The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-26
IN AN ASSAYER'S OFFICE
A BUSINESS THAT GOES QUIETLY on
As 1T HAS FOR FIFTY YEARS.
The Process of Turning Bullion Into
COin-Thc Melting Pot Recep-
tacIe for Battered JcweIry.
o. f. Gundy. in New York Post

structure in contrast with the new high
buildings all about it, suggests some excep-
tional citizen so exempt from criticism as TO
be able to appear among his fellows in old
and shabby garments, while they, less as
sured must needs be seen in the very latest
styles. There are no modern effects and sug-
gestions either outside or inside the build
ing; no marble-paved imposing vestibule,
with arched ceiling and wrought entabla-
ture; no trinity uniformed factotums, wait
ing at the threshold to bow the visitor this
way and that; no signs and symbols of dig
nifty and responsibility; no elevator; moth
ing that in any way suggests newness. Just
as the place was conducted half century
ago it is conducted now.
Meanwhile the neighboring buildings have
been made over two or three times from
top to bottom, shooting up higher and high
er, becoming more elegant and convenient
with each decade; but the original private
bank building in which the assayer's office
was placed has not changed. 1t has grown
little dingier perhaps more mellowed,
more characteristic of innate stability
and fxedness and an index of the citys
rapid growth in that a building but sixty
six years old Git was built in 1889 can look
SO primitive and venerable.
4 white-haired old man in plain clothes
sits by the door to ask of all visitors their
business and to see that nothing goes
wrong, and he does this in plain, unvar-
nished fashion, impartial to all persons of
whatever standing, with no airs or -four
ishes "Eh! want to go through the build
ing?" he questions whenever q. person ap-
pears without some mark of business.
We'll just step into the room there and
sign your name in the visitors book, and
ba mar prosaOflV n show
you around" In the plain little room
which contains the visitors book will gen-
orally be found two or three other people,
bent on seeing what is TO be seen at the
assayer's headquarters; not New Workers,
for they are too busy to waste time on
assayers offices. The visitors are from
Oswego Oshkosh or may be from some -
tie town mp the State or across in Jersey;
tourists with list of tho things TO be seen
in New York and mind to see them thor
oughly.
1T seems odd to see my name signed as
from Potsdam, says young man IN
big blue hat, with handsome plumes, as she
scans the page on which her escort has just
written, and then you divine that they are
bride and groom on their honeymoon.
NO HURRY.
About the assayer's office there is none
of the hurry-skurry high pressure that at
taches to the average New York business
place. The visitors in the plain little room
have time to study each other and to specu-
late as 10 the sights that await them, be-
fore a uniformed guide appears TO conduct
them to the mysteries. This Is the receiv-
ing room" he says, on entering an apart
ment in which scales are a main feature,
and, as if to illustrate his words, there are
two clerks behind the barred and grated
counters in the act of taking crude ma
terial from customers. A young man has
brought, in an ordinary satchel, some odd
sized nuggets of mixed, greenish-tinted gold
TO the uninitiated they appear of small
value, but are weighed with great exact
ness on the big cleaning scales The other
customer from the depths of a shabby
brown leather bag, takes handful after
handful of old jewelry; the uncoiled rims OF
brooches banged and battered watch cases,
links of chain, gold studs, pencils, what
not; all emptied out in heap OH the scale
plate like so many apple par1ngs or nut
shells. The gatherers of old and disused
jewelry are regular patrons of the assay
Office, and, the guide explains, many OF
these men secure their wares from the
out-of-the-way watchmenders and jewel
brokers.
On the way through the hall is seen hand
truck after hand-truck load of silver bullion
being trundled in; solid bars, just arrived by
express from q Dakota mine They are
brought uncovered in the express wagon
through the street, and are carried up the
steps and dumped down on the hand trucks
under the eyes of the door tender, just as
so many ordinary bricks would be- Each
bar is worth $500. These must be weighed
in the crude; got into such shape that they
can be sampled, then weighed again and
go through the same routine as the brooches
Now Somebody comes in with three dozen
big-bowled sterling silver spoons to be as
sayed. They are smooth from long usage,
and it seems a pity to destroy them. They
are weighed, and the customer told to come
back in three days for exact remuneration.
In the smelling room beyond silver spoons
are stood upright in a flaming hot crucible
to be reduced and resolved to a sampling
consistency. The brawny Workmen about
the hot fires give no sign, no matter what
heat flares in their faces, and handle the
hottest substances with the deft serenity of
long custom. There are pots full of unre-
fined gold being resolved, but the melting
silver spoons attract most attention
A LOT OF GOLD.
Seventy-four million dollars worth of pure
gpld, ready for coinage, is slowed away on
the storeroom shelves in an adjoining apart
ment, stacked layer upon layer, bars duly
labeled and made note of, just as a house
wife's jellies game and pickles are slowed
away neatly on her pantry shelves. No
wonder, with all this treasure in its Golfers,
that the old assayer's building takes on a
certain consciousness of worth as above any
mere outward show. In addition to this,
from half a million to million dollars
worth of precious metal is customarlly lying
about loose in the various departments. and
even the workmen's worn woollen garments
are charged with the precious freightage, so
that when finally discarded they deliver up
sweepings of the floor and the accretions on
the walls.
How many suits is it that / have put
into the furnace?' repeated the head work
man in the separating AYE, and it's
too many for me to keep count Of. Blouse,
trousers, cap, gloves many's the suit I've
shed, and many a dollars worth of gold
come out of 1t. L came to work here along
with the first ten men that were brought
over from the Philadelphia mint to get
things started i'll New York. That was forty
two years ago, and I've been on the roll
ever since, but I'm hale and hearty yet, and
there's three more of the workmen besides
me out OF that first ten who are here yet,
to show as the job amt unhealthy. 1t don't
look healthy" he added as he slapped open
the door of q deep-mouthed furnace and
poured in a smooth liquid that as soon as it
touched the flames emitted volume of sick
ly colored srnoke-"breathin' in all this blue
vitriol, lead and sulphuric and nitric acid
stuff kind Of makes you think of deaths
heads and poisons but Ii amt harmed me.
and I'm here from to 4. winter and sum-
mer."
RESPONSIBLE PLACE.
Yes, there's good deal of responsibility
but you get used to it. The superintendent
of this floor used to say as he never breathed
free but once year, and that one
single night New Years night, after he'd
made his years accountin of the stuff on
hand and hadn't started in on the new lot.
But they keep things in such regular run
ming order, seldom any changin of hands.
just the same steady-goers that know their
business. that there amt much chance for
ia in haf eyna IN hrFe ia