozens of men are carting bags
of grain to the hopper for storage. Away
up near the door little pile of silver dol
lars is seen-a thousand dollars or So
but these have come from bag that was
faulty and let the contents slip out or else
bag showed discrepancy in weight and
it has become necessary to make . count
of the pieces to verify it with the tally.