The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-06
BURGLARS HAVE NO SHOW
They Cannot Get at Uncle Sans
Treasure Box.
EVERY PROBATION TAKEN
Vaults OF Tempered Steel Will Defy
Any Attack Watchmen Are
Vigilant Both by Day
and Night

The old-time treasury department
watchmen tell bucolic visitors that the
lamented Jesse James made several
distinct tours of the treasury depart
| ment, with presumably an eye to bust
ness. The rural sightseers, after being
permitted to handle package of
greenbacks said to contain $40 900, GOO,
are willing to believe anything. AS
| the late Mr. James never held up the
treasury department and his eminent
biographerS explicitly state that he
never penetrated east of the Allegheny
mountains, the old watchman's yarn
may be somewhat deficient in moor
| ings.
| 1t wouldn't be an easy matter to loot
| the treasury vaults. Not dollar has
| ever been taken from the treasury by
| force. A sneak thief once got in his
work to the extent of $50 1000 which he
| plucked from one of the tables of the
| redemption division before the place
was properly safeguarded. But there
| has never been a hold-up nor an at
| tempt at one. An account was printed
of the alleged discovery of a plot, en-
SIletItu ny DuTSldIS, 10 pe0e-
trate the treasury building by means
of the underground electrical conduits
| surrounding the edifice. Once in the
| building, these robbers were to crack
| the safes. remove their contents and
place them in light rubber bags and to
| float these bags along the conduits,
which were to be flooded for the pur-
pose, to their pals in waiting at the
| conduit openings. The watchmen had
laugh over this story when they read
it. About a week after its publication,
however, the iron cover of the electro
cal conduit right outside the main en-
trance to the treasury went up into the
air with a roar along toward 2 o'clock
in the morning. Some of the watch
men thought that the plot was about
to be carried out, and for the first time
in many years all the watchmen were
summoned from their posts to the main
floor. The watchmen grinned sheep
ishly at one another when the cause of
the alarm was ascertained.
One of the former treasurers of the
United States was a somewhat nervous
man. He was not quite certain that it
would be practically impossible for
band of brigands to loot the treasury.
He wanted to make sure that it would
never be necessary for him to appeal
to congress to have a debt of a few
millions removed from his shoulders,
urer is responsible for every cent in
the vaults. So for nearly a month he
slept in room in the treasury depart
ment. One night he slipped off his
shoes, put on pair of carpet slippers
and began a tour of the corridors, in
order to satisfy himself that the watch
men were performing their duty. He
hadn't glided 20 feet from the door of
his room before he heard a Halt" that
sounded like the snap of a loose jib
Ten feet ahead of him a man had a
bead on his heart with a pistol. The
treasurers hands went up.
mot guilty; search me-" he said. II
am the treasurer"
Treasurer, hey?" said the Waterman,
Il don't know that. Just keep on
pointing upward until I get somebody
to identify you"
The Waterman touched a button and
In a few moments the night lieutenant
of the watch came along and released
the treasurer from his predicament.
Although the treasury has never
been held up, secret service people
know that many celebrated cracksmen
have from time to time contemplated
the conversion of few millions of
treasury money to their own use. All
of the cracksmen, however, seem to
have decided that the undertaking was
of too colossal a character.
Down to the incumbency of Secre-
tary Folger it has been said there
would have been no great difficulty for
accomplished and nervy cracksmen of
the first rank to do good bit of night
work in the big marble cash repository
of the government When Mr.. Folger
took the reins of the treasury there was
not an electrical alarm in the build
ing. The watchmen were isolated and
had no facilities for calling for help
other than ordinary police whistles. the
sound of which would re-echo through
out the labyrinthine corridors in so be-
wildering a fashion that it took from
Is minutes to half an hour for a search
ing party from the main floor to ascer-
tain it's source. Watchmen thus condi-
toned might easily have been over
come by determined burglars, who
would have had little difficulty in gain
ing access to the building, owing to
the insufficiency of the force then dis
tributed at vulnerable points Of en-
trance. The safes, of which there are
more than 100 scattered over the treas
ury building, We're then of the old-time
lock and key sort, calculated TO Wreatne
the countenances of cracksmen into
oleaginous smiles on account of their
primitive simplicity. 1t really seems
remarkable that, with so advantageous
conditions under which to work, the
safe-crackers who adorned their pro-
fession during the '70s did not essay to
effect a partition of the nations wealth.
The watch system was completely
changed and reorganized under Mr..
Folger. An elaborate electrical alarm
system was introduced, the force OF
watchmen was trebled, and the old iron
safes were replaced by modern steel
affairs, with time locks and intricate
combinations. The gold and silver
vaults were filled with steel castings
around their common shells of masonry
and fitted with time locks, different
parts of the combinations of which
were distributed among various otti-
Gals of the treasurer's office, so that
the vaults could be opened only with
the concerted action of all of them and
then only at the stroke of the hour at
which the time locks were set: The
necessity of keeping pace with the I'M.
movements in the fine profession Of
modern burglary was first recognized
by Mr. Folger.
If there were no watch force on con-
slant guard at the treasury depart
,,oapt however burglars could do about